If you plan to use a computer to take the June 2020 First-Year Law Students' Examination, applicants must follow the State Bar’s instructions. Only laptop computers will be allowed into the examination room, regardless of test modality, and they must meet the specifications outlined in this bulletin. Applicants requiring special equipment due to medical reasons must request permission to use such equipment through the testing accommodations petition process.
Laptop certification Examination information Examination day Examsoft Important pre-examination day information Checklist
If you wish to use a laptop computer to take the June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination, you must:
Make sure you:
If you are granted laptop use as a testing accommodations, and will be using your own laptop computer to take the examination, you must comply with the same requirements as those applicants taking the examination under standard conditions.
You must initiate and complete the certification process with ExamSoft after you have received your admittance ticket. A notification email will be sent when admittance tickets are available after the State Bar’s Office of Admissions has determined eligibility for the examination. If you are assigned to take the examination on a laptop, you must be certified no later than June 19, 2020. If your laptop computer or the software is not working properly or if there is some other problem when the examination begins or at any time thereafter that cannot be resolved within 5 minutes, you will not be allowed to continue with the exam session. No extra time will be provided in the event of a computer or software problem.
If you are unable to use a laptop computer on examination day and/or withdraw your request to use a laptop computer, you will not be entitled to a refund of the laptop fee.
Assignment to a test center does not establish your eligibility to take the examination. Only after all eligibility requirements are met will an admittance ticket be available for printing.
ExamSoft’s internet-based examination delivery option will be used for delivery of the answers prepared on Tuesday, June 23, 2020, to the essay and multiple-choice portions of the examination. This will require you to upload your examination answer file via the Internet.
You are not required to have Internet connectivity during the examination, but must have access to Internet connectivity for download of the software and exam files, prior to the start of each examination session to conduct facial recognition and immediately following the examination in order to meet the upload deadline.
It is your responsibility to be familiar with Examplify and your laptop computer prior to the examination. If you experience difficulties with Examplify during the sign-in process, technical help is available by contacting ExamSoft Support at 866-429-8889 to request assistance. Following the examination, you will have until 12:00 p.m. (Pacific Time), June 24, 2020, to upload your examination answer files. The upload deadline for testing accommodation applicants who have been granted extended schedules over two days will have until 12:00 p.m. (Pacific Time), June 25, 2020, to upload their examination answer files. If you fail to upload your answer file by the published deadline, a deduction of 10 scaled points will be taken from your total written scaled score. If you fail to upload your answer file within two weeks of the published deadline, you will be given a grade of zero for each answer not uploaded timely.
On the day of the examination, applicants that are testing online, remotely, must be logged in by 7:30am to conduct facial recognition and read announcements prior to starting the examination at 8:00 a.m. Examination questions will be provided within Examplify once the examination session has begun. Failure to login by 7:30 a.m. could result in insufficient time for all steps required to access the examination at 8:00 a.m.
Applicants testing in-person must be seated no later than 7:20 a.m., at which time instructions for getting your laptop computer ready to use will begin. You should plan to arrive at the test center 20 minutes prior to that time so that you can find your seat and get comfortable. General instructions regarding administration of the examination will commence promptly at 7:45 a.m. Examination questions will be distributed to applicants testing in-person.
If your laptop computer is not ready to begin the examination session at the designated time, for whatever reason, you will not be allowed to continue with the examination session. No extra time will be provided to ensure that a laptop computer is ready for use before the examination session begins.
In the event a software, hardware, or power failure occurs before or during administration of the examination, you will not be allowed to continue with testing for that session.
You are not permitted to bring other laptop computers, typewriters, or word processors to use as backups.
To ensure the security of the examination process, applicants are required to use Examplify software to take the June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination. The application provides a simple word processing program and is designed to be familiar to users of WordPerfect or Microsoft Word. It blocks access to nonExamplify files on an applicant’s laptop computer during administration of the examination and can be used on virtually any modern computer, i.e., purchased within the last three to four years.
To use a laptop computer during administration of the examination, you must:
Note: ExamSoft recommends Firefox or Google Chrome, as Internet Explorer is not a supported browser.
The specific system requirements can be found on ExamSoft’s custom home page for the First-Year Law Students' Examination.
It is not possible to take secure exams through virtual operating systems such as Microsoft's Virtual Machine, Parallels, VMware, VMware Fusion, or any other virtual environment.
External standard or ergonomic keyboards and equipment such as a mouse are allowed. These items may be wireless.
Maximum size allowed of laptop computer screen is 17.3 inches for in-person testing
In some cases on PC laptop computers, certain antivirus applications may block Examplify from starting properly or can affect Examplify's performance during an examination. Visit ExamSoft’s Knowledge Base to determine if your laptop computer is running any of the programs listed and for instructions on how to disable your antivirus/antispyware applications before installing Examplify and how to re-enable them after installation is complete.
You must download Examplify even if it was previously installed for use in law school or for a previous First-Year Law Students’ Examination.
Completely uninstall any prior version of SofTest or Examplify before downloading and installing the newest version.
Installing Examplify: After you have received your admittance ticket, go to the Custom Home Page for the First-Year Law Students’ Examination on the ExamSoft website. To begin the process, do the following:
If you have an email spam blocker, please add barsupport@examsoft.com and support@examsoft.com to your contact or safe list so that you can receive the emails that will be sent to you during the certification process and as confirmation during the examination answer file upload process.
