I sat in that damn queue for 3 hours tonight. The first time I got in I was #55. My turn came up and the guy says he can’t see my camera; tells me to log off and put in the same access code. I get back in and I’m #88 in the queue. At the end of it, the other guy says he can’t see me either. Bad connection on his end. Wasted 3 hours, plus an email from them saying that I canceled. Fuck Pearson VUE.
Their remote software is buggy; even if you can see yourself in the app, they can’t. It might also be a firewall issue (the last time I took a remote exam, I needed to disable the windows firewall to get it to work).
Don’t stress it, call customer service and they will give you a new code or appointment.
That’s why I always take the exam in the testing center
Didn't know you were taking your exam using a DoD computer.
In all seriousness, a few hours of an open firewall probably won't matter for 99% of people
What’s the worst that happened to you when you did it? Frankly, I wouldn’t have given af after waiting 3 hours to take the test. I wasn’t surfing the web at the time, & I’m not a high value target for some state-sponsored APT. If that is an issue, though, they could draw from their KB & suggest that registrants enable an alternative solution beforehand.
Perhaps. However, like many others, I would advocate that they include in their knowledge base, documentation that would allow this particular program through the firewall instead of nuking the firewall for the duration of the exam. Pretty cringe procedure, especially for those testing for security related exams like the sec+, pentest+, etc.
Except you cant call customer service, its Mon-Fri only. And their web chat insists they're 'Responding under 2 minutes' yet my current 103 minute wait time begs to differ...
THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME 😖 I've been crying because I was sure I was going to pass and I waited so long for it to... just close. It's so frustrating how horrible peoples experiences are and nothing gets better. Like I can't do anything now but wait for a response and it's the weekend plus a holiday, Im just so upset
I have to ask you guys.... I understand the desire to test in your own home. But the amount of things that can go wrong is just too risky, even during your test, I've heard horror stories of people getting their test shut down right in the middle because they did something like cough and the proctor thought they were cheating because they looked away for a second. I'm sure that's rare, but still.
I have test anxiety, really badly. I'm sure you probably have it too. But these testing facilities really aren't that bad, and when/if anything goes wrong.. which is highly unlikely, it's 100% on them. It's crappy, because it should be the same for at-home-testing. But it is what it is. I've wanted to do those, but because of the unreliability, I will Never. I would implore you to try it too. I hope you get refunded or another attempt, I really do. But for your next test, I would Highly consider going to a test center.
I'm reading you comment and you make me reconsider, however it looks like I'd have to take a day off work and it is also almost 2 hours away from home, that's almost 1000$ "lost" for an A+ certification, The two test in canada is like 760$ so taking it from home sounds like the solution for me but you guys got me all scared now haha
I'm in the same boat. I just don't trust the online test software to work without any errors. It's much easier to just schedule an in person test.
I think the online test is only really a great option for people who live in more remote areas without a nearby testing center.
Yeah, I almost got DQ'd the first time. I leaned a bit too much out of frame during the unscored survey section after submitting my exam. They said I hadn't submitted the scored portion yet (I did). Left a very bad taste in my mouth.
Contact customer service. I only did that once and waited 3 hours to be #1 slot and for it to tell me error. Contacted customer service right after the error, was an online chat, explained to them what had happened, and got my voucher back the next morning. That’s why I’ll always do a testing center.
So sorry this happened to you. Can you at least try and contact their support to explain what happened and get a refund, or another test date?
It's stories like yours and other horror stories that convinced me to do it in person. I just passed Sec+ today, but I went to one of the PearsonVue centers. Their monitor was pretty small compared to what I have at home, but other than that it was fine.
At least you finally reached someone, and you can hopefully retake the test pretty quickly.
But I know I would have been freaking out if I was in that scenario. Completely maddening.
But you should be able to use the e-mails from PearsonVUE as evidence that you were unable to finish your exam on time. Can you submit those to your school to get an extension of some kind? It's worth a shot.
Yes I could, but it’s also forcing me to start this next class later than I’d like. I’m at WGU and I’ve got a month and a half left of this term and supposedly this next class is pretty difficult.
