Law School Exam ‘MacGate’ Over, Non-PC Students OK

Law Schools

Law School Exam ‘MacGate’ Over, Non-PC Students OK

Posted Nov 19, 2007, 04:27 pm CDT

By Martha Neil

A truce has been declared in a computer war that pitted Macintosh lovers against administrators of American University's Washington College of Law.

Sparking the computer conflict was a mismatch between the law school's preferred exam software and the beloved Mac computers that some students wanted to use to take their tests, explains Above the Law. But now the administration has promised a workable alternative to those who don't want to become part of the standard-issue PC world.

"Because we want our students to concentrate exclusively on finals, the law school administration has determined to provide $12,000 towards the cost of laptop rental for all upper-level users of Macs that are incompatible with the exam software," explain Dean Claudio Grossman and David Jaffe, the associate dean for student affairs, in a letter to the law school community.

Plus, a committee will be formed to determine the optimum long-term approach, the letter continues:

"Furthermore, the administration is hereby announcing that a special ad hoc working group will be created in January, with participation by all interested parties of our community, to advise the law school administration as to what exam software, if any, would satisfy the legitimate concerns of all members of our community."

A similar computer/software conflict has been addressed at the University of Kentucky's law school with a plan to share non-Mac PCs, as discussed in another blog post on Above the Law.

"We understand that Mac users have been greatly inconvenienced by this change," writes Michael P. Healy, associate dean for academic affairs, in a memo to the law school community there. "We are taking steps that we hope will reduce the impact of the inconvenience being felt."

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Posted by Employer - 9 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 26 minutes ago

Nevertheless, the students at the school are the District’s happiest, most down-to-Earth, and most decent students. The school is made up of well-rounded students that make better employees than some of the “rich kids” found at neighboring universities.
Posted by Craig McNeil - 9 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 16 hours, 21 minutes ago

The types of computers law students use should not surprise administrators and professors. The school is obligated to purchase software that all of its students can use or to test law students the old fashioned way. With pen and paper.
Posted by Attorney - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 4 hours, 37 minutes ago

Employer--while American-WSL students no doubt make fine attorneys and employees, that is no reason to disparage the other schools in DC (are you referring to Georgetown, GW, Howard, Catholic or UDC?), who educate well-rounded, happy, down-to-earth, decent students as well. To categorize those students as “rich kids” is (1) saying that the wealthy can’t also have those qualities; and (2) that there is something inherently wrong with having money (which, by the way, many students at GW and GTown do not, and leave with much debt). Why the hostility?
Posted by Ware Cornell - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 3 hours, 16 minutes ago

What kind of law exam could possibly require specific software? The practice of law requires critical thinking and writing skills, and not much else. It is a very simple proposition, a law professor writes an exam filled with issues and a student writes an answer identifying those issues and proposing solutions.
Posted by Heather - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 42 minutes ago

Ware Cornell - the exam software is used to lock the student’s computer so that the student cannot access notes and outlines while taking the exam. We had this Mac v. PC issue at my school and the Mac students ended up borrowing PCs or hand writing their exams. While I am a Mac lover, I don’t believe that there is an easy software solution to this issue. In my experience as a practicing attorney, the legal community seems to be 95% PC based. Maybe this experience with exam software is simply an early introduction to the realities of practice?
Posted by mac user law grad - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes ago

There is an easy solution....get a different software program!! We had one at hofstra law that was compatible with both macs and pcs. worked wonders.
Posted by Linux user - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes ago

How about moving into the 21st Century and using a web based solution?
Posted by Heather - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 26 minutes ago

Mac User - thanks for the info. I had no idea that this kind of exam software is now available for both platforms. An easy solution indeed! Perhaps American U’s $12K would be better spent on that!
Posted by Ware Cornell - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 2 hours, 22 minutes ago

Ah Heather, life without exam books...I see the problem, thanks.

