Exam Software Information

The UNC School of Law, like many of its peers, uses secure software for the administration of exams. Electronic Bluebook (EBB) runs natively on both Windows and Apple operating systems and is made available for free to all registered students. The software is required for students who choose to type their exam answers, with a few exceptions based on exam type and individual faculty needs. Most faculty greatly prefer that students use it instead of writing longhand.

Although the law school does not have a laptop requirement for students, all laptops must meet the following criteria in order to run EBB.

If you are using a Windows laptop:

• You must be running either Windows 7, Vista, or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed.
• You may NOT use Windows 8 or any other versions of Windows.
• You may NOT use any Windows emulation software, including VMWare, VirtualBox, etc., in combination with EBB. Using EBB while running any emulation software is a violation of the honor code.
• Netbooks typically will work fine as long as they are running one of the Windows versions noted above.
  

If you are using an Apple laptop:

• You must be using an Apple MacBook, MB Pro, or MB Air (i.e., an Intel-based Apple laptop); earlier models such as iBooks and PowerBooks are not supported.
• You may NOT use any Windows emulation software, including Parallels Desktop, VMWare, VirtualBox, etc., in combination with EBB. Using EBB while running any emulation software is a violation of the honor code.

For all users:

• You must have an AC power adapter. Because School of Law exams can last longer than the life of a battery, you are required to plug in your laptop during exam taking. All classrooms have electrical outlets for this purpose.
• The laptop should be your own. The School of Law IT department does have a limited number of loaner laptops available for student use on a first come, first served basis.
• Your laptop must be registered for either the UNC-Secure or UNC-1 wireless zones. UNC-Guest will not work. Further instructions are available from law school IT.
• You should disable any anti-spyware or firewall programs (e.g. ZoneAlarm, McAfee Total Protection, Kaspersky) you may have running on your computer before using EBB.
• At this time, tablets--iPads or Android devices--are not supported.
  

Software licensing costs for Electronic Bluebook are covered as part of annual student fees. For students from other UNC departments or other law schools taking a single course, the fee is waived. The links to download the software are distributed early each fall semester through an announcement on My Carolina Law and the daily "Today at Carolina Law" email.