Jimmy Chuang 2002/08/25Taipei Times報導
Student exposes Bar exam's failings
TALKING BACK: James Yang says in his book that the exam creates a lot of
problems in the study of law which puts many off the idea of a legal
career
By Jimmy Chuang
STAFF REPORTER
Disenchanted with his experience of studying to become a lawyer in Taiwan,
James Yang (楊智傑) decided to write a book about it.
In the book, Come on! Law-yer! Judge! Liar?, the National Central
University (NCU) student attacks the Bar exam as being an unreasonable way
of assessing students.
Yang says the exam creates a lot of problems in law education that keep
many students away from the legal profession even though they were willing
to devote themselves to careers as lawyers, prosecutors or judges.
Taiwanese students can study law at the undergraduate, graduate and
doctorate level.
Those who complete their four-year undergraduate law education are
eligible to sit the Bar exam.
Yang is the first person to publish a book detailing the problems of the
country's Bar exam and how these problems affect law education.
Yang, a second-year graduate student of the NCU's industrial economics law
division, graduated from the National Taiwan University's (NTU) Law
Department last year. He then sat for the Bar exam but decided to leave in
the middle of it.
Yang told the Taipei Times that he realized many questions on the test
came from material taught exclusively at cram schools or selected from
famous law professors' publications.
A student can't do well on the test, he said, if he or she hasn't gone to
cram schools or read the publications of certain professors.
"The Bar exam is supposed to be fair, isn't it? Would you call this
fair then?" he said.
He wrote in his book, published on July 15, that to pass the Bar exam,
many law students stop going to university classes and start going to cram
schools during their third or fourth year in college.
Yang said that he didn't deny the benefits of cram schools. However, he
said students forgot what their priorities should be.
"I have to say that cram schools do help students outline the
textbooks while they are studying for the Bar. But students are misled.
They don't realize that attending classes on campus should be the most
important thing for them," he said.
Yang said that seats are often empty for important classes such as
international business since the course is not included on the exam.
However, if the course is included in the exam or taught by a professor
who has been or might be an examiner, most students will attend.
In addition, Yang said that students in the NTU's law department used to
share class notes so they could skip classes and spend more time at cram
schools.
"Absent students will borrow class notes from those who attended so
they still know what was going on in class when they were absent. That has
become a tradition on the NTU's campus and left a lot of students thinking
wishfully," Yang said.
He told the Taipei Times that he had decided against pursuing a career in
law. However, he still hopes to pass on legal knowledge to the younger
generation if possible.
Yang also said he was not planning on trying to continue studying law in
another country.
"I'd have to spend lots of time and money to do that and I can't
afford it," he said.
"I will not take part in the Bar exam ever again and I'm not planning
to take other exams to become a judge or a prosecutor. But, if I have the
chance, I'd be more than happy to study for a doctorate degree in law and
become a law professor in the future," he said.
NTU law professor Hsu Tsung-li (許宗力) said he did not recommend that
students go to cram schools. However, the school does not have the
authority to ask students not to go either, he said.
Hsu said that a student can't do well on the Bar exam if he or she doesn't
understand the laws and regulations taught at university.
"The end goal of the exam is to test students' comprehension of laws.
To pass it, you have to learn them by heart and make them part of your
knowledge instead of just memorizing all those regulations," Hsu
said.
Another NTU law professor, Chan San-lin (詹森林), who has been a Bar
examiner several times, said that both professors and students should
reflect on the problems of the Bar exam.
"Are the questions on the test practical? I think professors and
examiners should think about this question. Do we really need cram schools
to help us pass the Bar exam? I think students should ask themselves this
question carefully," Chan said.
Chan said that most examiners would avoid unique questions that related to
material from famous professors' publications or cram schools.
In a letter to the editor of a local Chinese-language newspaper, however,
lawyer Chang Yung-chien (張永健) took exception to some of the things
Yang had written about.
Chang said in his letter that sharing class notes had become common
practice on campuses and that it was not exclusive to NTU.
Nevertheless, Chang conceded that the Bar exam was not perfect.
"What he said about the Bar exam is something we really have to sit
down and think about. As the Judicial Yuan is working on reform of
judiciary, I think reform of the Bar exam should be included too," he
wrote.