Network Latency at Testing Center

HawkWinter

Just curious if anyone experienced extreme latency during their CISM test. The network was so slow at my testing center that I literally had to wait 30 seconds before the next question would appear on the screen. I would get a spinning object and a network error below it between every single question for 3.5 hours. I asked the test proctor if that was normal but she said no one had ever been to that location for the CISM so she didn't know if it was normal. She said as long as the exam keeps going that she really couldn't do anything. I thought that was a BS answer but I kept plugging along. In the end I passed but I do think it hurt my score because I was frustrated and that 30 seconds between questions felt like an eternity. I could not focus on the exam. What is the normal cadence for the exam? Should questions pop up quickly like the QAE database? I was scoring 95% and above on the QAE and went through 4 full-length practice exams before my actual exam. My final score from ISACA did not come close to that but I passed and have no desire to sit through the CISM again. Thanks for the vent and looking forward to how long everyone else had to wait between questions.

JDMurray

It would be interesting to know if the exam content is downloaded on-demand from over the Internet as the exam proceeds or is cached locally on a server at the testing center. If no one else testing was experiencing lag problems on their exam then I'll bet it's pulled in from ISACA's own Internet servers, and that was the cause of the lag.

jumblerr

HawkWinter wrote: »

Just curious if anyone experienced extreme latency during their CISM test. The network was so slow at my testing center that I literally had to wait 30 seconds before the next question would appear on the screen. I would get a spinning object and a network error below it between every single question for 3.5 hours. I asked the test proctor if that was normal but she said no one had ever been to that location for the CISM so she didn't know if it was normal. She said as long as the exam keeps going that she really couldn't do anything. I thought that was a BS answer but I kept plugging along. In the end I passed but I do think it hurt my score because I was frustrated and that 30 seconds between questions felt like an eternity. I could not focus on the exam. What is the normal cadence for the exam? Should questions pop up quickly like the QAE database? I was scoring 95% and above on the QAE and went through 4 full-length practice exams before my actual exam. My final score from ISACA did not come close to that but I passed and have no desire to sit through the CISM again. Thanks for the vent and looking forward to how long everyone else had to wait between questions.

I had latency + a complete lockup during my CRISC exam two weeks ago. They had to call tech support to remote in and restart the exam program. I think ISACA needs to do some more regression testing on their exam engine

Span

I had the same experience with my CISA. Error while loading every single question with the spinning circle but it only lasted +-5sec each time. Proctor had no idea as to why and had no exp to fall back one since he couldn't recall ever having to run an ISACA exam before.
But yea I would be slightly annoyed as well with 30sec wait times!

Xexyz

Had the same issue with my test. The first two attempts the latency was so bad the test was simply untakable - talking a good minute or more between questions. I think in my case the testing center was having their own internet issues in addition to ISACA's issues. I ended up waiting an hour for the testing center to fix things on their end before getting back to my test.