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Hi, I missed the standard deadline for booking exams. I’ve got a few days left to book an exam for the June session. The cheapest option left for me is the Remote Exam. I have not sat for a remote session.
I’ve heard bad things about it. I’ve read many posts on how troublesome it is to set up, how strict the rules are, and how, if things aren’t done properly, your exam results are nullified.
I’ve also heard good things about it. You can take your exam from the comfort of your own home, it has flexible timing and you don’t have to waste time going to and from the exam centre.
However, there seems to be more cons than pros about taking the exam remotely, and I make the final decision. I would like to ask for suggestions on how to best approach the remote exams. Thank you.
It depends on how you prefer to answer your questions, and your exam environment.
Exam environment:
1. For instance, do you live on your own, or can you make sure that someone else won’t be able to enter the room you are in, while you are taking the exams?2. Do you have a room with stable wi-fi or ethernet connection, with all four corners of the room visible to the remote invigilator by webcam upon demand if requested?
3. Do you have enough spaces in your place, or can you arrange to move any obstacles (e.g. second monitors, anything you have on and under your desk) to somewhere else temporarily while you are sitting the exam?
How you prefer to answer your questions:
4. Are you happy to use scratch pads as provided in the practice platform, with no working outs being allowed using a pencil and paper (these are prohibited)?
If all 4 conditions cannot be met, then taking a remote exam can be risky. However, whether you are willing to take that risk is up to you.
For the AA exam, I was happy to give up manual scribbles using a pen and paper (which are normally provided by the on-site exam centres), as it did not require extensive calculations. I also enjoyed the flexibility it came with the remote exam.
However, unlike the on-site exams where all exam candidates are supposed to start the exam at once, in remote exams, (at least in the beginning) each exam candidate must be connected to one remote invigilator in order to inspect the exam environment and get briefed on the rules.
This can cause delays if there aren’t enough remote invigilators available at a given time. In my case, I think I had to wait nearly 15 minutes on a ‘queue’, which I didn’t know about until I was stuck on it.
Depending on the number of other people who have booked the exam at the same time slot, you may end up starting your exam earlier or later than what you expected. This will also affect your finishing time, so be flexible about this.
(NB: starting earlier or later does NOT affect the duration of the exam, but any earlier start by x minutes will also bring the finishing time forward by x minutes, and the later start will result in later finish by the level of the delay).
1. I live with family, but I’ll make sure no one bothers me during the exam
2. Yes
3. I can move the books on my desk elsewhere.
4. I’m not exactly sure I need rough paper, but sometimes I do.I’m thinking of taking tax, and that requires a lot of calculation and remembering stuff, so there. I can go for the remote exam, but I’m not sure if I can handle it.
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