Frustrating exam experience

MrBrian

So last night (11/15) I had my Tshoot exam. Felt good about it and was ready to walk out a CCNP!

With about 45 mins left I had to go to the restroom so bad I decided I couldn't wait it out. Went, the admin locked the computer, and when I came back, the administrator unlocked it again for me. I sat down and now every time I hit the letter "c" on the keyboard it would take the cursor down to a new line. I wasn't able to do ipconfig on any hosts now because I'd type "ip" and then "c," which just dropped the prompt to a fresh, clear prompt. Also couldn't do config t, not that I needed to necessarily, but still.

Tried it on different PC's, routers, on different trouble tickets within the sim, but the letter c wouldn't work. Tried doing a capital C, nope. Tried randomly hitting some of the "lock" keys but nothing. I raised my hand and showed the administrator, and he was dumbfounded as well. I asked if I could pull the keyboard out and reconnect it, but he said we couldn't mess with the equipment.. darn!

Anyways, he filled out an incident report and I am to call Pearson tomorrow with my report number and see what's up. As long as I don't have to purchase the exam again I'll be fine with it, as this was completely out of my control. Was always smooth sailing testing until today.. strange stuff. Moderators if this thread belongs elsewhere feel free to move.

mattau

that sucks big time, but im sure they will let you resit it again for free. You cant control computer glitches

sratakhin

Do they really allow people to go to the bathroom during exams? I was told I had to wait

pitviper

Yeah, they'll typically end the exam if you need to leave the room.

prtech

My understanding is that they'll let you go to the bathroom but the clock keeps running on the exam.

Just take it again asap and get that NP.

bermovick

That's what I've always been told too. I always make sure I go before we start.

You should have gone before we left the house!

f0rgiv3n

That sucks man Nothing worse than having the rug pulled out from under ya. Especially something like that!

MrBrian

Yea the bathroom thing was fine, I just went really quick and came back. I'm just saying that the keyboard worked fine before that, and then after I came back was when it was glitching out. The only thing that happened was that the administrator typed something to lock it when I left, and then put his username/password in to unlock it when I came back. But yea, the letter c would absolutely not work..

Anyways, called Pearson's number today and gave them my incident report number. The guy said that the administrator put a ton of information in the report describing the incident, and that it sounded to be in my favor, but he couldn't guarantee anything. He said it will now get sent to Cisco and they should contact me by Mon or Tue. So hopefully worse case scenario is that I just have to wait a few days to retake it.. big hassle though

MrBrian

sratakhin wrote: »

Do they really allow people to go to the bathroom during exams? I was told I had to wait

Maybe some testing centers are different? I've always been allowed to go (did it during ROUTE too). You just raise your hand, they'll see you, come in and escort you out. I can go and come back within 3 mins since the restroom is close.

wave

Sorry to hear this! I'm sure they will give you a free re sit, and you should demand one. I've always been told I could use the bathrooms during the exam but the clock would keep ticking. Hold on no matter what!!

f0rgiv3n

Any word my friend?

nosoup4u

Which testing center in Seattle or over in Bellevue? Just curious

MrBrian

I called back yesterday and the lady said there were some notes added to the incident report. She said so-and-so noted that they were going to contact the testing center to talk to the person who filled out the report, so as to gather more information. She also said that are supposed to contact me by the 22nd, but being that that is Thanksgiving, they will contact me hopefully Wed (today) or Fri.

They haven't called today, so I can only hope they do Friday. Isn't Friday somewhat of a holiday? Anyways, yea just want to retake the dang thing already. I mean I couldn't type the letter "c." Before I went to the restroom I could, after I couldn't. I.e. no more ipconfig. I guess I could've just continued on with the exam and pinged the PC from the nearest switch to see if it got its IP, but that's not the way it's supposed to be. Every time I typed c it would just drop to a fresh blank cursor..

nosoup4u wrote: »

Which testing center in Seattle or over in Bellevue? Just curious

This is the Northgate Pearson Vue. I've never had any problems with the place before, in fact, I really like the place. I've done all my exams there. I might go to the one at Bellevue College next time. They have a lot more openings on the schedule from what I can tell..

