Law grad's petition blames software crash for bar exam failure, seeks law license
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Represented by his former law professor, a graduate of Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law is seeking admission to the bar, despite a bar exam score that was five points too low.
An Oct. 26 petition for review filed by law grad Jordan Evan Greenman blames the failing grade on a software crash. Bloomberg Law covered the petition and spoke with Ilan Wurman—Greenman’s lawyer and his former constitutional law professor.
Test-takers have reported problems with remote bar exams taken in October 2020 and July 2021. Software provider ExamSoft said the problems seemed to be related to memory issues on some devices.
Greenman took the July bar exam remotely at his law school in a room by himself using ExamSoft software. He said the software crashed during a multistate performance test, causing him to lose six minutes of test time and breaking his concentration.
Related article from ABAJournal.com: “What can bar applicants learn from the October 2020 exam?”
“More specifically, approximately 45 minutes into this MPT and with approximately 45 minutes remaining, without warning, petitioner’s computer screen went completely black,” said the petition, filed with the Arizona Supreme Court. “His keyboard and mouse were also disabled.”
Greenman tried to scroll the mouse and type on his keyboard to resuscitate his computer, but it didn’t work. He had to turn off his computer manually to reboot it. When the computer restarted, Greenman noted that the exam clock had not stopped, and he lost six minutes of time. He also lost lines of text and his place in the file, the petition said.
Greenman’s score on that portion of the exam was significantly lower than for other sections of the test. If the section score was consistent with other test sections, Greenman’s petition said, he would have passed the exam.
A passing score was 273. Greenman scored 268 scaled points.
Wurman told Bloomberg Law that the situation has taken a toll on his client.
“In this case, because he was just shy of passing, you can imagine the psychological harm this has had on him,” Wurman said.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Software provider pulls out of remotely proctored bar exams because of technology concerns”
ABAJournal.com: “Amid claims that online bar exam went well, some test-takers have a different view”
