What can be done about computer glitches during an exam?
I took PD&D last Friday at a prometric test center, my third exam at this same location, and the computer I used this time had several issues/ glitches that cost me time and a lot of frustration.
1. When I used the wheel to scroll dow it would only go down bit and bounce back to the top of the page. It did this anytime I tried to scroll on the questions, reference materials, etc. I had to actually grab the slide bar to go up and down.
2. Zoom +/-, when I click either zoom + or zoom - it would jump to the max of either and I would have to keep zooming in or out to get back to where I wanted to be.
3. Calculator - the cursor jumped when I tried to click certain numbers and it caused me to miss a few times and select the wrong #.
4. Loading reference drawings and documents took 5-10 seconds to load almost every time. Documents with multiple sheets would delay to load from sheet to sheet. I literally counted 10 seconds on multiple occasions while sheets loaded.
Altogether these issues coat me a lot of time, I finished with only 3 mins left this time and no time for reviewing flagged questions.
What are the best steps to take to address these kinds of issues when they arise? I don't know if it is the software or the hardware or what?
Do we stop and notify the staff of the test center and request a different computer?
I have to retake this exam and I feel it is in large part due to these issues.
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I'm so sorry to hear you were experiencing these issues. Unfortunately, you experienced what many of us have gone through. So while it's sort of nice to know that you're not alone in this.... the reality is there isn't much of anything we can do as consumers to right this wrong.
The first time I took PDD the program would not load the PDFs for the questions. I requested help after the 2nd question because I knew there would be no way I could finish in time while waiting for the screen to load. After much struggle with the personnel at the testing center and many phone calls later, NCARB eventually let me forfeit the exam because I raised my concern so early into the exam. I would suggest that if this happens again - raise your hand as soon as you sense a problem. At least you might be able to retake without a fail.
That being said, there is no guarantee you would have the same outcome as mine. Plus, everything might be going along just fine and dandy until the very end... which is what happened to me the last time I attempted PDD. I lost about 5 or so minutes off the clock and I was waiting around for the testing center tech person to resolve the issue for about 15 minutes. Surprise surprise, I failed.
I still haven't passed PDD (my next attempt is next month luckily before the online proctoring changes) and every time I've taken it since (3 times) there has been software issues. It's completely absurd and we really do seem to be at the mercy of NCARB.
There seems to be a complete disconnect between the folks who work at the testing centers and folks at NCARB. They love pointing the finger at each other. There's no way to know prove this, but my very strong suspicion is that it's a software issue and not hardware. Many other test takers will agree with me on this.
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all three - or four, i can’t even remember at this point - of my exams have been like this.
crashes. black drawing loads. very very very long drawing load lag times. 30 minute long crashes while sitting in the waiting area to restart. i has a corrupted drawing load at one point and i stared at it got like a minute trying to figure out what it was only to conclude it was corrupted raster graphics.
the only thing i learned during this process is to not bother holding your hand in the air to show prometric the issues, don’t bother trying to make sure prometric documents this and definitely don’t waste time contacting anyone to get them to address it properly.
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Jonathan - That sounds like such a nightmare. I'm curious... why do you say the only thing you learned was not to have Prometric help resolve issues? Is it because you think it's better to just contact NCARB directly? In my experience, Prometric staff seem to be the least able to help sort out the issues/errors so I do agree with you on that. I am curious to know if you had any luck dealing with NCARB on this.
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hi sarah.
my recommendation to testers would be to expect this kind of thing and not be surprised or frustrated by it.
don’t spend any energy or time trying to document this at the testing center.
don’t spend any time or energy on trying to follow up on the phone after the exam.
if you get a test like this just write down any questions you found confusing or graphics you did not understand so you can study what you are supposed to understand or why the wiser ion was consuming or whatever and chalk it up to the cost of doing business. -
5 years later and the same issues are still happening. Took PPD last week and screen went black when trying to view the floor plans in a case study. Very frustrating during an already tough exam. I get that it is part of the process to incur issues like these, but the reality of working in an office or running your own business is not like that. Hopefully the new exams in late April are better.
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