The next Georgia bar exam will depend more than ever on technology, given the test for more than 1,000 would-be attorneys will be conducted online. But for one key part, old-fashioned paper will play a big role.

The Office of Bar Admissions announced Monday that the three essay questions concerning Georgia law will be "open book," meaning applicants will be able to refer to paper books and paper notes.

Bar admissions Director Heidi Faenza told the Daily Report that allowed materials include "include paper notes, paper outlines, paper textbooks, paper bar prep materials, and paper copies of the Georgia Code."

Another wrinkle to the exam rules is that all candidates must use a computer that has a camera or connect to a separate online camera. "While you are logged into an exam session, the remote-proctored, online exam will be continuously recorded and monitored by both artificial intelligence and human proctors," the board office said in its announcement.

Monday's announcement came a week after the state Supreme Court canceled the in-person bar exam, which was initially scheduled for this month, then postponed to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With Georgia's virus caseload reaching its highest levels, the court canceled the September test and shifted to an online exam, Oct. 5-6, as several other states have done.

The bar admissions office said Monday it was still considering whether to enter reciprocity deals with other states by which each would recognize lawyers who passed the other's online exams. "The portability of your score for the online exam will depend on the bar admission rules in the jurisdiction in which you seek admission," the announcement said.

Andrea Curcio, a Georgia State University law professor who was an early proponent of the need for bar exams to change to accommodate social distancing, told the Daily Report on Monday, "The Court and Board of Bar Examiners are doing their best in a very difficult situation with an untested exam and exam format. It's a tough job and they are really working hard to make this work as well and as smoothly as possible under the circumstances."

Curcio said her biggest concern is how the exam will be scored and reported in terms with previous years' exams, "It's a new exam format given on computers⁠—both of which may affect outcomes. Also, it is an exam given to examinees who have had so many twists and turns this year⁠—both in terms of life circumstances and in terms of ability to engage in focused study like in years past."

The bar admissions office said Monday that it will be working with a psychometrician⁠—an expert in validity and fairness of an testing program⁠—to "sustain high exam reliability while maintaining a standard that is reflective of past exams."

Curcio said consulting the expert is useful, but "it will be extremely difficult to accurately scale and equate this exam to past exams."

Curcio praised the open book Georgia essay questions: "Lawyering is an open book profession, and making these questions open book recognizes that."

She encouraged bar exam authorities to state which topic areas⁠—torts, contracts, evidence or  trusts and estates, for examples⁠—that will be covered. "Letting examinees focus on key topic areas would relieve some level of stress and would still test what we really want to know: can examinees structure a legal argument using the correct rules of law and appropriate factual analyses."

"Identifying key topic areas also would allow graduates to know what materials to bring to the exam while still requiring them to issue spot and engage in legal analysis," Curcio added.