Prometric Testing Experience

dratnol

Well, I went to my neighborhood Prometric test center (70+ miles away) to take the 70-292 test this past Saturday. I made it about half way through the test and the computer crashed. It took them an hour and a half to get the machine back up. I was speaking to the lady there and she said that they normally have trouble with the Microsoft tests. Is this the norm for Prometric? I was slightly frustrated and then missed the test by a few points.

I sure wish MS would let Vue do the testing.

dax_kun

When I took my 70-290 exam the exam crashed too. It took around 10-15 to put it back. And the lady told me also that they really have a trouble with the microsoft exams. I've read also other people experience with prometric and same thing happens. I dont know which have problem, prometric or MS.

dynamik

dax_kun wrote:

I dont know which have problem, prometric or MS.

I can't recall very many complaints about VUE

girt81

Microsoft going Prometric only is really annoying for me. Closest Vue center is about 8 miles, while the closest Prometric is about 108

Thiassi

My Prometric centre isn't the worst but if you're unlucky and get one of the bad machines, you can be waiting for about a minute, ever 4th or 5th question, for it to load.

BigTone

The worst part of my experience today was the slow lady and the annoying guy that was taking the A+ exam (Sorry Joe if you read this forum)

I was due to test at 9:15 and I don't thinK I got into the room until like 9:35, plus this guy was cracking jokes at the admin the whole time and slowing everything down.

brad-

My personal experience wasnt as bad...i do hate how it has to load every question though. I have not heard good experiences otherwise. My VUE testing was nice though, though the new CompTIA questions are rediculous.

BigTone

brad- wrote:

My personal experience wasnt as bad...i do hate how it has to load every question though. I have not heard good experiences otherwise. My VUE testing was nice though, though the new CompTIA questions are rediculous.

Not as try as the old exam?

Claymoore

I am fortunate enough to have 2 prometric centers easily available to me - one 5 minutes from my house and one 5 minutes from work. The one close to my house has crappy old machines (with CRTs - how quaint!) that lag but have fortunately never rebooted in the middle of a test. The center by work has new machines (with LCDs) that run great. I like the convenience of the center close to my house enough that I put up with the old machines rather than deal with traffic to test on better PCs. But the first time one reboots in the middle of an exam will be the last time I test there.

Tyrant1919

Actually, my first Server+ attempt at my local VUE center envolved a small issue. The machines didn't have any connectivity. I could tell just from the admin trying to get the program to run and me reading the error over his shoulder. He had to call in his IT guy to come look at it. HE did his thing, man he looked old. He went in back and plugged a cabble into his patch panel. I guess somebody unplugged the testing room cable for some reason :^/. Either way, that was the only issue I had with VUE. It wasn't VUE's fault I don't think, it was Heald's fault probably.

I hope Dallas or Wichita Falls has a decent Prometric site. I'm praying...

tallicaman99

I find it quite ironic that an IT testing facility doesn't have reliable PCs.

matts5074

I have to agree with wishing that Microsoft would allow VUE to do testing again. I posted briefly here about my experience with Prometric.

In short I arrived at 12:15 and didn't get to take my test until after 2:30PM! It only took me 40 minutes to finish the exam. I could have taken it 3 times! I also noticed that there was a delay between each question, I do not remember this with VUE.

EDIT: 70-292 is a tough test, don't let it get you down. You'll get it next time.

dratnol

Wow, looks like I am not the only one that has had problems with Prometric.

The other funny thing about the exam was that the computer I was used had the Microsoft Validation Error message on it. I was starting to wondering what kind of program they were running.

JDMurray

dratnol wrote:

Wow, looks like I am not the only one that has had problems with Prometric.

It seems like all of the complaints are with individual testing centers and not with Prometric itself. A testing center is an individual franchise, like the stores in a fast food restaurant chain. It's up to the corporation to check that each store is maintaining the defined standards of operational efficiency and quality. This might not be the case with Prometric, where the owners of each franchise are left to determine their own standards of efficiency and quality.

dynamik

Unfortunately, their customer service representatives haven't been knowledgeable or even friendly, at least in my experience. Their website is usually a source of aggravation as well. Things are either extremely slow or simply don't work right. One day, it refused to remember my location and I had to find which page out of 80+ had the testing center for my city and state.

The testing center I go to is brand new. Everything is nice and clean and the people are professional and friendly. However, when I took my test, I would have about a 30-60 delay between questions. I understand that the sims might take a bit more time to process, but why in the world would it take so long to process a multiple-choice question? I checked the system specs before I left and it was a higher-end P4 with a gig of ram. It honestly ran like it had 64mb of ram, and it had to swap data between ram and the hd after every question. I was expecting it to crash at any second. I never had this happen and VUE, regardless of how old the machines were.

