{"id":20333,"date":"2021-07-28T11:19:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/?p=780995"},"modified":"2021-07-28T11:19:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:19:16","slug":"bar-exam-marred-with-tech-problems-what-a-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2021\/07\/28\/bar-exam-marred-with-tech-problems-what-a-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Bar Exam Marred With Tech Problems, WHAT A SURPRISE!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-381820 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/07\/Ca-Bar-Exam-300x222.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"222\" \/>When bar examinations kicked off around the country yesterday, we hoped widespread tech difficulties wouldn&#8217;t plague the experience for graduates trying to start their careers. But we still expected the worst.<\/p>\n<p>And, of course, that proved to be the right call as our hopes went down in a hail of frozen laptop screens. The rash of blue screens of death yesterday merely underscored that today&#8217;s bar applicants are just 21st century professionals living in a Microsoft 95 world.<\/p>\n<p>First came news out of New York:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>several online examinees have been forced out of the online bar exam \u2014 all NY takers I know have been told they do not get to make up that portion of the exam.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I sincerely hope cooler heads have prevailed on the question of making up this part of the exam. Because as the day rolled on, it became clear that this was a bigger issue.<\/p>\n<p>A California examinee informed us:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This happened to me in the second essay portion of the program, took an hour and\u00a0a half on the phone with examsoft support and they tech support guy mentioned this was more widespread issue specifically. Personally, when it finally worked again the essay was deleted and I had 20 minutes to type something before the close of the *next* essay open window. Guy told me to contact the CA bar to see if they would do something but said they would not communicate the issue themselves, and could not do anything to delay the start times to adjust for the tech problem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Stellar customer service: &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to tell the state bar that it was our software&#8217;s fault, but I guess you should.&#8221; But I guess it could be worse:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781073\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-11.06.35-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"475\" height=\"104\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There are foreign exchange desks that do less buck passing than these jokers.<\/p>\n<p>The bug even hit Stanford grad Nicholas Wallace, who you might remember from <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2021\/06\/stanford-law-school-students-graduation-was-put-in-jeopardy-because-fedsoc-cant-take-a-joke\/\">the Federalist Society&#8217;s efforts to keep him from graduating<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781040\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-10.36.53-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"486\" height=\"298\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today, examinees are being told that this is a known issue, but that the only solution is the low-tech option of &#8220;golly, maybe try rebooting first?&#8221; This is from the Tennessee bar examiners:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781064\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-10.51.54-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"405\" height=\"323\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This is the computer equivalent of selling someone a car with the caveat, &#8220;You&#8217;ve got to push it down a little hill and then pop it into gear to get it to start but otherwise it&#8217;s a fine vehicle!&#8221; If the software isn&#8217;t providing a consistently workable experience then the whole process is broken.<\/p>\n<p>The poll below is obviously unscientific, but these are disturbing numbers for a process that&#8217;s entering its <em>third<\/em> go around in the pandemic era.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781037\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-10.36.28-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"370\" height=\"203\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And lest we lose focus amidst all the tech failings, those jurisdictions running remote exams still amount to a human tragedy due to the ridiculous monitoring software that flags examinees as cheaters if they move at all during the test.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781055\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-10.48.50-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"509\" height=\"143\" \/><\/p>\n<p>There absolutely has to be a better way of guaranteeing minimum competency than a one-time test on material that attorneys will likely never use again administered in a closed book format that would amount to an ethical violation if the attorney ever tried to practice that way. I&#8217;ve said the line, &#8220;the practice of law is open book&#8221; many times, but here&#8217;s a more fun way of thinking about it:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-781070\" src=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-28-at-11.04.22-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"494\" height=\"96\" \/><\/p>\n<p>But the death drive for this test is so strong we&#8217;re going to force budding professionals to wear diapers with crashing computers to get it done no matter what obstacles are out there.<\/p>\n<p>Good luck on the second day, folks. Hopefully it will run smoother.<\/p>\n<p>But we&#8217;re still expecting the worst.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-443318\" src=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Headshot-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot\" width=\"192\" height=\"128\" \/><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/author\/joe-patrice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of <a href=\"http:\/\/legaltalknetwork.com\/podcasts\/thinking-like-a-lawyer\/\">Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:joepatrice@abovethelaw.com\">email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/josephpatrice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0if you&#8217;re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rpnexecsearch.com\/josephpatrice\">Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p class=\"summary\">ExamSoft goes down mid-exam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":381820,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[409,880,171,7],"class_list":["post-20333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-schools","tag-bar-exams","tag-examsoft","tag-law-schools","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bar Exam Marred With Tech Problems, WHAT A SURPRISE!!! - Above The Law&#039;s Legal Tech Non-Event<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/legal-innovation-center\/2021\/07\/28\/bar-exam-marred-with-tech-problems-what-a-surprise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bar Exam Marred With Tech Problems, WHAT A SURPRISE!!! 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