{"id":507,"date":"2020-08-14T02:04:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T10:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=507"},"modified":"2020-08-13T11:09:34","modified_gmt":"2020-08-13T19:09:34","slug":"exams-and-cheating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2020\/08\/14\/exams-and-cheating\/","title":{"rendered":"Exams and Cheating"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of R.F. Kuang\u2019s novel The Poppy War <\/em>(which I just started, so this isn\u2019t a review), the main character Rin must strip naked and be patted down before taking an exam. She can\u2019t even wear her own clothes into the exam room.<\/p>\n

I immediately harkened back to reports that the Texas Bar and those of several other states were prohibiting those taking the bar exam from bringing their own tampons or pads with them to the exam. Since those reports came out, the Texas Bar has relented to the extent that it will allow women to bring their own products in a clear plastic bag (a la the ones you use for your liquids at the airport).<\/p>\n

In both cases, the authorities are obsessed with preventing the test takers from cheating. I don\u2019t know if there is a good argument for the exam in the world of Kuang\u2019s novel, though given the amount of ugliness and corruption hinted at so far, I suspect the test is mostly a tool for keeping out the riff-raff, and might not be the best way to determine who should receive higher education.<\/p>\n

But I have taken a bar exam \u2013 the Texas one, in fact \u2013 and can tell you that it is essentially a hazing ritual, a tool to make you put in a lot of wasted hours studying for the test, which is not the same as studying how the law works, so that you can show you are willing to do a lot of meaningless work to put \u201cAttorney at Law\u201d after your name.<\/p>\n

When I read about the tampon rule, my first reaction, even before reacting to the misogyny and silliness, was \u201cthey\u2019re giving an in-person bar exam during the pandemic? In Texas, where the pandemic is pretty much out of control right now?\u201d <\/p>\n

And yes, they are. Some states have waived the exam or figured out how to give it remotely, but not all of them. It seems that states so obsessed with preventing cheating that they monitor feminine hygiene products are unwilling to consider a remote exam where there would be no proctors.<\/p>\n

What really bothers me about all this concern about cheating is that a test that doesn\u2019t allow someone to look something up or ask someone else for help does not, in fact, test anyone\u2019s capacity to practice law.<\/p>\n

Back when I practiced law, my favorite form of research when presented with a new problem was to call up someone who knew a lot about that area of law. That would give me a starting point, after which I would go to the library and look up a bunch of material.<\/p>\n

There was a point when I knew everything there was to know about when a volunteer for an organization might be considered an employee for purposes of workers compensation payments. I know that because I had to handle a client\u2019s problem. I did not learn it in law school or memorize it for the exam.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently taking a class in public speaking and one of the things my teacher (Erin Weed, in case you\u2019re looking for such a class) keeps emphasizing is that public speaking is a team sport. You need to get help from other people in preparing your material. Yes, when you get on the stage you\u2019re on your own, but to do a good job, you need help from other people.<\/p>\n

A lot of people are unaware that when someone is going to argue a case at the U.S. Supreme Court, they do mock hearings before other lawyers who ask questions in the style of the justices. It takes a lot of lawyers doing work to make sure that the one presenting the case has the right arguments and the right presentation.<\/p>\n

That is to say, the practice of law is best done as a team sport.<\/p>\n

Which leads me to suggest a much better bar exam, one that could easily be given remotely because there would be no need to worry about cheating. Instead of a collection of multiple-guess questions based on a conflation of laws that do not reflect the actual law in most jurisdictions (that\u2019s the multistate bar exam) and a bunch of trick essay questions on areas of the given state\u2019s law, why not give the students legal problems to solve that involve research and maybe even a phone call or two? Maybe even give them an client (played by an actor) who might be lying to them \u2013 surely we could do that with Zoom or email.<\/p>\n

That is, test how well they can do what real lawyers do: find a way to solve a client\u2019s problem using their ability to analyze and research it.<\/p>\n

In marital property law, give them a pregnant client who wants a divorce. In criminal law, give them a client who confessed. For contracts, make them draft one using a boilerplate form as a base and figuring out what else should be included.<\/p>\n

A time limit will weed out the people who don\u2019t know where to start.<\/p>\n

You could even grade on creativity in the response, because some of the most outstanding work by lawyers involves coming up with a new solution to an old problem.<\/p>\n

With a test like that, we might get more of the lawyers we actually need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of R.F. Kuang\u2019s novel The Poppy War (which I just started, so this isn\u2019t a review), the main character Rin must strip naked and be patted down before taking an exam. She can\u2019t even wear her own clothes into the exam room. I immediately harkened back to reports that the Texas Bar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,56,17],"tags":[108,107],"class_list":["post-507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-life-experiences","category-rants","tag-exams","tag-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}