When I stand at the front of a class, staring at a sea of laptop lids, I always note the couple of Macs in the room … well, sometimes it’s only one. Why I notice, I really don’t know — Although I prefer the Apple platform to Windows, I’m not one of these crazed Apple worshipers. It’s just a computer. Maybe I simply appreciate those students willing to battle SofTest each semester from a different platform. Or maybe I have a soft spot for spawn-of-Satan conspiracy theories.
But for the folks in law school environments using Macs, one of my Mac-using students called my attention to a blog run by a group of law students, “Mac Law Students.” It appears to offer some decent product reviews and advice on using Macs in law school, especially at exam time.
Posted by Brooks Holland on June 6, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Comments
We use Examsoft at U. Florida, and as TTT said above, students have indeed found that you can install Examsoft and use it perfectly well via a dual core Mac and Boot Camp (there may be other means to run Windows on a Mac, but I haven’t bought a new Mac in a couple of years and have no need to run Windows). The problem that my students had this fall was that although the students could *run* Examsoft, for some reason our Computing Services department decided that they wouldn’t *allow* students to *upload* their exams from a Mac (something that I assume Examsoft’s servers could detect). Computing Services here has historically been willfully ignorant of Macs, and either our laptop requirement, or Computing Services’s interpretation of it, was that students have a Windows-operating laptop. Given Mac’s ability to run Windows and its obvious superiority post OS X as a platform [grin], that was just stupid.
After many complaints from Mac users (which my rough guess would place at about 10% of students, definitely up from when I started here 6 years ago), the school then told Examsoft to allow Mac users to upload, and it’s my understanding that it worked fine in the spring.
Bottom line, from what I understand, is that it’s the institution’s call with Examsoft — although the student would need to be running a dual core Mac with Boot Camp.
Posted by: Mark Fenster | Jun 8, 2007 9:51:54 PM
My school uses Examsoft, and Examsoft is only available in Windows. If you have an Intel-based Mac, you can install Windows on it and use Examsoft that way, but I’m not sure if that will violate Examsoft’s user agreement. I know that the user agreement specifically prohibits virtual machines, so stuff like using VirtualPC to run Windows on a Mac is right out. So I bought a beat-up used Windows laptop just for taking exams. I refuse to handwrite exams and my professor are probably thankful for me not inflicting my handwriting on them.
I’ve often thought that law schools should have a laptop rental program for exam times. Examsoft and equivalent software doesn’t need anything high-powered. It’s a glorified word processor with everything locked down, so it doesn’t need to be anything expensive. If the laptops are only rented out for exam time, then it won’t have tons of user-installed software on it and hopefully will run more reliably. I’ve seen at least a few students who have had their computers crash mid-exam so they had to handwrite it.
Posted by: TTT | Jun 8, 2007 12:27:08 AM
Thanks for the nod, Brooks. I’m always looking for contributions from other Mac-using law students. So if you’re a student reading this, please feel free to contact me with article ideas or content.
Posted by: Erik Schmidt | Jun 6, 2007 6:23:53 PM
Wow. I’m very happy with my MacBook. We type our exams in MS Word and email them to the registrar (well, a special “[email protected]” email address). It’s a system that’s wonderful for me as a student, though I do imagine the registrar’s office doesn’t have as much fun dividing and distributing exams to the proper professors.
Posted by: Lee | Jun 6, 2007 4:14:12 PM
Thanks for the pointer!
I use a Mac at law school, although, ironically, I have to have a bootcamp partition because our IT department *refuses* to support Macs in any way, shape or form. No SofTest for me. No wireless connectivity for me. It’s like I go to school in the Dark Ages. *sigh*
Posted by: Dave! | Jun 6, 2007 3:29:50 PM
I’m a mac-using law student (they are legion at Northeastern) and SecureExam works like a charm on the mac (much more stable than the Windows version). As for the difference between the two platforms? When it comes to typing and using west law I haven’t seen much of a difference, but I appreciate being able to use my MacBook Pro.
Posted by: Ben | Jun 6, 2007 2:58:42 PM
I’m a law professor and I own Macs. I use Windows only when forced. A few but not many of my students use Macs. The problem with Macs as I see it, at least at my law school, is that Mac owners can’t type their exams. We use Examsoft. About 60% of our students type their exams. I don’t know if Examsoft has a Mac version. I’m going to pursue this with our Registrar next year.
Posted by: John Linarelli | Jun 6, 2007 1:49:18 PM