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Posted on 06/18/2017 5:17:49 PM PDT by dayglored
Use of a Surface Book, compatible pen, or a computer with the Windows 10 Creator update will result in ejection from the exam
If you’re planning on using your Surface Book or a laptop with the Windows 10 Creator update on it to take the bar exam in Tennessee next month, you’re out of luck. The state bar has prohibited test-takers from using the device, and anyone using a device with the new updates will have to make some adjustments.
According to the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners, the directive comes from limitations with the exam software, SofTest, which doesn’t support the Windows 10 Creator update, or any Surface Book other than a Surface Pro. Users will be required to change some compatibility settings in order to take the test. The board is also recommending that users disable automatic updates for their computer, because the updates can cause the device to freeze if the user is actively using the exam software. Test-takers who are planning to use a computer with the Windows 10 Creator updates installed are asked to notify the board by July 12th, which apparently will require them to sign an additional addendum to their Laptop Agreement. Violators will be asked to leave and “will have to answer to the Board regarding their failure to follow instructions.”
Failure to comply means ejection from the exam and a summons to the board for an explanation
Users who don’t make the change won’t be allowed to use their laptop, and Surface devices or other tablets with a detachable keyboard won’t be permitted at all. Violate the rule? Ejection from the exam and a summons to the board regarding their failure to follow instructions. The same goes for anyone found with a device-compatible Pen in their possession.
MacBook users should be okay, but the board also noted that the software will disable a MacBook Pro’s TouchBar, which other organizations have banned around the country, because they’re “not compatible with the security features of the ExamSoft software.”
The prohibition was first spotted by @thirdscrivener, who questioned why the detachable keyboard is specifically an issue, noting that he’s “taken multiple law school exams” on his own Surface Book, each without issue. While the exam software does work for Surface Pro (which must use an external keyboard) users and iPads, the Tennessee law board simply isn’t permitting them.
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So, can you use a laptop with TrueOS? Why or why not?
It’s the test software.
It takes over the computer until the test is over.
Apparently it’s not able to on this computer. Test takers could conceivably cheat.
We took the bar exam with paper and a No. 2 pencil and were glad to have them.
Wouldn’t a hidden dual boot with linux and a split screen allow for cheating?
You must be older than me. I used a very fat ball point pen for all the writing required. No erasures allowed, but you could scratch out.
Oy. Hope that was different states...
When you wrote “Take the Bar” the mental image I had was a scene from “Cheers” with Norm bringing in his lap-top.
The Creators update iss unwelcome in my house also! I downloaded it two days ago and the bastards broke my blue tooth.
Me too. Took two and and passed each the first time. I was one of those weird guys who liked studying for the bar exam. I learned a lot more about the law studying for the exam than I did in law school.
in other words some incompetent government contract created the software.
“we are from the government and we are here to help”
In the late 70s had to take a state sponsored test for a Bituminous Concrete (Asphalt) ‘license’ and the ‘rules’ were that if you used a calculator you must get the answer correct but if you did it by hand they checked the formula(s) you used and if they were correct the answer was not always important.
Course in that ‘line of work’ not a whole lot of field people used ‘them thar machines’....
Guess they figured if you ‘knew’ how to figure it out the #s would fall in place.
I still use the calculators for speed but if the answer doesn’t ‘look’ right, I do it by hand for verification.
BTW....Sort of remember that TI costing about 100 bucks and basically all it did was add, subtract and multiply etc...
Today they do logarithms etc, and are stocking stuffers....<: <: <:
I always carry a little six ring binder. No batteries, no update problems, and nobody wants to steal it.
Creators update is very tough on processes it deems malicious.
Detachable keyboard = someone can remotely enter answers.
Take a damn pencil.
As a part time professor who used classroom computers to administer final exams:
I once had a student buy answers to the exam, online, during the exam. Caught him because he didn’t understand some side-effects of copy-and-paste.
Figure he lost over $300 to fail the exam anyway (that’s _without_ the getting-caught part).
We only had clay tablets and sticks in my day. Of course, the exam didn’t have very many questions either.
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