TOPIC: Those who used Home Testing Option- Please share your experiences

Hi,
Those who took the exam at home, please share your experience. What did you have to do before the exam to make sure your computer/set up was compatible and ready. Were you able to use scratch paper for brain dump? I assume you couldn't step out for bathroom or any breaks.

And what was it like to take the exam?
Thank you in advance,
A

hi, read my post here ( www.project-management-prepcast.com/kune...i-acp-exam-from-home )

i highly recommend, whenever is possible to DO NOT TAKE THE EXAM FROM HOME. is very confortable but the headache you likely face if your computer has a software that makes the exam stop working is high!

if possible take is on a physical exam center.
This exam program from PEARSON VUE is very tricky and can detect any "normal" process on you pc (i.e. VIRUS alert or other apps you have installed that can pop up a message).

I have to escalate the issue with PMI and after almost a week they replied positively but i have to delay my exam for 1 more week!! imagine waiting all of that time, i was stressed.

think pretty well about it, if something goes wrong prepare to fight!

regards,
Ricardo

I took the Exam from home yesterday. I found the process pretty straightforward but you definitely have to do the pre-test with your computer beforehand and make sure that your work station fits the guidelines properly. The camera is always recording you and if your face leaves the camera screen even for a second , a chat window opens and someone starts talking to you. At one point I had my hand on my chin and somebody asked me not to touch my face as it blocked their view of my face. When I completed the test I immediately got a screen that said congratulations you have passed and then I was asked if I wanted to take a survey afterwards. My score was not presented to me on screen but I was able to log into the proctor website and get the results. One thing I found stressful was during the check in when I was asked to provide a phone number and then I had to wait about eight minutes before someone contacted me.It would’ve been nice if there was some sort of confirmation on the screen to say that somebody will be joining you shortly or something like that. Overall I was happy with the experience but I would probably recommend going to the proctored centre if you can opposed to doing it from home as there were extra stressors related to doing it at home than at the centre.

Hi,

I took the exam at home and I do not recommend it. The provider PEARSON VUE has bugs on their software.

When I finished the exam I pressed the navigating option/bar and then it disappeared and could not get back. I was not able to go back to answer the questions I highlighted.

This was a terrible experience.

Mr B.

I would also like to hear about Home Testing. My early April exam cannot be rescheduled to mid-July. I got busy with COVID-related work and stress, and I stopped studying for 5 weeks, but I REALLY do not want this hanging over my head half the summer. Since I live in WA-state, it's highly possible the PearsonVUE centers won't be open or ready by mid-July. I want to just set a date in two weeks and be done with this.

But so far, these posts are scaring me. Rude, unresponsive proctors, a camera feed that stopped working, an app that has bugs? Which is worse? Facing that or having to pause my studying and possibly take it mid-summer (and possibly have it delayed again)?

I took a practice exam yesterday from home and learned that I cannot take my final exam from home. We don't have fiber, and our SkyFi (wireless) internet just couldn't hack it. The response times started to slow after about 2 hours, and by 3 hours into my practice exam, it was taking over 15 seconds for the system to respond to each click - first for the letter select (A, B, C, D) and then for the Next button. It was terrible. Then it just stopped responding completely, I restarted my router to no avail, and I had to end my test 20 minutes early with 30 questions not answered. At least it was a practice! I highly recommend taking this PM Prepcast 4-hour test where you are going to take your "at home" test to make sure your system is stable for four hours.

I am also concerned about using their whiteboard instead of scratch paper. I guess I'll have to start practicing doing my data dump on the whiteboard app. Can we use a laptop with a touch-screen and a stylus to write on the whiteboard?

Did anyone take their "at home" exam from work? My office has great internet and a good desk/chair, and it's quiet on the weekend if I scheduled on a Saturday. But I'm worried about the firewall, etc.

Thanks in advance for responses.

I used this option and it is nerve wracking at first, but a great option. Make sure you test everything prior and recommend a very clean desk with nothing on it. Test in good lighting and around the same time as your exam, as I had to do several retakes of my face on day if exam. The check in goes smoothly otherwise, and the proctors were very nice. I lost connection at one point and freaked out, but he immediately contacted me via chat and helped released it back.
The whiteboard is not great. I could not get the shapes to work so settled into using the alphabet for my diagrams as I was getting desperate. I used Microsoft whiteboard to practice and that was a better tool. However, it goes well and I had no issues with it. Plus, there is a level of comfort at home that does help. They monitor closely because he pinged me immediately when I lost connection and after I finished, I was busy screaming with joy when I saw the message that I passed, and he immediately connected to ask if I was ok . Overall, No complaints

Sorry forgot to mention, no scratch paper! You can visit the FAQ and they show you how to perform pre testing. And you can practice uploading pictures etc Make sure you take 90 questions, review, then initiate and end break as it winds the clock down if you don’t do it . Then you can do 110 questions after break. They don’t automatically do the break for you after 90 questions . So if you keep reviewing them, you are losing time .

