PEARSON VUE

[pmbrown]

sorry to do this here but the pearsonvue website doesnt seem to offer contact info (if i click on 'contact us' or customer service no contact email is given)

i tried to sit the exam today, it is really poorly done i have to say, it's very disappointing, and i have to ask for my money back (who to contact about this?)

-in the beginning they were having trouble contacting me thru chat, so they threw me to the back of the queue where i waited ....

-we then spent about 10mins and several phone calls before she was satisfied that my desk was clear, very odd, a single image should suffice

-as a result of this i was late starting the exam (even though i'd logged on 30mins early, wih passport, phone, google chrome verification .... etc)

-the working environment was laggy eg the cursor moving across the screen, also: sas and the instructions didnt fit on the screen, i couldnt read the info in the left panel without scrolling back and forth or constantly resizing (ie the text doesnt wrap)

-when trying to read the instructions the pearsonvue people were pestering me, sending me chats, i asked them to stop so they phoned me instead, again i pleaded with them to give me one minute to read the instructions

-then they decided to reboot the system abruptly, i pleaded with them not to over the phone, they did anyway, once it restarted they were pestering me in the chat again

- i could not respond because the chat didnt work or at least it was very slow reacting to my typing (even after their reboot), and when they tried to phone me we couldnt hear each other, my own voice echoed over theirs

-i asked them to please leave me alone and let me try the exam, they didnt, they sent technical support to start sending me chats, and then i just shut down my computer to get away from the nonsense of it all, although they then started phoning me again, i had to turn my phone off

the whole thing was a shambles. Even the things that seem unimportant, eg youre not allowed to drink during the exam: i dont have the exam answers inscribed in the bottom of my coffee cup, it's ridiculous. None of this simulates the real world, i would never work in anything like the conitions they created. Insisting i show my desk is free of materials over and over and you can't drink etc are to give the impression of rigour and seriousness to distract from the fact that the system is very clunky

I know you can sit the exam in person in USA, do they offer this in Europe? That is my only realistic possibility of pursuing accreditation because i won't have anything to do with pearsonvue.

[Mark2010]

Sorry that you ran into the issues.

1) to find the Pearson email for your region, start at https://home.pearsonvue.com/sas/contact, open the EMEA region, scroll down past the country specific phone numbers and click on ' Email Form/Ask Us a Question'.

You can also reach SAS certification at certification@sas.com and we can look into the quality of the network connection between your computer and the lab.

There are strict requirements to ensure the integrity of the exam. While you may not write a cheat sheet on your mug, someone else might. At the same time, the proctors should not uneccessarily interrupt your experience. Given the combination of problems you describe, I suspect the network connection was not great.

There are Pearson test centers open in Europe to test in person.. Testing at SAS offices is limited at this time but may be a possibility. If you have a SAS office in your country, you could ask them when local testing will again be available.

[pmbrown]

excellent, there is a SAS office in my city, i will email them

i appreciate the need to secure the value of the accreditation by the strictness of the exam conditions, but then i it seems the in-person option is needed, it obviates all of the 'problems' demanded by the online solution. Eg they say if there's a whiteboard in the room you should wipe it clean. There is no way i'm clearing someone's whiteboard, their scribbles enhance my chances of passing the exam by zero. That strictnees feels fake to me (bearing in mind the actual sas documentation is made available in the exam)