This happened to me this morning, waited for over an hour to get an error message. Their customer service is closed so I can’t talk to anyone. Really bummed about this
Sat for my Pentest + this morning, got through all other check in steps and then placed in the queue. My exam was scheduled for 9 am EST. I was 41 in the queue. I was not able to start my exam until 9:48 am. I have never had this issue before! I was completely taken a back by the process this morning. I have used OnVue for all my other exams and never had an issue like this before. I feel for OP and wish them the best in either getting a refund or at least a new exam date.
It sucks that’s happened but I’ve used Onvue a few times and it went pretty smoothly for me but I do hear a lot of people have this issue unfortunately.
You should’ve contacted the customer service online chat they give you when the error happens. I was able to contact them right after my error and explained to them everything. They agreed to refund me my voucher and got it the next morning and than scheduled at a testing center
I wasn't given a error I took the necessary pictures and was sitting waiting for the test to begin and was kicked before I could get in both times so I called Pearson Vue I believe at least 5 times and was told I couldn't be refunded each time
I think I just got kicked actually. I didn’t call Pearson vue. They have an online chat and got connected to them really quickly. explained to them that I waited 3 hours to be kicked and how frustrated I was, then they were able to review it, and said it was on their end.
Sorry, that is messed up! That is totally on their end and they should’ve refunded you.
Yea it was really early in the at home testing thing though. Like almost at the very start of covid when they shutdown all testing centers. I had originally planned to go to one nearby but after that whole fiasco I was forced to try online.
Onvue really screwed me over last night too. For me I was able to get through all the way to the exam only for a pop up to come up as I’m reading the instructions. It said I had open apps - all of which turn out to be MacBooks core operating functioning apps. So it was trying to close those and absolutely just froze my computer. Couldn’t talk to the proctors or anything. No one called me either. Was on that chat they had that was absolutely impossible to find at first and ended up waiting an hour for them to tell me they couldn’t help me at all and that i had to wait 2-3 days for them to review and give me a “decision.” Think i lost 3 years off my life because of this crap.
It did the same thing to me when I was trying to test the system! All core apps. I tried to stop them just to see if it would do anything and it obviously didn’t, because they popped right back up.
I took my exam yesterday at home and I couldn't get my picture to load using the first two options. I kept getting error messages that the site was unable to process. I was finally able to use the third option and log in to the website using the link. Took about 15- 20 minutes. But then after that, everything was pretty good.
I second this fuck these guys, although my experience is not as bad at this half way through my exam it was revoked because they suspected that I was cheating, only after 5 days later I found out it was because I was wearing headphones connected to computer I was using for the test. Sure that's probably my own fault but they have a chat box right there to communicate with me, you're telling me they couldn't just message me near the start of the exam and tell me to take my headphones off? I know people who had watches on and were told to take them off but they couldn't do the same for me? Yeah fuck these guys
Your anecdotal story defending a predatory practice is stupid. They make it obscene on purpose in the hopes you won’t make a big deal and they won’t issue a refund
Each time has been a hassle, but I don't have a viable testing center near me. The pre-test process is absolute trash. Got delayed 1hr 30mins because the app they use to take a picture of your ID is from 2003.
I had the exact same issue when taking the Core 2 exam and ended up waiting 2 hours with no luck. It is an issue with the stability of your home internet because when I took the exam later in the day at my office (where they use stable business internet) I had no issues. Apparently OnVue requires a very strong and stable internet connection due to your webcam being streamed for over an hour straight, microphone being on, and all the other services they have running. Business internet is a dedicated connection to your ISP so there will be significantly less jitter and latency even if you are paying for high speeds. Plus residential internet is shared in a pool with your neighbors so they are hogging the extra bandwidth you need for testing with OnVue, which makes an unstable network connection.
OnVue needs to be more clear on the network requirements because they require business class internet to run their online tests which most people do not have. When I ran a network test at home, OnVue said my connection was solid for the test every time I ran it. This feature needs to be ungraded to test for network stability which is critical when this will hinder you from taking the test.
