Self-study
Has anyone else been unable to complete the Argumentative Writing portion?
I tried to connect for 2+ hours today. I have a MacBook Air which meets all the required specs, downloaded the newest OS, updated Chrome as advised, and downloaded the Guardian extension. But when I clicked the test link, it took me to a page to download the Guardian extension again as if it wasn't already there. No matter what I did, I never got past this page.
Numerous calls to tech support were useless, I was advised to do the same few things over and over before they ultimately opened a new tab to connect me to a proctor and rapidly disconnected the chat. Restart computer. Remove and add Guardian extension. Uninstall and reinstall Chrome. Lather, rinse, repeat. The prevailing advice from LSAC, because this is a novel issue, was to "try another computer." Not really a feasible option for me, so I tried going the Apple support route with no success. Then LSAC advised me on the last call this is a "known issue" and to try again in a few days.
At this point I'm beyond frustrated and at a loss. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how did you fix it?
2
1 comments
If they claim it's a "known issue" then that implies that SOMETHING is broken on their end. Whether that breakdown affects EVERYONE or just you (or a small subset of people that you happened to end up in because of who knows what software/hardware/network stuff) is unknown. I think I'd keep troubleshooting; if it's not affecting everyone then maybe you can find a configuration that would work for to get you connected too.
Some stuff I'd investigate:
I'd look into what your network is like between the Macbook and the internet. If the on-the-computer stuff isn't helping, the problem may lie in the network itself. Try connecting from another network (if you've been doing it at home then try instead to connect at work, or the library, or at school, or a friend's house, or all of them!) That will give you some data to work with (if it doesn't work anywhere, it's either on their side or it's your computer. If it works on one of them, it's NOT their side and it's not your computer. Make sure to chart it out with lawgic and consider contrapositives, since this is the LSAT). Any network level firewalls, proxies, or DNS settings may be contributing to the issue. Depending on what network you're on, fixing some of those may not be in your control and you'd have to find someplace else to connect from.
If swapping networks a time or do doesn't show any change in the behavior, then the issue presumably lies in the computer (or their "known issue" is really big). This means the same sorts of test: try a friend's computer and see if you get a different result. If your trials indicate that it appears to definitely be your computer, consider creating a new login on the MacBook (so that no weird preference or past Chrome installation junk might be a problem) or even go nuclear by completely resetting the Macbook to like-new condition.
Good luck. I'm actually considering buying a clean mac mini for the test, just because I'm enough of a nerd that I'm pretty sure all the security stuff I've played around with on my computer/network will DEFINITELY put me in the same spot you're at. At least your computer is portable, so you can easily experiment. If you can find a friend's computer to try on, that would be a huge diagnostic as well.