California’s high-tech experiment with a hybrid bar exam has imploded, sending state officials scrambling to revert to the classic, in-person testing method. Last month’s attempt at modernizing the exam—intended to cut costs and free up massive venues—ended in a tangle of glitches that left nearly a thousand hopefuls backing out and thousands more wrestling with technical mayhem.
On February 25 and 26, over 4,600 candidates signed up for the exam, only to be thwarted by everything from faulty logins and endless delays to compromised security and a copy-and-paste function that simply wouldn’t cooperate. The anticipated savings of nearly $3.8 million annually have evaporated amid the chaos.
Now, state bar officials have recommended an all-in-person exam for July—even if it means shelling out an extra $1 million over the planned $3.9 million budget and scrambling to secure test sites at the last minute. Deans from California’s 17 accredited law schools are backing the move, even volunteering their campuses and pushing for a return to the traditional multiple-choice questions crafted by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, rather than the newer Kaplan version.
The remote exam was run by Meazure Learning, a company now facing a proposed class action lawsuit from test-takers who claim the platform was doomed from the start. With heavy criticism coming from all sides, including a disappointed Senator Tom Umberg who’s promised a full-blown investigation, the state bar’s board of trustees is set to dig deeper during their fact-finding session this Wednesday.
As the clock ticks toward the July exam, officials admit there’s simply no time to fully untangle the digital disaster. The lesson here is clear: when tech fails, sometimes the old-fashioned way is the best way to get it right.