I'm really curious as to why Prometric seems to have so many more software problems than VUE. Do they use different test engines?

JD, I know for certain that Prometric does not own all the test centers. Some of the test centers are in community/technical college computer labs and are administered by the college staff. I'm not sure what the actual agreement between them is. However, I feel that if they're putting their name out there, they're responsible for maintaining a certain level of quality. They may not be required to per their agreement, but I don't think that lets them off the hook when it comes to accusations of poor testing experiences. If I go into a Prometric site, and I'm seriously concerned about what my testing experience will be like, their services can only be described as unreliable, at best.

JDMurray

dynamik wrote:

JD, I know for certain that Prometric does not own all the test centers. Some of the test centers are in community/technical college computer labs and are administered by the college staff.

That is correct. Most (all?) Prometric testing centers are franchised business and not owned by Prometric corporate itself. The best Prometric testing center I've used is at a local community college. The worst was at a helicopter training school (aviation has a lot of certs too). I don't know how (or if) Prometric insures the quality of its testing centers. I always test with Prometric and just go to the best testing center that I can find.

lozstlouis

Someone mentioned to me that Vue in the UK have stopped testing for Microsoft exams...? I haven't taken anything for over a year but am getting back on the horse as it were.

Megadeth4168

I must just be lucky or have a good prometric testing center here. All I have ever used is prometric... The only issue I can conjure up is from almost 8 years ago. Back then I took the CCNA and there were a few questions that could not be viewed in full on the screen. Seriously, I could not answer the questions because I could not see the entire thing... The testing center said there was nothing they could do about it...

networker050184

Like JD said it really depends on the center not whether its Vue or Prometric. The testing center that I use is both Vue and Prometric (well it was now its just Vue). I have taken exams through both Vue and Prometric at the center with no difference in the quality of the exams. It all comes down to the test center I believe.

dratnol

Well, I just wanted to update this thread. I passed 70-292 today and was very happy to get that done and over with (especially since Monday was the last day to take this test). Once again my Prometric experience was horrible. I went to a different test center today since the other one was closed. They had brand new computers and a multiple T1 connection. I was 12 questions into the exam when the program crashed. The proctor called tech support and they wound up rebooting the computer and it brought my exam back (with my previous answers). I answer two more questions and bang, same thing. Overall the test program crashed 9 times. My test was scheduled to start at 10:15 and I got there early (9:50). I wasn't able to finish the exam until 1:30 (total time to finish the exam was 1 hour).

This site is also a VUE center and has been great. I don't know if Prometric is the problem or if I am hexed.

ULWiz

Congrats on the pass.

I took the Network+ at VUE not to long ago. The exam has 85 questions and the system only gave me 58 questions. The machine crashed twice and i never got to pass the test. I had to wait a week to get VUE to give me another exam since i never had the full exam.

Just wanted to share my VUE experience.

Oh yeah second time i took it, no crash

Soulreaver

unfortunately i only have one prometric testing center near me, they have the old crt monitors that give me a headache, that combined with microsoft questions are awesome.

i have had 2 tests crash on me and have had to wait over an hour each for them to call and have it restarted

i have also had them load the wrong exam even though ive registered online


btw grats on the pass

stupidboy

Taken a couple at VUE and many more at Prometric.

Recently I have noticed some lockups during the exam, 3+ minutes before the next question is displayed whilst at a Prometirc centre. Whilst very annoying, some of my colleagues have suffered with many crashes (even been reseated multiple times during the exam). The situation was so bad in most cases that the centre has offered an exam voucher to re-take.

Making the effort to take the exam is timely enough let alone having to re-take due to forces outside of your control!

The couple I have taken at VUE have been fine no such issues, but they are a really new centre and obviously do not offer MS.

sieff

same thing happened to me before. computer crashed while i was on a CCNA lab question. i failed the exam. it supposedly got reviewed and they determined i'd already reached a feeling score before the computer failure.

i think that was B.S. since then I only certify at testing centers that are at universities, not the privately owned training centers. the PC's used for testing alone are obselete.

1MeanAdmin

I have to disagree that the problems are linked to individual testing centers only. I take tests at a center which is both Prometric and VUE. 2 times when my test crashed, nobody could launch Prometric tests while VUE tests worked fine. A couple of my friends, who went to different testing centers that were either Prometric or both Prometric and VUE, experienced the same problem.
I know, this doesn't mean that only Prometric is to blame, but why do the same testing centers are able to run VUE tests very well and not Prometric? Prometric must identify the source of the problem and issue new instructions to the testing centers.