Legal Commentary

Colin's terrific series of posts (too many to link to) about exams and grading suggests this is a good forum to raise an issue about exam set-up:

In a multiple-choice and short-answer exam in rules-based classes (in my case Civ Pro and Evidence), should you provide students with a clean copy of the rules and statutes? I have been doing M/C in Evidence for six years now and never have provided copies of the rules; my justification has been that I am trying to simulate trial, where quick response is required and there is no time to flip through a book and read the rule. This year I also am doing M/C in Civ Pro and am less sure that not giving the opportunity to find and read the rule is more difficult and less realistic, since there rarely will be a situation in which you will get asked a question about, say, the discovery rules or the diversity statute, and not have a chance to look it up.

Thoughts? Does it make the exam too easy? Is Civ Pro different from Evidence?