It was a shocking moment that stirred public anger and ethical discussions. On July 30th, a woman taking the New York State Bar Exam at Hofstra University collapsed from cardiac arrest. Yet, according to witnesses, the proctors reportedly didn’t halt the exam. Instead, the test went on around her, leaving other examinees stunned.
This raises questions about the priorities surrounding one of the country’s toughest professional tests.
The incident happened just before the lunch break in a crowded exam room at Hofstra’s Long Island campus, where the New York State Board of Law Examiners (NYSBOLE) held the bar exam.
A university spokesperson said the woman, who wasn’t a Hofstra grad, “collapsed shortly before the scheduled lunch break and fell from their chair.” Hofstra’s public safety team stepped in, administered CPR, and used a defibrillator until paramedics arrived.
But the exam itself was never officially paused!
“The exam never stopped. Everyone just … kept going. Or at least tried to,” an anonymous Reddit user who said they were there wrote in a widely shared post.
People who saw what happened said the woman looked extremely upset and was lying on the floor making “gurgling sounds.”
However, multiple sources, including Newsday and another Reddit post, reported that no announcement had been made and everyone was expected to keep taking the test as if nothing was wrong.
Hofstra University has stressed that it followed emergency protocols. However, critics argue that this situation highlights bigger problems with running the bar exam. The test, which decides if someone can become a lawyer, is known for being challenging, demanding, and inflexible. Yet, many ask whether that toughness should come before showing basic human kindness.
A woman taking the bar exam at Hofstra University went into cardiac arrest, but proctors overseeing the test refused to halt the exam, even as school safety officials began performing CPR and reviving the victim with a defibrillator, several witnesses said.
For more on this… pic.twitter.com/vo3iWWqP6r
— Newsday (@Newsday) August 1, 2025
The dean of Fordham Law School, Joseph Landau, under whom the woman had graduated, shared a statement confirming that the school had reached out to her family. “We were saddened to learn of what happened,” he mentioned.
“Our thoughts are with the graduate and the family.”
However, this hasn’t stopped the anger from lawyers and students. One person taking the test told Newsday: “That’s a real person who could be dying right in front of us, and we’re still being expected to continue to finish our questions for this exam.”
Another person talked about the emotional impact: “From a purely human standpoint, that’s another human being in distress, and that’s not something that you could just flip to the back of your mind immediately.”
So far, neither the New York State Board of Law Examiners nor the National Conference of Bar Examiners has publicly stated what happened. This lack of response has only made people push harder for changes, with some calling for emergency pause procedures and ways to hold people responsible.
Law grad goes into cardiac arrest during NY bar exam — and test goes on uninterupted: reports https://t.co/CkIpkJFgM1 pic.twitter.com/FMzUzGb4fu
— New York Post (@nypost) August 2, 2025
This event has also raised conversations about the emotional and mental strain of the bar exam, which has long been criticized for pushing test-takers to their absolute limits. But until the NYSBOLE takes action, at what point do procedural rules become more important than a person’s well-being?
The woman was taken by ambulance to Nassau University Medical Center, and there’s no public information yet about how she is doing. The university and Fordham Law have asked that the woman and her family be given privacy.
In a field centered on justice, where was the compassion in that situation?
