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Touch Bar MacBook Pros Are Being Banned From Bar Exams Over Predictive Text (techcrunch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: When it launched late last year, the new MacBook Pro's Touch Bar was largely reliant on first-party applications to show off what it could do. Since then, a number of other companies have jumped on board, helping the secondary screen grow into something more than novelty. Of course, as with any new technology, there's going to be some unanticipated downside. Test taking software company Examsoft, for one, believes the input device could help facilitate cheating among students taking the bar exam. What's perhaps most interesting here, is that the company's calling out one of Touch Bar's more mundane features: predictive text. "By default," the company writes, "the Touch Bar will show predictive text depending on what the student is typing, compromising exam integrity." It's hard to say precisely how the company expects a standard feature on mobile devices to help students pass one of the more notoriously exam out there, but The Next Web notes that some states have already taken action. North Carolina, for one, has required test takers with the new model MacBooks to disable the Touch Bar, while New York is banning the machines altogether.
real lawyers are stuck using windows XP on a 8 year old HP, cause its the newest thing that interfaces with the criminal justice system
Why are professional level tests being taken on a personal laptop? Shouldn't these tests be taken on the test company devices? Sort of like, I don't know... the SAT, ACT, GRE, and every other test?
"help students pass one of the more notoriously exam out there..."
Perhaps if the author had a MacBook, they would have made a less notoriously error.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
AS IANAL, I've not taken a BAR exam; having difficulty envisioning why this is a problem, or why laptops of any kind were previously allowed. If such a simple feature like this is enough to cheat on such an illustrious exam, then how can any faith be placed in the hands of lawyers that have passed the exam in the last 10 years. Or if this was merely a tool for already intelligent people that deserved their PASS, why do we care? ATM, i am imagining an 80 year old lady with a large ruler walking between aisles of desks and no comprehension of electronics since the Wheelwriter, failing students with their fancy illuminated gizmos
I am surprised that they would allow anyone to use their own computer. If the test taker controls the device, the opportunities for cheating are unlimited. And they can't rely on the honor system, since, hey, they are lawyers.
When I took the bar exam I had to use pen and paper, and we LIKED it that way!
Honestly though, I think there comes a point when if you want to test a person solely based on what they're able to keep in their head, you'll have to exclude most technology.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
Open book law exam in the past, now its open laptop.
Just go back to open book.
That would sort the people with educational skills from the ability to install a few mdimporters https://developer.apple.com/li... for spotlight searching.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Would you hire a lawyer that doesn't use computers as part of their practice? I am a pretty good programmer, but if I don't have all my resources in front of me I have a hard time talking about it (ie don't interview well)
love is just extroverted narcissism
"It's hard to say precisely how the company expects a standard feature on mobile devices to help students pass one of the more notoriously exam out there"
Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
Ignoring the whacky sentence grammar... If you're asking how it helps students, it's easy- you can edit a list of substitutions in Mac OS X (sorry, OS X- nope, sorry about that too, MacOS- erp, no, I guess it's macOS now) and assign substitutions to various words of your own choosing. They don't have to be dictionary words either, just strings of alphanumeric characters separated by spaces. The touch bar will pick up on these and offer them to you as you're typing.
It is therefore possible to associate "cheatstring1" with "Useful information you shouldn't have access to", "cheatstring2" with "Even more useful information you shouldn't have access to", etc. As you start to type in the appropriate string, the TB will try and suggest the replacement you've previously configured in System Preferences.
Open book law exam in the past, now its open laptop.
"Open book" still requires the test-taker to do their own work. With "open laptop", they can be in collusion with another person who actually answers the questions. Lack of Wifi doesn't fix the problem because they could still use the cellular network, or have an ad-hoc network between two test-takers in the same room who share answers.
Disclaimer: When I was in college, I made money taking tests for other people. In a 200 student lecture hall, nobody notices that. So I think I understand the "cheater" mentality. Many people will put more effort into cheating that what would have been needed to just study and pass legitimately. Part of it is just the thrill of "beating the system."
Could also be due to interference issues if their systems are as bad as others have suggested.
Multiple choice type questions are of course easy to put on a test. There are many other choices, though. Cisco does a reasonably good job of testing skills on their certification exams. Even the entry-level exams include simulations and questions that require you to understand how and why things are as they are. Cisco's most advanced certifications *combine* a computerized test with in-person interviewing.
The actual problem was the name. Folks at the justice dept thought the "touch Bar MBP" aimed at helping the Bar exam. Had Apple selected another name, like "touch panel" and everything would be fine.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Re 'taking tests for other people."
