CAS procedures re: Pearson Centers - Fall 2020

A friend of mine was just notified that his sitting in November had to be rescheduled because of a fire at a Pearson site and COVID. They gave him a tentative date in the third week of December (!). Now I’m worried too…

Worried of a fire? :smile:

My exam got “rescheduled” too. The tentative date for me is a month after my original exam to give me time to reschedule it myself. Except there are no spots left in the testing window at any sites within a 12 hour drive of me.

Which exam? What state? COVID related?

Anyone here in Michigan?
Gretch is supposed to make an announcement effectively shutting down the state for the next 3 weeks tonight… Exam 9 is in that 3 week window.

The rumor I have seen does not explicitly shut down all non-essentials, although I can see Pearson’s still shutting down just because.

AFAIK it will be: all dine-ins shut down, people should WFH if possible. Phase II I hear. If it goes back to Phase I, yeah exams are damned.

More details are out now about said rumor, and … I don’t know, testing centers don’t seem to fit into any of the categories. I’m praying it will go into “Manufacturing, Construction, and other work that can not be done remotely”.

I’m all for shutdown but man, I don’t want to see the exam to be delayed again. I’m willing to risk my life at this point LMAO.

Yeah, I was really ramping up for this exam window. If we get dragged out, like we did in the spring, it will be so hard to not burn out.

New update: https://www.casact.org/press/index.cfm?fa=viewArticle&articleID=4865

Not sure anything really changes, other than the note from Pearson that face masks are now required. Otherwise, it’s a lot of common sense stuff - if you’ve tested positive don’t show up to take your exam, if you live with someone who’s tested positive don’t show up to take your exam, etc.

I’m in Canada. I received an email from CAS yesterday confirming that my testing location has been shut down. The options they gave me are to either reschedule my exam (either the first available date before December 31 or if my test site remains closed, they can reschedule me at an alternative site) or to refund my registration. They want me to decide within 48 hours. Because there doesn’t appear to be any transparency regarding site closures and I’m not going to travel at the moment, it looks like I’ll be taking the refund.

You should contact the CAS. Ken or Ashley. I believe the CAS is under the impression that Pearson centers can remain open even with closures because they are considered essential…

Hi, Which city is the testing center in ?

Apologies for hijacking this thread, but have the CAS upper threads been locked? I can’t seem to reply to any of those threads.

I posted the same question in a separate thread. That does appear to be the case.

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Yes, the CAS exam sections are closed. There’s a post on each section explaining the details.

VA plans to open the threads, with restrictions, later today. Remember that there is a long testing window, and reactions like “that exam was easier than I expected” might influence the studying of later exam-takers in inappropriate ways. I’ll defer to VA to post the actual rules of engagement, though.

I’m really sorry that happened to you. I’ve heard through the grapevine that most of the US has judged Pearson test centers to be an essential service, so I hope this doesn’t affect too many others.

This might be a stupid question - the Pearson sample questions always have the “show all work below” at the bottom of the questions. But we can start the answer anywhere in the spreadsheet, right? I find it much easier to type answers just on the right side of the question.

Yes, CAS confirmed they’re removing the instruction to show all work below and that you can show your work anywhere.

It’s easier for the graders if you keep your work toward the left side and closer to the question section, but nothing stops you from starting out at like AB87 on every question. They will supposedly be able to find it there.

Mods - If this is not allowed, then feel free to remove.

I wanted to weigh on in my Pearson experience yesterday. Overall I felt it went well, especially considering it was the first day (I think) of the testing window. No issues checking in. Obviously some basic COVID precautions, but nothing crazy. No technical issues around loading the test or having the test interrupted, either.

The spreadsheet environment wasn’t too bad, either. Obviously it’s not the fully functional Excel, and you couldn’t use F2/F4, but it felt fine. I don’t know how much the graders care about units (000s) and formatting, but at least I didn’t have to worry about having my answer below the question as opposed to off to the right. It definitely is a time saver - I can’t imagine having to hand-write all those responses.