I was hoping to write a post this afternoon about passing the AWS SysOps Associate exam. Because of the current pandemic, all in person testing centers are closed. AWS is offering tests through Pearson Vue. Here is my experience.
The Day Before the Test
On Friday (yesterday) I completed the system pre-test. This takes care of two things: one, that your computer meets the necessary requirements and two, you actually take pictures of your ID, and the room you are planning to take the test in. You also get one dummy question to test the examination software. I had no issues with this, so far, so good.
Test Day
My test was scheduled for 10:15 this morning. Pearson recommends that you login in 30 minutes before your scheduled test time, so I logged in at 9:45 AM. I was asked to run the system check again, and take pictures of my ID and the room I was taking the exam in. I finished that at 9:52, and was presented with a screen that said “You are almost done with the check in process” and “Most candidates will have their exam launched by a proctor within 10 minutes.” (their bolding, not mine).
So I waited. Fifteen minutes later a chat window popped up. The person on the other side asked for a few more pictures (up close of my desk, a corner of the room that wasn’t really that visible in the earlier pictures, etc.). This Q and A finished right around 10:15. The last comment in the chat was from me. asking “is this good enough?” with reference to the pictures. About five minutes later the chat window closed, and I thought “here we go.” This was at 10:20 or so.
Nothing happened immediately, so I though that maybe the 10 minutes was from my last chat. So 10:30 came and went. Then 10:45. Then 11.
This went on until noon, when I finally gave up.
I do not know what my current status is, or if I failed, or will get a refund. But to stare at the same screen for two hours with no updates or sense of what was going on was a bad experience.
I will update this post later when I know what my status is. For now, after studying for months, not to be able to take the test is beyond frustrating.
UPDATE
I did receive a full refund. I found that the best way to contact PearsonVUE was through their Facebook page.