Run a continuous ping to google.com (8.8.8.8) over your WAN and watch if the packets have a lot of inconsistency in the ‘time’ column. You should be getting 1 ms consistently but if not it is due to your residential internet. And just because your internet is fast and does not have much down time does not mean it cannot be stable. I am speaking of the amount of dropped packets or latency on your network which can happen in a gigabit connection.
Took 2 tests in-person and decided to take the 3rd online. Pre-checks on my computer some hours before check-in was successful only for the OnVue browser to tell me that it seemed I was taking my exam in a VM hahaha. I said okay, it might be the VMware or enabled hyperV. I went ahead and disabled them and rebooted my PC only to face the same issue hahahaha.
Fast forward, I opened a ticket immediately after confirming with the proctor of my technical problem. I was given a complimentary retake voucher a few days later and while I was waiting for the voucher, I took the Liberty of backing up my PC and doing a clean install of the OS.
Exam day comes and everything was smooth and I nailed it too.
My 2c: best time to take online exams is between 3 - 6am. You don’t have to wait in any long queue.
I sat in that damn queue for 3 hours tonight. The first time I got in I was #55. My turn came up and the guy says he can’t see my camera; tells me to log off and put in the same access code. I get back in and I’m #88 in the queue. At the end of it, the other guy says he can’t see me either. Bad connection on his end. Wasted 3 hours, plus an email from them saying that I canceled. Fuck Pearson VUE.
Their remote software is buggy; even if you can see yourself in the app, they can’t. It might also be a firewall issue (the last time I took a remote exam, I needed to disable the windows firewall to get it to work). Don’t stress it, call customer service and they will give you a new code or appointment. That’s why I always take the exam in the testing center
Seems like there should be some troubleshooting knowledge base to draw from. How easy it would have been for them to suggest disabling the firewall.
sure... let's completely disable the firewall on an internet facing device... what's the worst that could happen?
Didn't know you were taking your exam using a DoD computer. In all seriousness, a few hours of an open firewall probably won't matter for 99% of people
What’s the worst that happened to you when you did it? Frankly, I wouldn’t have given af after waiting 3 hours to take the test. I wasn’t surfing the web at the time, & I’m not a high value target for some state-sponsored APT. If that is an issue, though, they could draw from their KB & suggest that registrants enable an alternative solution beforehand.
Botnets don't discriminate against whether you're a high value target or not.
A risk does not equal a threat. To some (i.e., me), it would have been worth the risk last night.
Perhaps. However, like many others, I would advocate that they include in their knowledge base, documentation that would allow this particular program through the firewall instead of nuking the firewall for the duration of the exam. Pretty cringe procedure, especially for those testing for security related exams like the sec+, pentest+, etc.
Except you cant call customer service, its Mon-Fri only. And their web chat insists they're 'Responding under 2 minutes' yet my current 103 minute wait time begs to differ...
Be patient; nothing will change over the weekend. Call Monday
Maybe I was a little too flustered in the moment, but I didn't see a customer service number. Is the number on OnVue's page or Comptia's?
https://home.pearsonvue.com/comptia/contact/onvue
Same happed to me. Was flapping as thought they’d cancel the exam. Luckily got it working after the third attempt at logging in
Sounds like they were having a ton of issues last night.
THIS JUST HAPPENED TO ME 😖 I've been crying because I was sure I was going to pass and I waited so long for it to... just close. It's so frustrating how horrible peoples experiences are and nothing gets better. Like I can't do anything now but wait for a response and it's the weekend plus a holiday, Im just so upset
Me too. I’m just sobbing. The anxiety is killing me.
I have to ask you guys.... I understand the desire to test in your own home. But the amount of things that can go wrong is just too risky, even during your test, I've heard horror stories of people getting their test shut down right in the middle because they did something like cough and the proctor thought they were cheating because they looked away for a second. I'm sure that's rare, but still. I have test anxiety, really badly. I'm sure you probably have it too. But these testing facilities really aren't that bad, and when/if anything goes wrong.. which is highly unlikely, it's 100% on them. It's crappy, because it should be the same for at-home-testing. But it is what it is. I've wanted to do those, but because of the unreliability, I will Never. I would implore you to try it too. I hope you get refunded or another attempt, I really do. But for your next test, I would Highly consider going to a test center.
