Bar Exams In The Time Of COVID: Crashes, Hacks, And (A Few) Masks

All the bar exam news under one heading.

(Image via Getty)

Ave Bar Examiners, morituri te salutant!

It’s disputed whether or not gladiators ever saluted anyone with the famous “we who are about to die” language, but it’s a fitting quote for contextualizing the July bar exam administration. Multiple states went forward with exams this week and the results have been mostly surreal and terrible.

This post will serve as your July bar exam coverage hub. We’ll be populating this post with links and social media reports throughout the day.

Now let’s breakdown the news so far…

Are You Not Entertained?

Oklahoma had a cute idea for the bar exam… what about a hypo related to COVID?

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Yeah that’s something they really did to a room of frightened graduates. Hopefully the question was “can these bar exam liability waivers hold up in court, and why not?” And as bad as that is, it’s probably also racist. Read more about that here: Bar Exams Asking Cute COVID Hypos Because They Hate You

You’ve Got Mail!

Indiana has come to grips with the fact that its online bar exam platform isn’t going to be ready by next week. So it’s going old school and conducting the whole exam over email. It’s now open book and proctorless. It’s unclear if they’re curving this, but if they are this got a whole lot tougher. Full story here: Indiana Junks Online Bar Exam Format, Will Run Test Over Email

This Sums It Up

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“Best Interests”

While everything is going down the tubes with these bar exams, Iowa decides to double down on it citing the vague “best interests” of the public.

Avoiding superspreader events would probably also be in the best interests of the public, but that would require more than a superficial shrug from public authorities.

Check out more here: ‘The Decision Is Difficult,’ Says Jurist Failing To Seriously Consider Decision

Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, I Feel My Temperature Rising

Oh look!

Remember that Missouri was the state that got a specific waiver from public health ordinances just to hold this test.

Not All Hacks Are Bar Examiners

Michigan’s online bar exam crashed yesterday morning and by the end of the day they’d given up on the whole schedule and just gave out the passwords to all the modules at once. It was a chilling omen for the jurisdictions still committed to an October online exam.

But Michigan’s… defense?… is that the software didn’t crash on its own. According to ExamSoft, the vendor running the test, they were the victims of an elaborate cyberattack!

Assuming this is true — and with Indiana’s online exam, run by rival vendor ILG, still not working Occam’s Razor suggests this is really just an inherent problem with the platform — wouldn’t this be worse? If online bar exams are this easily hacked, doesn’t it spell doom for all of the upcoming exams? And even if all of the applicants’ personal data remained secure this time, what confidence is there that this will remain true next time? Remember, Michigan was the only online bar exam this week, meaning ExamSoft could devote immediate attention to resolving the problem. In October, we’re planning on multiple online exams with orders of magnitude more applicants running simultaneously.

So it’s a little interesting that the company was trying to wipe the Internet of articles critical of its security less than two months ago.

Anyway, more about yesterday’s crash here: Today’s Online Bar Exam… Has Crashed. And the failed deletion effort here: ExamSoft Hoped To Scrub Web Of Article Suggesting It Was A Hacking Risk TWO MONTHS AGO

In True Exams The Smallest Distance Is Too Great And The Greatest Distance Can Be Bridged

For those taking the exam in person, many were stunned to learn that the bare minimum of social distancing… isn’t all that distant. In fact, it can appear downright crowded.

Read more about the cramped seating in Montana here: Bar Exam ‘Socially Distant’ Seating Doesn’t Look Much Different Than Its ‘No Cheating’ Seating and North Carolina here: This Is What A Socially Distanced Bar Exam Looks Like… Do You Feel Safe? And check out the report on North Carolina’s happy fun time maskless lunch here: Bar Exam Lunch Appears To Be A Maskless Mess

Who Was That Unmasked Man?

Bar examiners were SUPER SERIOUS about wearing masks during the exam… for about 5 minutes.

Virginia had the same problem:

And North Carolina:

Remember to hit us up at tips@abovethelaw.com with any tips you have about the bar exam administration. We depend on you!


HeadshotJoe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.