SAS Base Specialist Exam - Practice Based format - Physical Screen size

[premdaniel1]

Mark Stevens did an excellent and informative webinar on what to expect. The two videos are a must-view before taking the exam. 

My question. Pearson requires hardware with both microphone and webcam. My laptop has both and so I passed the hardware pre-check. But my screen is only 12 inches. Is it doable? i.e. completing the test within the alloted 125 minutes with the split screen for the questions on the left and the project coding on the right. Pearson does not allow me to use a bigger second screen which does not have the video-camera. 

Can anyone please share their experience completing this exam on a small laptop screen? 

[Mark2010 · Accepted solution]

I welcome other's experiences on smaller screens. I have proctored hundreds of these exams and can offer this:

It is more about resolution and how good your eyes are than it is about overall screen size. I've seen college students with small laptops but hi rez do fine. Me with my older eyes might struggle.

If you have at least 1000px of vertical space, you will be OK. If you only have 720px, that is tight.

You could do this on a larger monitor if you had an external web cam that you could use rather than your laptop camera.

And thanks for the props on the webinar.

[shelby62b]

Took the test at a testing center. Wanted to scream when I saw the old small screen monitor I would be using. Having said that, it didn’t materially impact my test experience. Concur that resolution is more important.

[premdaniel1]

Thank you. I am planning to take an online proctored performance based exam for the first time tomorrow. Will let everyone know my experience, so they can decide to take the exam from a test center or from the comforts of home on a Saturday morning.

[premdaniel1]

Thanks Mark for your accurate reply on the number of pixels. I have a small laptop screen like 11 or 12 inches, but the resolution says 1024X 768. So I should be OK. 

[Mark2010]

Actually @premdaniel1 , 1024x768 is rather tight. The vertical number is the 768 value. It will be possible to take the exam on those settings, but I would consider that a small screen.

[premdaniel1]

Thanks. I take that back. From my Windows Desktop, right clicking on Screen Resolution, it says Resolution: 1920X1080(recommended) and that is the highest setting. The letters appear small but pretty clear and sharp. I just need to inch closer to the screen. Cheers!