More loathing of Pearson Vue … or, my [redacted] beta exam experience

This is what I get for taking beta exams. I understand. I create my own mess. But that doesn’t change the fact that Pearson Vue is spectacularly incompetent. I’ve previously blogged my strongly negative opinions of Pearson Vue and today’s experience doesn’t do much to improve my outlook.

I sat the [redacted] VMware beta exam today and there were problems with the remote environment. It took me almost 40 minutes to complete the first two questions because the performance of the environment was so lousy. Per my beta exam instructions, after about 15 minutes I asked the Vue proctor to contact VMware for assistance.

The proctor returned to say that we should reboot my local exam station, as if that had anything at all to do with the slow response from the remote lab. I asked her who told her to do that – she had called the Vue helpdesk, not VMware. I told her to call VMware, to which she replied “We can’t do that.”  By then the environment had improved from ‘lousy’ to ‘nearly tolerable’ so I gave up complaining.

After the exam I spoke with the VMware certification team and I received confirmation of the following:

  1. VMware has been assured by Pearson Vue that VCAP candidates will be able to get in contact with VMware’s support team for problems with the exam environment
  2. VMware’s support team has the authority to grant extended time in the event of an environment failure
  3. Pearson Vue has the capability to extend the exam time.

The slow performance of the environment set me back too far to recover;  I was unable to complete the exam. Maybe it will cost me a passing grade, maybe it won’t, but Pearson Vue’s failure to rectify the situation is inexcusable.

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