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Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro notebooks banned from some state bar exams, security concern cited

If you have a new Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro notebook and are looking to take the bar exam, you might need to leave the notebook behind.

According to an announcement from testing software company ExamSoft, the Touch Bar’s predictive text feature could compromise “exam integrity.”

For law students looking to take the North Carolina bar exam, test proctors have been instructed to keep a look out for models with the Touch Bar and technicians will be on hand to ensure the feature is disabled. Test takers will be approved to use the laptops provided they followed ExamSoft’s helpful instructions for reverting the Touch Bar back to a row of standard function keys.


In other states, the Touch Bar-equipped MacBook Pro has been banned outright from bar exams.

Per notices from the New York State Board of Law Examiners and the Colorado Supreme Court, users who show up with a Touch Bar-equipped model in those states will have to write their answers by hand, but they will be allowed to re-download the ExamSoft software to another machine for free if they do it in advance.

The notebook has apparently also been barred from bar exams in California, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

So, if you’re looking to take the bar exam, make sure to do your due diligence and check with their local jurisdiction before heading to their exam site.

If you’ve seen this on your end and have any feedback to offer, please let us know in the comments.

Via Engadget and AppleInsider