The second examination of the Judicial Officer and Lawyer Examination will be officially included in the computerized test from this year (2026). The examination and selection department adopts the "minimum change principle". Candidates will enter their answers on the computer instead, but paper test questions and legal regulations will still be provided to facilitate reading, drawing and comparison. According to the law, each question is provided with 8 pages of response space and a maximum limit of 5,200 words. In addition, for those with physical or mental disabilities, injuries, or other special circumstances, the paper-and-pencil test method will be retained upon approval, hoping to reduce the impact of switching from paper-and-pencil to computer-based answering.
Yu Qingshan, senior analyst of the Digital National Examination and Information Management Department of the Examination and Selection Department, wrote in the 41st issue of the "National Human Resources Forum" "The Transformation Path to Computerized Testing for the Second Examination of Judicial Officers and Lawyers". He pointed out that courts have promoted electronic filings and technology courts, and lawyers also generally use computers to draft pleadings and organize case materials. Computers have become an important tool for legal work. Therefore, starting from this year, the second examination of the Judicial Officers and Lawyers Examination will be included in the computerized test, so that the national examination will gradually be in line with the practice of the legal workplace.
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The Examination and Selection Department considers that the legal examination questions are long and if all are read on a screen, it will be difficult for candidates to grasp the full picture of the test questions and mark the key points. Therefore, only the "answers" are computerized, and the test questions and legal regulations remain in paper form. The computer answering interface is also similar to the paper essay examination paper. Each question is configured with 8 pages and 26 lines per page. It also provides functions such as paged answering, page preview and quick jump answer.
As for the upper limit of 5,200 words, the Examination and Selection Department sampled the paper-and-pencil answers of high-scoring candidates in recent years and found that most of the single questions were less than 3,000 words, and the average was less than 2,500 words. The dictionary examination committee also believed that the evaluation focused on legal logic and exposition ability, rather than simply comparing the number of words, so the upper limit for each question was set at 5,200 words.
Candidates can use 8 commonly used input methods, including Zhuyin, Cangjie, Suchen, Dayi, Ranking, Pinyin, Xiami and Natural Input Method. A phonetic version of the Natural Input Method that is commonly used in court practice is also provided, but it is not allowed to import a self-built thesaurus. Keyboards and mice are provided by the examination center.
The Examination and Selection Department believes that in addition to technological innovation, digital transformation is more important than building the trust of candidates. Therefore, it continues to revise the system, operating procedures and computer test-taking environment through expert and scholar discussions, law student system experience testing and stakeholder consultation. At the end of March this year, a special area for computerized test candidates for the second test of the Judicial Officer and Bar Examination was established to provide online simulation answers, FAQs and operation instructions. In June, it went to four colleges and universities for system explanations and actual machine demonstrations to familiarize candidates with the new system in advance.
In addition, in the event of power outage, network outage or system failure, the Examination and Selection Department has established a backup mechanism. The answering system automatically stores answers every 10 seconds and has multiple real-time archiving designs. When an abnormality occurs, relevant contingency measures will be initiated according to the situation. In addition to Taipei and Kaohsiung, the examination area has been added to Taichung this year to reduce long-distance travel for candidates from central China.