Most university settings should try to stop that by using larger groups of tutors at doors looking at all photo id.
Tutors might have huge numbers of students but know each face for that course by the final exam.
Make all lab time or contact with a tutor part of the course so that students have to show up and interact with their tutor over weeks.
Get all tutors to line up at the only door and move all students pass them with photo id out to take that exam.
The wait for 200 students would be a longer but the merit of passing the exam and academic quality of a good pass would restored.
Use other photo id, student photo id and staff to stop such exam issues.
Re 'they could still use the cellular network, or have an ad-hoc network between two test-takers in the same room who share answers"
If laptops are networking in an exam setting, university staff really need to re think their ways to test students.
The quality of students will be junk and the reputation of any grades from that university will be well understood over the next few decades.
Who would ever hire a student with fake grades after a few issues with past students? Word would soon spread about a generation from any university with fake paperwork.
Employers would then be on alert for all such students over decades of graduates. The better background investigators in the US would also sell such details given their contact with a lot of brands and their issues with past staff.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Just cause it has a touch bar doesn't mean it'd help students taking the bar exam.
If anything... the built in predictive text app is going to be a nuisance because it's trained for common text, not for latinglish that is legal text. For example.. if I type in "quid pro q" on my iPhone, I'm prompted with "q" "quality" and "queen" (I'm assuming that the iPhone and the Touchbar use the same predictive engine). It also fails "ad infinitum" and "de jure" and several other phrases that have made it into common vernacular. There's no chance that it's going to predict terms used on bar exams. I have a feeling that someone just read "predictive" and freaked out... without actually trying it.
// Latin is a dead language, as dead as can be. It killed off all the Roman's and now it's killing me.
/ IANAL, just too much catholic school.
The lack of RAM in MacBooks is Intel's fault since they decided to only support 16 GB over seven years ago and haven't agreed to allow more.
Some of the software is crappy and it's lock downs act like spyware and other junk ware that does stuff to make it hard to quit out of it / force quit other apps / lockout alt-tab / task manager / etc.
What will happen when windows defender flags it?
does the MPB have the battery for the test? as an usb based any thing other then the backup proctor usb stick to save the test to if the wireless fails. Is an no no.
When I took the Florida bar exam back in 1996, you could only use a typewriter on the essay portion, and that typewriter could have no memory. I find the predictive text issue to be fairly minor compared to other abuses that could result from people being allowed to use their own laptops.But, hey, these are future lawyers we're talking about, so I'm sure they're all 100% trustworthy.
My buddy Andy did the "write exams for other people" thing. He wrote the English 100 final exam about 10 times. Of course they check ID. The always did. You left your student card on your desk and while you were writing someone would walk up and down the rows checking ID. The thing is, Andy was Han Chinese, about 5'6" with medium length dark hair and glasses, so he looked like every second guy at the Uni who was writing the test.
And this has nothing to do with the touchbar at all. Predictive text is not a feature of the touchbar, it can be done on any computer. As for scrolling some text on the touchbar, well you can have an application do that on the screen as well.
I guess what I'm not getting, and since you've taken them maybe you can shed some light on it, is why it's bring your own device. I've taken dozens of computer based exams before, but always on the testing companies equipment, never my own. That just seems like it's asking for trouble.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
We're talking about exams of future lawyers. Not only is it highly unlikely they have the required skills, but weaseling out and cheating the system is pretty much part of the curriculum, and hence the qualification test.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I wonder if they also noticed, that right next to the touch bar is another screen with the same capabilities!
Is there no predictive text app for non-touchbar macbooks? Or PC laptops? Really? Is Apple paying them to say that to make touchbar macbooks sound special or something?
Is this a "all asians look the same" anecdote?
sudo rm -r -f --no-preserve-root /
Heh, I just learnt Cirth and wrote all the crib notes on my pencil case in plain sight. Not one teacher ever thought it was anything other than idle doodling.
There are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a 'fib,' the second is a downright lie, and the third is statistics.
Apparently it's all Asians look similar enough to the lab proctors that he got away with it when they did cursory ID checks.
Most of my law school exams were open book, even if the bar was closed book. Even on open book exams, it was fairly rare for me to spend much time actually referring to reference materials. There wasn't enough time. If you hadn't already internalized the concept, there is no way you were going to figure them out from the book during the exam. The bar would have been the same way.
It's more a the degree to which all asians look the same is greater than the degree to which all students look like their student ID anecdote. Seriously, get a group of a dozen students and compare them to their student IDs and you'll probably find that half of them could pass for the other half. Unless you have something completely blatant (e.g. completely different skin colour), you're probably within the acceptable variation for the invigilators not to notice or care.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I thought allowing people to bring their own devices to work with critical company data was insane, but this takes the fucking cake.
