12th Gen CPUs won’t work with Examplify

Law students preparing to sit for their Bar exam online may encounter a significant issue one of the nation’s most popular test-taking software programs, Examplify, is incompatible with Intel’s newest processing technology.

In a note to its users, ExamSoft, the company that controls Examplify, is stating the 12th Gen Intel processors aren’t compatible with the software it offers. The latest Windows devices with Intel’s Intel 12th-generation chipset trigger Examplify’s automated virtual machine check, Examplify’s announcement states. Examplify doesn’t currently support the devices, so Who can’t use them in the coming bar exam scheduled for July 2022. One person brought attention to the issue via a tweet on Twitter and added the screen capture of what seems to be a letter sent to applicants for the Bar exam.

Examplify’s minimum requirements for systems page states that laptops running the Intel 12 Gen processor are currently not supported. It’s unclear who updated the information; however, it shouldn’t have been an ample warning, even if it was several months ago. Who would look up that information when they have a laptop equipped with modern hardware? This is like asking someone who owns a 3090 Ti, one of the most powerful graphics cards, to review their system’s requirements before starting an application.

If their laptops prove to not compatible, users don’t have many alternatives. Examplify’s software isn’t compatible with computers, desktops, Chromebooks, or computers running Linux or Windows. It only supports MacBooks running macOS Catalina or higher or Windows laptops that are so new that they support Windows 10 and 11; however, they are older enough not to come with the latest Intel processors.

It’s unclear whether students received alerts other than the warning message that Who posted on Twitter. The Bar exam is only two weeks away, on July 27th and 28, and Examplify will be the piece of software that is used to manage exams for the Bar in several states. As per the report by Bloomberg, Law Examplify is also employed by more than 150 law schools across the US for testing remotely.

ExamSoft and Intel haven’t yet responded to a request for comments.

Bar exams conducted through Examplify this year didn’t go smoothly, either. Throughout the entire period, Bloomberg Law reports students faced difficulties uploading their documents, getting sections of their essays removed, and being exiled from the exam due to glitches in facial recognition even if the test didn’t completely crash. The time was when an ExamSoft spokesperson explained that the issues were due to memory issues on specific devices.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the group that designs the Bar examination itself, informed me it was aware of the problem. Still, it’s ultimately up to the states administering the exam to figure out the issues. NCBE spokesperson Valerie Hickman states that each state is accountable for deciding on the software used for the exam.

Although NCBE isn’t actively involved with the exam running, the organization is aware of ExamSoft’s communications to examinees concerning Windows devices equipped with an Intel 12th generation chip, Hickman said. Examiners who have questions should contact ExamSoft directly or the exam’s jurisdiction.

The NCBE also issued a similarly unhelpful reply after hearing about the numerous technical issues during this year’s exam, telling Bloomberg Law that it supports the jurisdictions in finding the best solution.

It’s not the only compatibility issue we’ve encountered with the latest Intel processor. Both the 11th and 12th Generation Intel processors have stopped support for SGX (software guard extensions), which means it’s difficult for, if not impossible, to play Blu-rays with 4K on more recent devices. In the article, BleepingComputer clarifies Blu-rays require the SGX extension for the digital rights management (DRM) processing to be played in 4K.