If you have the details on bar exam support for Macs in your state or province, please drop us a note.

California

California uses SofTest, but does support Boot Camp. See Michael Katz’s detailed writeup. [13 April 08]

Illinois

Thanks to Corey for this info. According to the IBABY Laptop Program document (.doc) for July, 2008, Macs are a no-go for the Illinois bar exam. The pertinent section of the document seems to indicate that IBABY is a bit behind on Boot Camp [23 June 08]:

Users with Apple MacBook or MacBook Pro laptops can run Windows through Apple’s Boot Camp software. However, since Boot Camp is in beta release and is not supported, it is NOT approved for use for taking bar examinations. Please note that ExamSoft does not provide support for the installation and configuration of Apple’s Boot Camp.

Maryland

Adam revealed that Maryland uses SofTest but allows Boot Camp use. [01 August 08]

Nebraska

Nebraska uses Exam4 and supports the Mac. Thanks to Bob for the info. [23 June 08]

New York

New York says no to Macs in no uncertain terms. Thanks to Matt for the heads up. [30 July 08]

Ohio

Here’s a detailed summary of the situation in Ohio from Michael [23 June 08]:

Ohio is doing a pilot study of taking the bar exam on a laptop this year. They’ve limited the number of people who can participate to 250. The requirements were that you registered to take the bar by the deadline and then beat the crowd in a first come, first served online battle to register last Monday (and pay $110 to participate). The pilot is using SofTest and allowing use through Boot Camp. Naturally, all exam takers also had to sign a waiver of all liability releasing the state, the software maker, the court, and all their cousins from liability (and promise to give them your first born). I’m signed up to take it on my MBP. 

Interestingly, SofTest collects certain registry information during the Mock Exam we took as part of the registration process. This means that you had to register using the same computer you wanted to use for the exam, and because they warn you not to delete the software until you receive your exam results, it also means you can’t do anything as small as rebuild a hard-drive or as large as buy a new computer (while selling the old one) for about 4 months. Pretty annoying if you ask me. And I feel for the people who have real jobs or went to the BarBri course that day and therefore weren’t free at 10am on a Monday to be first in(on)line to register. Pretty poor timing decision in my opinion.

Oregon

Dennis Bishop, the Director of Information & Technology at the University of Oregon School of Law reports that Oregon uses SofTest and supports Boot Camp use. He further notes:

We currently have the 12 Intel Macs in our loaner pool configured and checked out to students taking the July bar.

Texas

Matt sent in a link to the Texas Bar of Law Examiners Laptops page, which states that Boot Camp is supported, so Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5 users can take the test using Boot Camp with Windows XP or Vista.

Utah

Utah uses SofTest, but does support Boot Camp. The Utah Bar site has not yet been updated to reflect the addition of Boot Camp support, but the Admissions Administrator for the Utah Bar sent a note clearly stating that Macs would be supported via Boot Camp. Thanks for the heads-up, Wesley. [20 June 08]