https://www.casact.org/press/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&articleID=4862
Highlights:
This … opens up lots of questions for 2021 timelines and procedures.
I saw this post on the CAS website as well, but I’m wondering where exam centers were actually closed. I can’t find a listing of closures on the CAS or Pearson Vue website.
I thought they were going to allow testing from home. If not what was the whole point of CBT testing??
I don’t recall seeing where they were going to allow testing from home. [Discussion on that omitted for now.] I think it would have been an option only as an absolute last resort, if centers by and large were closed and there was no way in the world to get candidates in to sit otherwise - but that’s my speculation.
Does anyone else think that the wording of “alternative test location” if the candidate cannot reschedule at Pearson Vue in the CAS post implies that they are leaving the door open to a proctor administering the exam elsewhere in a worst case scenario (like in a conference room).
Nope. It’ll be online at Pearson or bust.
My intel is that there is still a backup plan not released… Because they promised the exams would happen and had over six months to prepare for this outcome.
What that backup plan is I can’t tell.you. I live in NJ and if NJ is closed I can’t see NY being open either. So where are you going to find a new testing center. Not to mention there are zero availabilities in any Pearson center in the metro area right now.
Let’s hope so! Any idea where exam centers are actually closed? Is this somewhere in the United States, or maybe there were shutdowns of exam centers in Europe?
Not sure if any are closed yet. But it’s not hard to imagine that they will start closing soon…
Is the backup not letting you write until Dec 31 if you have to? What else can they possibly do
I have no inside information about this. I am just speculating:
Pearson View does support proctored tests at home. It’s on their website. Given what a disaster that was last time, I can see the CAS not wanting to say anything about it, but potentially letting it happen in places where testing centers aren’t allowed to function.
All I heard is more options were on the table… not sure if this is a one of basis or if a lot of places close down.
My guess is that you would have remote proctoring (I am completely speculating here). Would remote proctoring with zoom and maybe a keylogger (do those exist), really be so bad? I mean CAS is already taking a pretty big leap offering the same test throughout a big window.
I will amend an earlier comment.
I do agree, there are more options on the table - but as long as some exams can be given at Pearson, that will be the route chosen even if it means some candidates end up without slots and locations and have to get refunded exam fees (or rolled over to the next session - in some cases, yet again). I think those options will only be exercised in a dire, no-other-options, “most of the candidate pool can’t sit anywhere” scenario though.
Hence, I think it’s “Pearson or bust” because I don’t think we’ll hit that dire scenario. If we do hit that scenario, I think candidates will have bigger things to worry about than whether they get to sit for an exam this fall.
I really hope not I have been waiting to take exam 9 for 1.5 years. I studied for it once got a 5. I studied for a year before that attempt since it was my only exam left. 1 exam in 2.5 years and counting is ridiculous.
Have you met the CAS? If not, let me know and I’ll give you a formal introduction and explanation of what to expect.
I am in the same boat with 9 as my last exam and one attempt at a 5 previously.
copied from the Exam 9 thread:
It claims that if you don’t accept the NDA within 5 minutes it’s an automatic fail. I have no idea whether the author is, as he claims, a Pearson Testing Center employee, but thought it worth passing along.
That just seems so … weird. Especially if you happen to be a slow reader and need more than 5 minutes to read the NDA.
I wonder what the actuarials are on a CAS candidate getting an auto-fail over this.
The CAS said you could read the NDA somewhere else, and suggested doing that before the exam.
The actuarials are really good that more than one candidate will not do this.