NY BAR EXAM takers for July, 2008: Warning !!

From the New York State Board of Law Examiners: consider this as an offer of warning:

In the event [that] any technical difficulties occur during the bar examination, you must handwrite your essay answers in the answer books provided and no additional time may be allowed. If you choose to continue to use your computer to write your essay answers after experiencing technical difficulties, or when you have been instructed not to do so, you do so at your own risk.

Read for yourself, from the BOLE webpage:

New York State Board of Law Examiners
NOTICE TO PARTICIPANTS
IN THE NEW YORK BAR EXAMINATION
LAPTOP PROGRAM

This notice is intended to alert participants in the New York bar examination laptop program of the risks involved in such participation, the procedures to be followed in the event problems are encountered, and the potential consequences of problems should they occur.

The New York State Board of Law Examiners ("Board") does not own or maintain the software used for the laptop program. You are required to purchase and download the software directly from the third party software vendor, Examsoft Worldwide, Inc. The Board cannot guarantee the performance of the software furnished by the private software vendor.

You must provide your own computer, and that computer must meet or exceed the minimum system requirements published by the Board and the software vendor on their websites.

Technical difficulties may occur before, during or after the bar examination. Technical difficulties may include hardware or software malfunctions, data saving or retrieval problems, operator errors, upload or download problems, or the loss of electrical power at the examination facility. In the event any technical difficulties occur during the bar examination, you must handwrite your essay answers in the answer books provided and no additional time may be allowed. If you choose to continue to use your computer to write your essay answers after experiencing technical difficulties, or when you have been instructed not to do so, you do so at your own risk.

This Professor says: YIKES! Do you want to risk your last four years of Law School and another year without practice to a faulty Laptop system? Ask your family, and double-check that your family is in a position to support you for another year without the pay due to a Lawyer.