You must complete the certification process no later than June 19, 2020. It is recommended, however, that you complete the process as soon as possible after printing your admittance ticket so that ExamSoft will have the opportunity to assist you in resolving any problems you may encounter prior to the examination. If your laptop computer or Examplify is not operational when the examination begins or at any time thereafter, you will not be allowed to continue with the examination.
Downloading your exam file: During the laptop certification process, the Mock Examination exam file and a blank exam files for you to record your answers during administration of the examination will be automatically downloaded to your laptop computer.
Certification confirmation: After successfully completing the certification process, you will be advised on-screen and via email by ExamSoft that you have done so and that the exam files have been downloaded (The June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination files and the mock examination file). If you do not receive the confirmation emails, you have not successfully completed the certification process for the June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination. You may check your certification status and view your download/upload history online. Log in using the Exam Takers box, click the Exam History button to review your record and confirm that you have downloaded the exam and mock exam files and have uploaded the mock exam answer file. The online remote applicants should have four exam files for the written sessions and two exam files for the multiple-choice sessions. In-person applicants should have four exam files for the written sessions only.
Examplify can be registered for your school and the First-Year Law Students’ Examination concurrently. When launched, click on ‘Take an Exam’ and you will see your Academic Student ID and any downloaded exams, along with your file number and First-Year Law Students’ Examination file and Mock Exam examination file.
Do not copy the ExamSoft Program from one laptop computer to another computer. For example, do not download the software to a desktop computer and try to manually move it to your laptop computer. If you move the software and exam files to another computer, an error message will be displayed when you attempt to begin the examination. If such an error message is displayed, you will be unable to use your laptop computer to take the examination and will not be allowed to continue with the examination. You may not download and install Examplify to more than one laptop computer.
Laptop computer problems after certification. If after completing the certification process with ExamSoft you experience problems with your laptop computer that would prohibit you from using it for the examination, i.e., it becomes inoperable, you may ask to have another laptop computer certified and to download additional exam files through the “Re-Download Examplify” link after you log in with your Applicant ID and password. Authorization will not be granted for the purpose of having a backup laptop computer available in the event a laptop computer malfunctions during the examination.
The mock examination: The mock examination confirms that your laptop computer is compatible with Examplify and provides users with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with procedures for opening, using, and uploading answer files prior to the day of the examination. By typing a paragraph in each window, it also allows users to ensure that there are no typing/keyboard issues with their laptop computer. The mock examination must be completed and the related exam answer file uploaded to complete the certification process and ensure your laptop computer has been configured properly for use on the day of the examination and for the upload of your exam answer file. You will receive an email confirmation after you have uploaded the exam answer file for your mock exam. Until you receive this email confirmation, you are not certified. See the instructional videos and guides on taking the mock examination.
Additional copies of the mock examination are available if needed to help familiarize you with the Examplify application. Internet connectivity is required for downloading additional copies of the exam file and uploading exam answer files. No internet connectivity is required while taking the mock examination. Download additional copies of the mock examination at Examplify's website.
Visit the ExamSoft Knowledge Base if you have questions on the use of the software or if you encounter technical problems during the laptop computer certification process, as most problems can be easily resolved through ExamSoft’s published support guides and troubleshooter. Should you continue to have technical problems, however, please call ExamSoft Client Support at 866-429-8889. Technical support is available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Neither the Office of Admissions nor the Committee of Bar Examiners is available to answer technical, installation or certification questions.
If testing in-person, you must bring your own power cord to the test center on the day of the examination. Although an electrical outlet will be provided to you, be sure to have a fully charged battery in case of a temporary power outage. You will not be allowed to tape power cords into the electrical outlet, nor will you be allowed to plug any other item besides your laptop computer into the electrical outlet. Flash/thumb drives, CDs, and DVDs, are prohibited in the examination room. If such items are found in the examination room or in an applicant’s laptop computer, they will be confiscated, will not be returned and a Chapter 6 Notice of Violation of Examination Rules and Policies will be issued.
Instructions. Pay careful attention to and follow the instructions provided during the examination. Use great care when highlighting and deleting during the examination, as well as using other functions that may significantly change a document. Applicants who do not take the time to become familiar with their laptop computers will not be provided with assistance. No extra time or other administrative relief will be granted in the event that an examination file is deleted or otherwise altered, or if you experience any other word processing problems.
If there is a problem downloading your answers, you will be notified. You may be required to contact ExamSoft for assistance in retrieving the file remotely or be asked to physically provide your laptop computer to ExamSoft or to the Office of Admissions so efforts can be made to retrieve the encrypted backup copy of the examination answer(s) from your laptop computer’s hard drive.
Rented laptop computers. If you rented a laptop computer to use during the examination, you should not return it to the rental company until results for the June 2020 First-Year Law Students’ Examination have been released.
It is your responsibility to be familiar with your equipment, the Examplify software and instructions provided by the Committee of Bar Examiners and by ExamSoft on its website prior to the start of the examination. It is your responsibility to timely upload your answer file after the examination.
Any attempt to disable or tamper with Examplify’s security features is prohibited. If it is discovered that tampering has been attempted, this information will be reported to the Committee of Bar Examiners for whatever action it may deem appropriate, which could include disqualification for admission to practice law in California.
To ensure proper and complete certification of your laptop computer for use during the examination, please use the following checklist. Before June 19, 2020: