[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-201234-en":3,"doc-seo-201234-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},201234,2336475104042,"Tawan","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/22000c4c32af1715be0?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1786537525561427321",4,"Exam","How to Build a Better Bar Exam - Essay","A scholarly article argues that New York’s bar licensing exams, including the Uniform Bar Exam and the New York Law Exam, should better measure practical competence rather than reward memorization and closed-book recall. It explains the current UBE structure and NYLE access limits, then proposes open-book licensing approaches using multiple-choice formats. Two models are presented: a California 1983 case file performance test and an open-book multiple-choice exam used by the Law Society of Upper Canada.","Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center  \n\n| Scholarly Works | Faculty Scholarship |\n| --- | --- |\n| 2018\u003Cbr>How to Build a Better Bar Exam\u003Cbr>Eileen Kaufman\u003Cbr>Touro Law Center, [ekaufman@tourolaw.edu](ekaufman@tourolaw.edu)[ ](ekaufman@tourolaw.edu)Andrea Anne Curcio\u003Cbr>Carol L. Chomsky\u003Cbr>Follow this and additional works at: [https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/scholarlyworks](https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/scholarlyworks)\u003Cbr> Part of the Legal Education Commons |  |\n\nRecommended Citation  \n90 N.Y. ST. B.A. J. 37 (Sept. 2018)  \nThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarly Works by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Touro Law Center. For more information, please contact [lross@tourolaw.edu](lross@tourolaw.edu).  \nHow to Build a Better Bar Exam  \nBy Andrea A. Curcio, Carol L. Chomsky and Eileen Kaufman  \nNew York recently joined the growing number of  \njurisdictions that have adopted the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) .1 The UBE consists of 200 multiple-choice questions; six 30-minute essay questions covering a wide range of doctrinal areas,2 and two “performance” test questions in which examinees have 90 minutes to read a case file and write a client letter, memorandum, brief or other document. Applicants must also successfully complete an online course on “important and unique principles of New York law” in 12 subject areas and pass the New York Law Exam (NYLE), an online 50-question exam. Except for the materials provided for the performance test, the UBE exam is entirely closed book. The NYLE is open book, but electronic searching of the course materials is forbidden.  \nAndrea Curcio is Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of  \nLaw.  \nCarol Chomsky is Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School.  \nEileen Kaufman is Professor of Law at Touro  \nCollege Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law  \nCenter.  \nThe authors have long been engaged in critiquing the bar exam in their writing  \nand in activities on behalf of the Society of American Law Teachers.  \nNew York State Bar Association ~~ ~~ 37 ~~ ~~ Journal, September 2018  \nAs a licensing exam, the purpose of the bar exam (both the UBE and the NYLE) is consumer protection – ensuring that new lawyers have the competencies required to practice law effectively. But critics in New York and elsewhere have long argued that the bar exam is not a valid measure of new lawyers’ competence because it fails to test the wide array of skills lawyers need; the multiple-choice questions assess legal knowledge and analysis in an artificial and unrealistic context, and the closed-book format rewards the ability to memorize thousands of legal rules, a skill unrelated to law practice.3  \nA frequent response to these critiques is that, while the existing exam may not be perfect, it is the best we can do because we need an exam that is both psychometrically reliable and relatively inexpensive to administer to thousands of examinees.4 But we can do better. We describe two licensing exams that demonstrate how bar examiners could utilize an open-book format (already being used in the NYLE) and develop multiple-choice questions that assess a candidate’s ability to engage in legal reasoning and analysis without demanding unproductive memorization of so many detailed rules of law.  \nThe first example, the case file approach, is taken from a 1983 California “Performance Test” in which test-takers received a case file and a series of multiple-choice questions testing the candidates’ ability to read, understand, and use cases to support their legal positions. The second example discusses the current law licensing exam administered by the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC), an open-book multiple-choice exam that tests the use of doctrinal knowledge in the context of law practice.  \nThese two licensing approaches demonstrate how multiple-choice questions can be use","cbCaiqlZpCTA1iX9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqlZpCTA1iX9","pdf",239037,1,6,"English","en",105,"# How to Build a Better Bar Exam\n## Current exam structure and critiques\n## Two improved open-book licensing examples\n## A case file approach to multiple-choice testing\n## What is a case file approach?\n## Sample questions from the 1983 case file exam","[{\"question\":\"What is the Uniform Bar Exam structure in New York?\",\"answer\":\"The UBE includes 200 multiple-choice questions, six 30-minute essay questions across doctrinal areas, and two 90-minute performance test questions involving written documents based on a case file.\"},{\"question\":\"Why do critics argue the bar exam is not a valid measure of competence?\",\"answer\":\"Critics say the exam does not test the full range of lawyer skills, because multiple-choice questions in closed-book format reward memorization of legal rules rather than realistic legal reasoning and analysis.\"},{\"question\":\"What improvements do the authors propose to make bar exams assess legal reasoning?\",\"answer\":\"The authors propose open-book licensing exams that use case-file based materials and multiple-choice questions designed to evaluate a candidate’s ability to engage in legal reasoning and analysis without excessive unproductive rule memorization.\"}]","How to Build a Better Bar Exam - Essay | PDF",1788528357,15,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":28},"how-to-build-a-better-bar-exam-essay","",{"@graph":36,"@context":84},[37,53,67],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,48,51],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":47},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":49,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":50},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":52,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/how-to-build-a-better-bar-exam-essay/201234/",{"url":52,"name":13,"@type":54,"author":55,"headline":13,"publisher":57,"fileFormat":60,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":61,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":60,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":56},"Person",{"url":41,"name":58,"@type":59},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-04",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":4},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What is the Uniform Bar Exam structure in New York?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"The UBE includes 200 multiple-choice questions, six 30-minute essay questions across doctrinal areas, and two 90-minute performance test questions involving written documents based on a case file.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Why do critics argue the bar exam is not a valid measure of competence?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"Critics say the exam does not test the full range of lawyer skills, because multiple-choice questions in closed-book format reward memorization of legal rules rather than realistic legal reasoning and analysis.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What improvements do the authors propose to make bar exams assess legal reasoning?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"The authors propose open-book licensing exams that use case-file based materials and multiple-choice questions designed to evaluate a candidate’s ability to engage in legal reasoning and analysis without excessive unproductive rule memorization.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":52,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":58,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":52},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,100,103,108,112,117,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":47,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},70,"exam",{"id":104,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":113,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]