Legislation college students on the point of take the Bar examination digitally might run right into a severe situation: one of many nation’s most frequently-used test-taking software program packages, Examplify, is incompatible with Intel’s newest technology of processors.
In a discover to customers, ExamSoft, the corporate that owns Examplify, writes that twelfth Gen Intel processors aren’t suitable with its software program. “New Home windows units containing the Intel twelfth technology chipset are triggering Examplify’s automated digital machine test,” Examplify’s discover reads. “These are NOT at the moment supported. Subsequently, they can’t be used for the upcoming July 2022 bar examination.” One person drew consideration to the problem in a post on Twitter, and included a screencap of what seems to be a discover given to Bar candidates.
Examplify’s minimal system necessities web page confirms that “laptops with an Intel 12 Gen processor are at the moment not supported.” It’s unclear when that data was added, however it wouldn’t have been a lot of a warning even when it got here months in the past. Who would suppose to learn that web page if they’ve a laptop computer with all the newest {hardware}? That’s like asking somebody with a 3090 Ti, one of many highest-end graphics playing cards, to test system necessities earlier than they boot up a recreation.
If their laptops turn into incompatible, college students don’t have a number of different choices. Examplify’s software program doesn’t help desktops, Chromebooks, or computer systems that run Linux both — solely MacBooks that run macOS Catalina or above, or Home windows laptops new sufficient that they provide Home windows 10 or 11, however sufficiently old to not include the brand new Intel processors.
It’s not but clear if college students had some other warning past the message noticed through Twitter. The Bar examination is simply two weeks away on July twenty seventh and twenty eighth, and Examplify is the piece of software program used to manage the Bar in lots of states. In response to Bloomberg Legislation, it’s additionally utilized by over 150 legislation colleges throughout the US for distant testing.
ExamSoft and Intel didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark.
Bar exams taken by way of Examplify final 12 months didn’t go all that easily both. All year long, Bloomberg Legislation stories, college students skilled issue importing recordsdata, having parts of their essays deleted, and getting kicked out of the take a look at as a result of facial recognition glitches — if the take a look at didn’t crash fully. On the time, an ExamSoft spokesperson attributed the issues to “reminiscence points on some units.”
The Nationwide Convention of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the group that develops the Bar examination itself, instructed The Verge that it’s conscious of the problem, however that it’s primarily as much as the person jurisdictions administering the examination to determine issues out. In response to NCBE spokesperson Valerie Hickman, every state is accountable for selecting the examination software program.
“Whereas NCBE isn’t immediately concerned within the administration of the examination, it’s conscious of ExamSoft’s communication to examinees relating to Home windows units with an Intel twelfth technology chipset,” Hickman stated in an announcement to The Verge. “Examinees with questions ought to attain out on to ExamSoft or to their jurisdiction.”
The NCBE issued an identical, equally unhelpful response upon listening to stories of the varied technical difficulties throughout final 12 months’s exams, telling Bloomberg Legislation that it “helps the jurisdictions” in determining an answer.
This isn’t the one compatibility situation we’ve seen with a latest Intel processor, both. Each eleventh and twelfth Gen Intel processors nixed help for SGX (software program guard extension), which makes it tough if not not possible to play Blu-rays in 4K on newer units. As BleepingComputer explains, Blu-rays want SGX for digital rights administration (DRM) processing with the intention to play in 4K.