As to life in the law, no PCs are not required. Lots of lawyers I know use Macs. Basically all you need a computer to do is to write bill and surf. Macs handle this quite well. Now it is true that some firms use proprietary software that requires Windows. Intel-based Macs can run Windows programs.
Posted by Ronnie - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 43 minutes ago

Attorney, thanks for your comment to Employer. I went to one of the “other” schools and I left with a lot of debt. Rich kid I am not!! And everyone in my office uses a Mac computer, though myself and the other associate run Windows software on it. PCs aren’t required, but as we’ve tried different billing and time management software, we’ve found it impossible to find something that worked for Macs. Everything is PC-based these days, much to my boss’ chagrin! Oh, and at that “other” school (alright, it’s Georgetown), we just don’t use software at all anymore. We just assume people will abide by the honor code, and you’d be amazed how quickly students will turn each other in.
Posted by Denver 3L - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 35 minutes ago

My school has software that works on both Macs and PCs, so far there have been no problems. My school does also offer Mac users the option of checking out a PC if they wish for their exams, however the number of laptops available is limited since most Mac users can run the exam software in their Mac operating system (i.e. no Intel required). Seems to me that this is a fairly simple software solution and that the $$$ would be better spent on upgrading software than on buying more laptops.
Posted by Melissa - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 33 minutes ago

Same problem at the University of Miami. Sadly, the administration refused to even address the issue other than to offer rentals of a handful of PC’s. This is not solving the problem. I am with Mr. McNeill: get software everyone can use, or don’t offer the option at all.
Posted by John - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

It was a relief to see a dispute about “non-PC students” that wasn’t about political correctness.
Posted by Law Student in Madison - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 24 minutes ago

We have had similar discussions at Wisconsin about the PC v. Mac issue. I use a PC. Some of my friends use Macs. I think the problem is that once you get out in the job market, there is not much demand for Mac compatible software, especially the kinds of software used by firms. Just about every firm is PC oriented. Luckily, the school provides laptops to Mac users (checked out from the library). I agree with Heather that this is likely just an early introduction to a PC-based legal world.
Posted by Ware Cornell - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 13 minutes ago

Law Student in Madison

I really hate to break it to you, but it is not a PC-based legal world. It is not even a Microsoft based legal world.

In 32 years of law practice I have seen the world change from carbon paper to Mag Cards to mainframes, to midies, to PCs. Now it is changing again, to web-based solutions.

Google is the biggest nightmare Microsoft has ever had. The hardware used to access the web is the least important part of the equation.
Posted by Lawgdes - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

To those that mentioned ‘pencil and paper ‘- as an attorney - I go through several drafts while writing a brief - I’d like to see any attorney file a brief after being given only ONE shot and having had to use pencil and paper - impossible and would not be a reflection of your knowledge and ability. I resisted computer based testing until my last year in lawschool - what a mistake! By using the computer - the professor can easily understand your “handwriting” there are no “scratch out “ words and you can cut and paste from one essay to the other if discussing the same law - saving a huge amount of time. Pretty soon Mac & PC will be interchangeable as far as programs so it will no longer matter.
Posted by Andrew Przyborowski - 9 months, 2 weeks, 4 days, 57 minutes ago

I’m really surprised to learn that my school has one-upped all of the above - we’ve been using dual platform software, Electronic Blue Book, for a year. Although there were some hick-ups in the beginning, those have been resolved and now Mac and PC users use the same software on exams.
Posted by Baltimore - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 23 hours, 57 minutes ago

Offering rentals is not the best solution. It is not the same to all of a sudden have to use a computer you are not familiar with. I had no idea this problem existed. Luckily, my school uses “Exam 4 Software” by Extregity, the “Armored Word Processor.” It is available for both Mac & PC users. The only problem I had with it is that the spell check feature did not work with the Mac. I initially wrote my exams by hand, thinking I wasn’t missing out on anything. After writing my exam on a computer, I had no doubt that using a computer gives a huge advantage. The main thing is that it is much faster, so that I am able to get my thoughts out and more quickly move on to the next issue. . The second thing is that it is much easier to go back and add sentences or paragraphs without having to draw arrows and boxes, hoping that the professor will be able to decipher the mess.
Posted by Dan - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes ago

Once again Mac users are shown that with today’s ridiculously overpowered computers (for what the average user needs), ANY computer is powerful enough and the ONLY thing that matters is its interoperability with others.

Anyone who is still using a Mac at this point is just being stubborn and/or a snob.
Posted by Mac User - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 23 hours, 29 minutes ago

Clearly many schools and people are unaware of what MACs can do. With the new intel-based MACs you can easily run Windows OS through Bootcamp. The great thing about MACs is they now have dual platform capabilities. As a result, a MAC can do everything a Windows-based PC is able to do. Students should spend the $200-$400 to buy a Windows OS and install it on their MACs. In addition, the investment will allow students who enjoy the superior performance of MACs to use their computer in the “legal world.”