Thanks for the reply. I was worried about the whiteboard - I like to write by hand so it's a change to do the data dump online. Did you try to do the process map in the OnVue whiteboard? I was testing with the Microsoft Whiteboard and they have a grid. However, the Pearson version doesn't seem to have a grid feature, so I"m not sure how I'll get my processes mapped. I guess I could do five lists? Suggestions?!

I was wondering about how to break up the test, as my PearsonVUE test center plan is now scrapped. I understand that you can't go back to previous questions after the break.
So you suggest 90 questions in two hours, then initiate a break. Is it clear how to initiate the break?
Also, can you flag questions, and highlight or strike out answers in the at home version?

I struggled with the whiteboard so used text . I could not get shapes to work, but could just be my experience . Hoping others had better luck and can share the experience. For the ninety questions, they will tell you when you are done, as it stops there, but they won’t automatically initiate the break for you. So that clock keeps going if you linger in that section. You have to start and end the break. I made the mistake of waiting and realized clock was going down so I recommend, do 90, then check within about 2 hrs, then initiate the break and take it and end it, then leave the last two hours for 110. Hope I make sense but it was a huge lesson for me. I was so nervous that I probably missed that in the tutorial so thought I would share it here for others. Now this works the same if you go to a site also, as they took away scratch paper there also and give that break

Yes, it will be clear how to initiate a break and you can strikeout. It is a bit odd, you have to kind of drag across it and click strike through and then you reverse the same way. They show that in the tutorial before and that part was clear so recommend doing the tutorial for those items

Hi All ,

I just passed the PMI-ACP test using the Home Testing Option.

I performed all pre-check tests and went through the enrolment process without any issue.
However , after I was admitted to start to take my exam, the screen froze. The chat option also froze.

So, after a short wait , I decided to ask for assistance, simply by speaking out loud : "can somebody assist me please ? "
Within 1 minute I received a call and was instructed on the actions to take.
In my case it involved force restarting my system" and connecting to the exam application again.
This worked out , and I was able to proceed without any further issue.

So , as a conclusion i would say that the technology used is not super robust , but there is decent support in case you run into trouble.
Just stay calm and ask for assistance.

Hello, everyone.
I passed the exam from home a couple of weeks ago. After reading the Pearson Vue guidance I decided that it would be best to set up a folding table with my laptop so that there wouldn’t be any ‘contraband’ near me. I think this helped a lot as it created a very blank and clear space for me. I was approved and allowed into the test almost immediately after uploading the pictures of my setup.
I did get a warning from one of the admins for talking. I found that talking to myself, reading the questions and answers aloud, was very helpful to me during the practice tests. But, about 20 minutes into the exam, I was told that talking was prohibited. The admin suggested I whisper. While I understand this rule I was frustrated and a little stressed at having to change my procedure.
I was also frustrated that I couldn’t get a feel for how I was doing. During most of the practice exams, I was able to predict my score with reasonable accuracy. But, I was completely clueless during the real exam…another stressor. At the time, I thought this meant that I wasn’t doing very well and, thus, the practice exams included in the PrepCast needed to be updated. But, in the end, I passed.
My method was to go through all of the PrepCast classes from start to finish, take thorough notes, and then start taking practice exams. I started with full practice exams, one per day. At first, my scores were in the high 60’s and low 70’s. I would only review the questions I got wrong. After a week or two of practice exams, I started getting 80’s and 90’s. Then, I started launching customized exams covering one domain at a time and only containing the questions I had previously missed. I did this for another week or so. I never read any other materials or books although I plan to at a more leisurely pace now that I have finished the exam.

i just finished the online proctored exam and there was just a screen that said congrats and that I'd get an email in 1-3 days, so I think I passed. Gee I hope so, but I won't believe it of course until I see the email. I had no connection difficulties other than thinking that the "Loading...." messages felt like they lasted a little too long. Also I was pleasantly surprised that there was a Calculator built into the exam interface. I also used a folding table and I used my computer to take photos of the space without any issues.

