The facts of the PMBR case are riveting. At every administration, the NCBE uses some recent MBE questions again, so as to make sure that the new exam is of the same level of difficulty as the previous exam. PMBR, knowing this, would systematically copy the MBE questions and use them in the pre-test it administered during its classes preparing candidates for the next exam. Most disappointingly, PMBR made the fact that its questions were so much like the real questions on the MBE into one of its primary advertising claims.
The case reminds us all, however, that the MBE is an extremely difficult exam.
Here is a journalist's report on my comments on NCBE v. PMBR.
"The BarWrite method for the MBE requires students actually to master many of the rules of law that the MBE tests," Dr. Gallagher says. "What a concept! Know more law, do better on the MBE."The method PMBR preached in its three-day classes, Dr. Gallagher says, was different. It suggested students should do 50 questions a night, but it did not systematically teach the law. Doing 50 questions a night without systematically learning the law does not raise most people's MBE scores. . . ."
Dr. Gallagher says, "I am concerned that as the MBE becomes more difficult it is turning into a test of speed-reading, not law. I think we all need to be concerned about the testing context of the PMBR case.
"I hope the PMBR case makes everyone preparing candidates for the bar exam more conscious of two things. First, of the importance of thoroughly teaching basic principles of law, for many reasons, including helping students do well on the MBE. Second--I think professors are often indifferent to copyrights--of the importance of respecting copyrights."
MCG
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