The Recorder, Who Answers for Botched February California Bar Exam? So Far, Nobody:
As California's online bar exam was plagued with another day of system crashes, freezes and late starts, leaders of the state Supreme Court and the state bar on Wednesday declined to say whether anyone would be held accountable for the problems that prevented an unknown number of applicants from completing or, in some cases, even beginning the test.
A spokesperson for the high court declined to comment on reports, confirmed by the bar, that glitchy technology and dropped platform connections affected many of the approximately 5,000 people taking the test. …
Law school deans had largely been publicly silent about the problems leading up to this week's exam. That appears to be changing.
"We are hearing horror stories from students about their experiences," said Dean David Faigman of UC Law San Francisco. "The deans decided not to write anything collectively before the exam, because we did not want to add anxiety to a profoundly anxious moment in our graduates’ lives. But I can assure you that our reticence is at an end."
ABA Journal, California Fails New Bar Exam, Offers Retake:
After the first day of California’s new bar exam resulted in technical difficulties and problems accessing the test for many candidates, the State Bar of California is weighing options for a retake, according to an email sent the evening of Feb. 25 to all examinees.
The email acknowledged that many examinees “faced significant technical and customer service challenges, and for that we are truly sorry.”
Reuters, California Bar Exam Meltdown on Tuesday Prompts Offer of March Retakes:
“I’ve never had this much despair and hopelessness,” said exam taker David Drelinger, a 2023 graduate of the California-accredited Lincoln Law School in Sacramento. He said he tried to start the exam more than 30 times, with the testing platform crashing each time a proctor logged on to his computer.
Drelinger said he switched internet connections and laptops three times during the day, to no avail. By Tuesday night, he was unsure whether he would be able to take the test at all.
“I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars" into becoming a lawyer, Drelinger said. "It’s supposed to pay off, eventually. It feels so far out of reach right now. I don’t know if I can do this to myself again.”
Bloomberg Law, California Bar Takers Report Severe Tech Issues on Test Day:
California Bar takers who sounded alarms for weeks leading up to the launch of the brand-new licensing exam said their fears were confirmed Tuesday when many reported severe technical issues on the first day of the February test.
Four examinees told Bloomberg Law that they experienced a litany of troubles: Online testing windows crashed. Essays failed to save. Examinees couldn’t copy and paste any text in the exam, despite being told as recently as Sunday they would have the function. The clock kept running while IT workers toyed with glitching computer screens.
Reddit posts on the r/CABarExam thread echo the same complaints. Test takers say the botched rollout of the new California Bar Exam has put their legal jobs at risk, cost them thousands of dollars in lost wages and exam-related expenses, and harmed their physical and mental health.
The Bar in an email to test takers Tuesday said it had planned to allow applicants with “significant” tech issues to make up the test March 3 and 4, but it’s looking into further action based on “unacceptable” tech and customer service issues during the first day of testing.
“Options being explored include offering the opportunity to retake the Performance Test, offering the opportunity to retake those essay questions you were unable to access, or making psychometrically appropriate scoring adjustments,” the Bar’s Tuesday night email said.
The Recorder, 'Unacceptable': State Bar Weighs Exam Redo as Tech Problems Mar Bar Exam's First Day:
After widespread technical failures marred the first day of California's remote-platform bar exam, state bar leaders announced Tuesday night that they may offer a makeup test next week.
An unsigned email from the bar sent to the approximately 5,000 people who took the test called Tuesday's array of problems "unacceptable" while admitting the licensing agency had been preparing for potential trouble before the first applicants logged on Tuesday morning.
"As such, we had already planned to offer a makeup opportunity on March 3 and 4 for those of you who had experienced technical issues beyond your control and were unable to connect to the platform and launch the exam as well as for those who were unable to complete the exam," the email stated.
Bar officials said applicants may have the chance to retake the performance test portion of the exam or essay questions they couldn't access. "Scoring adjustments" also are being weighed.
The missive did not say how the bar would ensure the integrity of a retake given that thousands of applicants have already seen the essay topics and performance test elements. Nor did it say who would qualify for the retake or how severe technical problems would be avoided in a second test administration.
Above the Law, California Bar Exam Managed To Be Even Worse Than Expected:
We all knew that this administration of the California bar exam would be a disaster. We just didn’t know how bad it would get. The answer — as Clemenza put in The Godfather — pretty goddamn bad.
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