I do agree with most of you...to NOT take the exam at home if at all possible! For me, I tried scheduling it in the center. I originally schedule it post covid on May, knowing that situation was not getting any better and I know offices here in the Philippines are still closed, I moved my exam on June. But a month before the date of exam, the center emailed me that they will cancel my exam and I have to reschedule it. So I did, and I chose July. A month before the date, again the center emailed me that they are cancelling my exam since they are still on skeletal force and no one is in the office. So I did again, and tried Aug. So I thought I was finally able to lock in the date. Unfortunately, 8days before the date of my exam when I notified the center about it, they were surprised that they had it in their calendar. And then I was like...WHAAAT? My mind was already set, I spared some time to review already (after losing the momentum because of the changes in schedule) only to lose the motivation again. Plus the fact that I am aware of the policy of rescheduling the exam within the last 30days of it. So I had to decide...I made up my mind, I wanted to get this over with and I pushed for the Aug schedule but this time...AT HOME. Good thing that PMI's penalty in rescheduling exam is waived until Oct 1, 2020.

I only have PrepCast as my reviewer and practice test. You will see a lot out there but because I have very limited budget and time (getting more reviewers mean more time to review which I don't have) I have to really be careful about choosing which one among those hundreds of materials in the web. Before the exam (probably because I was so worried already) I had to test my connection every other day. On the day, I told people at home to NOT use the access point I am using just for this exam. When I started accepting all conditions, I started to feel nervous already. No water, No peeing, No standing...hard, right? Plus, I waited for exactly 25min just staring at the monitor and wait until the proctor started the exam (within the first 15minutes of your scheduled exam is the time when they will open your exam). Problem with me is that I used to reading the questions aloud or murmur at least which is definitely a NO-NO to them. I got I think 3 notifications to stop it because sometimes I didn't notice that I was already doing it. The 3rd notif is when I got scared because the proctor said that he had to terminate my exam if I will do it again, and I was just in #82 question.

In the center, you get to do all these! You can even stretch...It wasn't a nice experience and like what I said, I just wanted to get this over with. I passed, and I am very grateful to PrepCast for the materials. It was really helpful. I don't know about the other sources but this one is really close to the real exams. Kudos PrepCast Team! More power!

Posted by: Sherry Rodulfo

I also saw "Congratulations!" but I was not sure whether they are congratulating me for just finishing the exam or passing it. haha...
You know what I did, I looked at my profile in PMI because I was so worried. I couldn't wait to see the result and with the experience I had in this online proctored exam, I needed an answer as soon as I can.

Hello.

I did the PMI-ACP exam this week from home and fortunately passed it. After reading so many bad experiences about the proctored exam I was really worried but in my case there weren´t any problems. I recommend connecting before your scheduled exam time as there are several tasks you need to complete before the exam like taking the system test and sending several photographs. After all these tasks I went to what I think is the worst managed part of the exam. I was told to wait, in front of the webcam, without moving, without cellphone or books at hand, no talking, no drinking, no eating. For me the thing they should change is that there is no open channel of communication whatsoever so you don´t really know if there has been any problems and have no way to communicate with them in case something happen from your side. I was actually lucky (or they have improved their procedures) and I was contacted quickly (in 5 min or so) but I imagine that being like that for more than 20 minutes can be very stressful and draining (specially before an exam). The person that contacted me was very polite and after a very brief exchange I began the exam. The exam was three without stops, there were no breaks that I could see (maybe I missed the functionality). It´s a bit hard to spend three hours with no drinking, going to the bathroom or moving from the chair and maintaining the concentration over so many questions. I didn´t move from the chair but I did stretch my neck and my back in the chair a little bit. I didn´t receive any warnings during the exam. After finishing the exam there is a couple of surveys and a screen telling you that you have passed it and they will send you a mail in 1 to 3 days. I did received the confirmation mail the day after.

All in all it´s a hard experience that I think there is definetively room for improvement but it was doable. If you have no option but to do it from home like me, I would say go ahead but be prepared. I think it´s very important that you do a rehearsal before the actual exam (I used the exam simulator from here) and I do it like in the real exam, no communication with anyone and not getting up from the chair. On the day of the exam be prepared (hydrate yourself, go to the bathroom before, stretch a little bit).

I wish you all luck and with the exam