Anyone got any experience with Microsoft Online Proctored Exam

G.O.A.T

[FONT=Source Sans Pro, sans-serif]I did the ITIL foundation via online proctored exam and found the whole experience nerve racking tbh, you needed to hold your laptop and spin in a full 360 degree circle to show no one was in there with you, the lighting had to be a certain way etc etc and it was just a bunch of fuss. Wondering if MS also make this much fuss about it? from the little information I've gathered from the few lines of pdf document they supplied, it mentions none of this but I have seen some info where someone is watching you in real-time, wondering if you can see them too? Only reason I'm going down this route after swearing blind to never do this again, is due to convenience of not having to beg for a day off from work, and can do it on a weekend. Would appreciate hearing your experiences with this method of taking an exam, specifically a MS exam. [/FONT]

UncleB

G.O.A.T wrote: »

Only reason I'm going down this route after swearing blind to never do this again, is due to convenience of not having to beg for a day off from work, and can do it on a weekend.

With all the fuss in a exam-center session, it is hard to say the home version is more fuss. At the exam center you need to:
1 - turn up on time or lose your money.
2 - go through signing in on multiple systems (paper, electronic signature) and have your photo taken.
3 - empty all your stuff into a locker, pockets, watches, jewellery, wallets etc
4 - demonstrate your pockets are empty and you have nothing up your sleeves / trouser legs.
5 - get the talk on what to expect from the guy that has done this 2,000 times before and would rather be doing anything else
6 - sit in a room full of sweaty, nervous people, clicking loudly away, coughing and sneezing and spreading all their germs over the keyboard & mouse you need to use (never mind the slightly damp seat you sometimes get from the really nervous person who was there before you - ugh!

Set the room up in advance at home and it is a piece of cake - if your room is a pigsty then borrow one from someone else for the duration. Lifting your laptop, turning around with it a few times and tilting it are not that taxing.

I've sat 7 exams this way in the last 18 months and they are all much the same - you don't get to see the proctor and sometimes there is not even a person there - they use automated instructions sometimes and you just do the same as last time.

It is so much nicer and easier than going to an exam center for me that I doubt I'd go back. It also saves taking time off work but that is a two edged sword LOL

doubleo

Did a few online proctored MCP exams. It's almost always the same.
You gotta show them 360 of your room, ceiling and floor included of course. Make sure your desk and surroundings are pristine prior to starting the appointment, otherwise it's just gonna take longer while they ask you to remove every single thing. They scanned my hands once, also they want you to take a photo of your ID and if your cam isn't good enough they allow you to take a picture of it with your phone and send it via special link.
Whole process can take up to 15 mins which is nothing compared to the whole process at an exam-center.

System_32

I don't think that is a "Microsoft" thing, I think that's Pearson Vue's method of online proctoring. ProctorU also does some of the same practices for online proctoring for CompTIA. Personally I think it keeps the testing process authentic and saves test takers a lot of time.

Pseudonym

I was actually considering doing this, but my home internet connection is prone to outages. Does anyone know what Microsoft's policy is regarding this?

Also, I tend to take a lot of fluids on board, I'm guessing there is no way to take a toilet break?

UncleB

Pseudonym wrote: »

I was actually considering doing this, but my home internet connection is prone to outages. Does anyone know what Microsoft's policy is regarding this?

Also, I tend to take a lot of fluids on board, I'm guessing there is no way to take a toilet break?

I think you effectively fail the exam if your connection goes down as they cannot see what you are doing during the outage - it makes sense when you think on it from their side. Your answer is to use someone elses connection (a friend or familys house, your office after hours etc) for the exam.

As for the fluids - go to the bathroom straight before starting and keep off the drinks before you start - the exams only last about 2 hours so can't you survive that long without a drink?

I often keep some small mints (Tic Tac brand here - small round ones) to eat during the exam - I make sure they get a closeup of them before I start and point out that they stop me getting coughing fits in the exam. So far no complaints. On the practical side suck them slowly so they get a slow release of saliva and that keeps your mouth moist and your stomach from thinking it is dry. It works over a short time frame like the exam.

DatabaseHead

This is great, thanks for this post. Informative.