BYOD is one of the most insane concepts the IT industry has come up with, which given their track record is pretty damning.
in the 00s, the FL bar exam was conducted on administered machines with a standard image. i'm personally very surprised that they allow laptops, though i guess i shouldn't be.
(my friend who took the exam pwned it afterward by just booting from a live cd, but hey, at least they tried i guess.)
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Is this a "all asians look the same" anecdote?
No, it's more an anecdote about how id photographs are a very Caucasian-oriented biometric, given that our salient identifying features are more likely to be clearly visible in a small, slightly-blurry photo that often doesn't look a lot like the person it depicts. i.e. Caucasians have wide differences in hair and eye colour, and in hair type, and the same is not true to the same extent in non-white populations.
Note also that the GP specifically said "Han Chinese", which is a lot more specific than "Asian", and once you're into a very specific ethnic group, other features like face shape and nose structure do tend to get more similar (which is true regardless of whether you're talking about a white or a non-white group) making cheating by impersonation easier.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
And this has nothing to do with the touchbar at all. Predictive text is not a feature of the touchbar, it can be done on any computer. As for scrolling some text on the touchbar, well you can have an application do that on the screen as well.
Presumably, though, the software that locks down the computer to prevent use of applications for assistance isn't able to block the predictive text software on the new Macs.
I'm guessing that the predictive text function is either integrated at the OS level or implemented as an input-device driver, and the exam software can only interact with other software in the application space.
Modern predictive text is likely to be very useful to a cheat, because you would be able to use it as a sort of memory for specific phrases -- batter the things you need into the keyboard three times a day and you'll be able to type two words and get the rest of the thing spat back out word by word, tap-tap-tap, on the TouchBar.
Also, there's the issue of equitable time in the exam. Predictive text was implemented on phones first because even thought the early systems weren't great, they significantly sped up the process of writing on a phone. Now the systems are getting scarily good, and can speed up keyboard work. Thus someone with predictive text has a massive time advantage in the exam over someone who doesn't.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
Bank Street Writer 4 lyfe!
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
So they're being barred?
I had a sucky sig.
...that you are allowed to use only use certain models of calculators for SAT tests and math courses as opposed to just using a scientific calculator app on your smartphone. What I don't get here is 1) Why they don't force students to use the school provided computers 2) they are only targeting touch bar MacBooks when any laptop can be loaded with software to help with cheating, and be much more secretive about it. Sorry, but this is an epic fail on the school's part.
the NFL would probably sue them for including that word.
I had a sucky sig.
I don't know if it is the same company or the same software, but I took a certification exam recently, and they are paranoid. They require you to install software that shares your screen and controls your camera and microphone. Some bored off-shore worker watches you the whole time. If you look away from the screen or keyboard too much, or they hear you talking they can invalidate the exam.
Long live the Speaker Bracelet
Rolo D. Monkey
Bar exam sets a high bar. Touch bar barred from bar exam. Barred bar student barfs on the students bar. Bar bars bar student barred from bar exam.
Bullshit rhetoric is useful for a trial lawyer, but there are a lot of other skills. One is being able to write a good contract that will make it clear what is expected under all circumstances. If you hire a lawyer to write a BSR contract, and it goes to court, you're in for an unpleasant surprise.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Possibly, the exam software wasn't updated yet to block predictive text or the whole touch bar altogether.
Open book law exam in the past, now its open laptop.
"Open book" still requires the test-taker to do their own work. With "open laptop", they can be in collusion with another person who actually answers the questions. Lack of Wifi doesn't fix the problem because they could still use the cellular network, or have an ad-hoc network between two test-takers in the same room who share answers.
Disclaimer: When I was in college, I made money taking tests for other people. In a 200 student lecture hall, nobody notices that. So I think I understand the "cheater" mentality. Many people will put more effort into cheating that what would have been needed to just study and pass legitimately. Part of it is just the thrill of "beating the system."
Wrong. Search software can return phrases containing keywords from th exam question. Find the right phrases, cut and paste, and you have passed an exam, but are incompetent nevertheless.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Back in my high school days, LotR was in full popularity and I learned Tengwar well enough to take notes in Psychology class. I also used it to write the lyrics from "Days of Future Past" on one end of the stage lighting panel. I often wonder what future classes thought of it . . .
Not really, I have no interest in owning a Jaguar, Mercedes, Bentley, etc. Why would a laptop that is functionally incompetent compared to its competition be any different?
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Vi!
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?