Barmageddon? Bar exam takers in multiple states can't upload tests; deadlines extended
Bar exam test takers have overcome test-day roadblocks in the past.
Above the Law recalls persistent test takers who carried on after fainting, while in labor, and during an earthquake.
But the website says there was a disaster of greater proportions Tuesday evening when students in multiple states experienced delays and failures when trying to upload their completed exams using ExamSoft software. The blog was inundated with complaints from test takers staying up late trying to upload their exams multiple times, even as they faced a second day of exams on Wednesday.
One tipster suggested the problem should be dubbed “Barmageddon” while @LawProfBlawg suggested “Barghazi.”
The software provider, ExamSoft Worldwide Inc., says delays were caused by a “processing issue” and students in multiple states were affected, the Associated Press reports. Vice president of marketing Kenneth Knotts told both the wire service and Above the Law that the problems did not affect bar exam content.
State bars in all the affected states have extended their deadlines, Knotts said.
“This was not at all a system-wide failure. The experience was a delay and some difficulty” in uploading the files, Knotts told AP. “At no point in time was the integrity of their exam files ever affected.”
TaxProf Blog and Inside Higher Ed noted the story by Above the Law, while the Wall Street Journal Law Blog linked the to AP story. Meanwhile Above the Law has a new post collecting tweets by angry test takers. One more recent tweet reads: “I just electronically filed a brief and got an email confirmation back that I failed the bar exam.”