log32

just a shot in the dark (not that it matters now):
if he locked the computer with Winkey + L
then the lock key must have got stuck.
it happens to me a lot (new keyboard)
but if you pressed d then it would've minimizes all windows and perhaps could hint you on what the problem is at the time

cisco_trooper

I took an exam on 11/20 and one of the simulations flat out didn't work...Very frustrating but I still passed the exam. No harm no foul I guess.

daba

Any word yet?

scubagator

I had the same thing happen to me when taking my CCNA exam. I could not enter the letter C in the SIM. It was just return a new prompt.

I called the protor over and he changed out the keyboard and it still would not work. He then left out of the testing area to contact Pearson as I kept fumbling with keyboard. He came back in and Pearson told him that they could stop the exam and restart it but there would be a different group of questions and still could get another SIM with the same issue. I was getting ready to stop and tried the cap lock button one more time and it began working with capitals. I lost about 15 minutes total.

The protocor registered an incident but I never followed up since I passed the exam.

MrBrian

They didn't contact me Friday and since they're not there on the weekend I had to wait until Monday, so I'll be calling tomorrow. I'm very annoyed at this point since I took the exam on the 15th and still haven't heard back.

martell1000

that really sucks - i assume you would have nailed the tshoot exam otherwise since it seems to be a piece of cake (after route and switch).

i think they told you bullshit about "not messing with the equipment" or my testing center is breaking the rules big time. i had 2 keyboard changes and one complete (!) change of computer caused by an exame engine crash in my cisco exam history...

technical problems with the keyboards are a normal thing i guess, on my ccent exam the "?" key didnt work at all and they offered me a voucher before the exam in case i should have failed.

phoeneous

The only time I use **** is before an exam

[/rimshot]

MrBrian

Just got off the phone with them.. they said the incident report should be resolved by the end of the week. End of the week, seriously? It's been 11 days already and it's getting kind of ridiculous at this point.

MrBrian

Called back again. Told them it's been nearly two weeks since this happened and wanted to know if I could escalate this somehow. They talked to their supervisor and said the priority level has been raised from low to medium. She also said that while she was talking to her supervisor there were some notes added to the incident report by the people working on it, and that it looks like there's progress being made. She said they'll hopefully be contacting me either later today or tomorrow.

I guess that's good news (assuming everything she said is true). I chuckled a bit when she said it went from low to medium. Maybe one more call and I can get it bumped to high?

pitviper

Wow, what a headache! Sounds like the same guys running Pearson VUE as our local DMV

goldenlight

mattau wrote: »

that sucks big time, but im sure they will let you resit it again for free. You cant control computer glitches

it was probably a really long exam.

MrBrian

Called again today and they said the incident report has been moved to higher ups, haha. I dunno, I think we need some scientists and federal agents to handle my case instead.. it's just so complex in nature.

I asked a question though: can I re-purchase and schedule my exam now, and then if it gets resolved in my favor later, could I be reimbursed? They put me on hold for awhile, and came back and said yes! I wish I would've asked that earlier, or that they could tell me it was an option! So yea my exam is this Thursday now, and then I'll just wait to hear back about my incident, done.

MrBrian

Ok, it's all over now. Funny timing though, ha. Right after I scheduled the exam earlier today I got an email from Pearson with an exam voucher. So I just called and they were able to refund the 200$ I just spent and apply the voucher. Free retake. Little bit of a hassle these past couple weeks, but all is good now.

Now if I don't pass on Thursday, joke will be on me lol

mattau

lol yeah, pressures on :P

wave

Good luck for Thursday!!

networker050184

Make sure you go to the bathroom before the exam this time! Good luck!

Shanman

Good luck!!

MrBrian

Thanks for the good luck's guys.

networker050184 wrote: »

Make sure you go to the bathroom before the exam this time! Good luck!

Funny thing is I did last time! But I guess by drinking tons of water and coffee beforehand was a bad idea, ha. It just built up so strongly in such a short time.. light on the liquids tomorrow that's for sure!