Basically, students and attorneys just need to educate themselves on the technology they are using.
Posted by Andy - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 22 hours, 23 minutes ago

I went to Lewis & Clark in Portland, OR. Our school had the simplest solution of all: we operated on an “honor system” where the school trusted the students not to cheat. No “locking software” was required, and as far as I could tell, things worked pretty smoothly.
Posted by Dan - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 22 hours, 21 minutes ago

Dan at No. 19, you shame our name. I am PC-based at work. An earlier comment said the legal world is 95% PC-based; I’d peg that number a little higher.

I use a Mac at home. I can access my network from home. Which means, I can access my PC-based network from a Mac. Interoperability (if that’s actually a word).

I’m not stubborn: I use both, and use both professionally. Nor am I snob. Or maybe I am, but my use of a Mac is not snobbery; I only use it at home, so to whom am I being snobby? My wife (oops; she also uses a Mac at home).

Think before you write (incidentally, computer-based exams allow students more time to think before they write).
Posted by Mary - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 21 hours, 44 minutes ago

I think that the point is all students should be treated fairly. Exams are difficult enough without having to worry about “technical” problems. The University of Akron makes no such accommodations unless you are one of the “special” people (i.e. related to a judge or alum). They even provided an exception for “certain” people who have 48 hours between exams.
Posted by WCL '07 Alum - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 15 hours, 48 minutes ago

The honor system would be an ideal solution, except dishonesty or the prospect of cheating has little to do with the Washington College of Law’s (WCL) decision to move to exam software. The transition occurred after my first year, when I wrote exams in MS Word on my Mac G4 Powerbook. As I understand the rationale, WCL decided students would benefit from the improved data recovery ExamSoft provides; faculty would appreciate the simplified exam-submission mechanism; and the new software would better prepare students for computer-based bar examinations, which apparently all use some software solution to lock out a user from the computer’s hard drive. For WCL students with newer “Mactels” (Intel-based Macs), the school’s chosen software posed no problem--as an above post discussed, Bootcamp and Windows provides a workaround for a few hundred dollars. But speaking as a students who used a non-Intel Mac, I felt left behind, forced to handwrite my exams when others could type. On the other hand, professors swear that the grades naturally approximately fall along a normal distribution, with handwritten exams and typed exams spaced out evenly, i.e., there’s no ostensible “penalty” for handwriting. And I did well on all my exams, even when armed only with a pen.
Posted by ExamSoft User - 9 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 33 minutes ago

MacUser, for some reason BootCamp alone isn’t sufficient to run a lot of the exam taking software. I’m not sure if it’s a security issue (i.e. with the way that the software prevents access to the rest of the information on the hard drive) or an issue with the way that the software interfaces with MS Word. Most of the exam taking software I’m familiar with uses Word while effectively shutting out the rest of Windows, something that was more difficult to do in BootCamp. Nonetheless, most of the exam taking software suites have now worked around this problem. I wonder what AU is getting with their current software that makes them loath to switch…
Posted by Another UW-Madison Student - 9 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes ago

Law Student in Madison-- I am confused, as the University of Wisconsin Madison Law School uses SecureExam, which is fully compatible with PCs AND MACs. This is the second year using this software and everything has worked great. At our school the pc vs mac “debate” is a non-issue. I wish more schools saw how easy it is to end this ‘debate’…

Everyone else-- Like a few people have pointed out, there is a very simple solution to this PC vs Mac Issue.... exam software. Schools should only use exam software that supports both types of computers. For a great discussion of the four major exam software packages, which of them support macs, and school specific information, see http://www.maclawstudents.com/blog/law-school-exam-software/
Posted by Erik Schmidt - 9 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 22 hours, 1 minute ago

There are four law school exam software vendors: CompuTest, Extegrity, Software Secure, and ExamSoft. Of the four, only one (ExamSoft) does not provide a Mac-native version.

ExamSoft’s SofTest has been approved by ExamSoft for use on Macs. All MacBooks and MacBook pros run on Intel processors, and can boot into Windows natively. This is not a matter of Macs emulating Windows. The machines can use a boot loader called Boot Camp to simply boot into Windows at startup time.

The inconvenience with this approach is that the user still needs to install Windows on their MacBook or MacBook Pro.

It is also worth noting as others already have, that some law schools have dropped exam software altogether.

You can find out more about exam software and Macs at the maclawstudents.com linked to by Another UW-Madison Student (post #26).
Posted by AZ Mac User - 9 months, 2 weeks, 11 hours, 14 minutes ago

The Arizona Bar Exam does not allow mac computers.

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