Small print giving you a headache? Too bad, you broke eye contact with the screen. FAIL!
Throughout the online bar exam process, examiners have stressed that aggressive proctoring is far more important than administering a clear, straightforward test. Applicants are spending the last month studying, not Trusts & Estates, but how not to blink excessively lest the algorithm flag them as cheaters. They’ve been told not to be diabetic for the sake of the proctoring process. In the UK, the commitment was so extreme that applicants urinated into bottles while gazing intensely into the eye of the webcam — a practice you usually have to pay for on Pornhub.
Of all the restrictions placed upon applicants for to placate the examiners’ need to feel needed is a ban on scratch paper or any way to mark up the documents used in the questions. When confronted about the hardship this caused, NY examiners pointed out that the test never allowed scratch paper, ignoring that there’s usually a BOOKLET that applicants not only markup, but are trained to mark up by every bar prep course they’ve taken. Having somewhere to write is important because there are questions based on lengthy materials designed to force applicants to identify critical points from within a mush of other stuff.
So here’s what the NY exam is apparently going to look like:
The answer is probably “yes” unfortunately, but representing Gitmo detainees in a closed quasi-kangaroo court system should be the exception rather than the rule.
In this entire mess, the only bar exam — putting aside diploma privilege — to get it right was the Indiana model and that was the product of complete accident. When ILG’s platform proved completely unworkable on the eve of the exam, Indiana opted for an open-book email test. The practice of law is an open book exam, so if we have to have an additional test of minimum competence, it should play by the same rules.
Can an applicant successfully navigate the resources available to find the correct answer for the client before the deadline? That’s the whole point of being an attorney! Indiana cracked the code. And all it took was stripping the examiners of their gatekeeping ego involvement after a calamitous software failure.
Art from adversity.
Earlier: Bar Examiners Ask Applicants To Kindly Stop Being Diabetic For A Couple Days
Law Students Forced To Urinate While Being Watched By Proctors During Remote Ethics Exam
Bar Examiner Offers Less Than Inspiring Answers In Online Exam Defense
Joe 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.