The Reliability and Content Validity of Taiwanese Government-Administered Bar Exam (Revised 2014/11/20)

The Reliability and Content Validity of Taiwanese Government-Administered Bar Exam

S.Y. Tsai, Y.F. Lin, H.M. Tseng

H.L.Yen, L.H.Yang, S.H.Wu

Abstract

In Taiwanese government-administered Bar Exams 2 professors independently scored each essay-type answer. Inter-scorer reliability therefore could be calculated. There were 20 essay-type questions, and the exams took 2 days. From 2011 to 2013 the inter-scorer reliability for a single essay averaged 0.75, for a sub-area that consisted of 4-6 essays, 0.84, and for the total test of 20 essays, 0.93. When the Exam for Recruiting Candidates (for justices and prosecutors) and the Bar Exam were conceptualized as two alternate forms of the same exam, an alternate-form reliability could be calculated among candidates who had taken both, and was shown to be about 0.71. A separate multiple-choice test consisting of 300 items, which was used for screening purpose and took a whole day to administer, showed an alternate-form reliability of about 0.91.

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Keywords: bar exam, inter-scorer reliability, alternate-form reliability, content validity, justices exam

All authors worked at The Examination Yuan when the study was conducted. Address correspondence to Dr. S.Y. Tsai at <tsaipaw@gmail.com> .