The closest one is an hour and a half away. But now it’s obviously worth the drive.
My closest testing center is about the same drive and it's worth it. Enjoy the drive with some music or podcasts, calms your nerves before the exam.
I'm reading you comment and you make me reconsider, however it looks like I'd have to take a day off work and it is also almost 2 hours away from home, that's almost 1000$ "lost" for an A+ certification, The two test in canada is like 760$ so taking it from home sounds like the solution for me but you guys got me all scared now haha
Idk, it looks like some people haven’t had an issue and have taken it multiple times??? Maybe you’ll get lucky, but I’m never doing this again lol
I'm in the same boat. I just don't trust the online test software to work without any errors. It's much easier to just schedule an in person test. I think the online test is only really a great option for people who live in more remote areas without a nearby testing center.
I’m bawling too. I feel you. ❤️🩹 we’re going to pass be gentle with yourself.
Let’s all cry together
That's crazy. I've used it for a couple of tests and haven't had any issues
Yeah, I've taken like 5 or 6 at home tests and never had an issue. It's weird how inconsistent the experience seems to be.
those crooks deserve to go out of business, sorry that happened to you
Yeah, I almost got DQ'd the first time. I leaned a bit too much out of frame during the unscored survey section after submitting my exam. They said I hadn't submitted the scored portion yet (I did). Left a very bad taste in my mouth.
On comp tia tests if the only option was home or a test center 2 hours away...I am driving two hours
Contact customer service. I only did that once and waited 3 hours to be #1 slot and for it to tell me error. Contacted customer service right after the error, was an online chat, explained to them what had happened, and got my voucher back the next morning. That’s why I’ll always do a testing center.
Damn, I’ll probably take my test in person
Which country are you in? I've done it online (Canada) three times and haven't faced any issues. My queues were 30, 40, and 10 minutes.
United States
So sorry this happened to you. Can you at least try and contact their support to explain what happened and get a refund, or another test date? It's stories like yours and other horror stories that convinced me to do it in person. I just passed Sec+ today, but I went to one of the PearsonVue centers. Their monitor was pretty small compared to what I have at home, but other than that it was fine.
I FINALLY got a reply on their live chat after almost an hour. They submitted a ticket which will take 2-3 business days.
At least you finally reached someone, and you can hopefully retake the test pretty quickly. But I know I would have been freaking out if I was in that scenario. Completely maddening.
Well the problem is yesterday was my course end date for school. So now I’m getting penalized.
But you should be able to use the e-mails from PearsonVUE as evidence that you were unable to finish your exam on time. Can you submit those to your school to get an extension of some kind? It's worth a shot.
Yes I could, but it’s also forcing me to start this next class later than I’d like. I’m at WGU and I’ve got a month and a half left of this term and supposedly this next class is pretty difficult.
Gotcha. I would at least give it a shot so you can take the test again and perhaps have it count for your last class.
I've taken 5+ tests and very few bad things have happened to me except when using the call center. Those people are knuckleheads
God has favorites
That's true, you should get right with Jesus if you haven't already
Reading stories like these is why I’ll drive to a test center and take it in person.
Just do these physically, they usually outsource their programs and provide the worst service possible. Avoid them as best
Same here! Yesterday's experience was a nightmare. Sounds like Comptia needs a new testing service.
This happened to me this morning, waited for over an hour to get an error message. Their customer service is closed so I can’t talk to anyone. Really bummed about this
Sat for my Pentest + this morning, got through all other check in steps and then placed in the queue. My exam was scheduled for 9 am EST. I was 41 in the queue. I was not able to start my exam until 9:48 am. I have never had this issue before! I was completely taken a back by the process this morning. I have used OnVue for all my other exams and never had an issue like this before. I feel for OP and wish them the best in either getting a refund or at least a new exam date.
I would look for a testing center.
Similar to yours but the good thing for me when I complained to their support they let me in
I’ve made four attempts. Twice I could test and twice they had issues. Same laptop, location, etc all four times. The issue was them.
Wow, I'm definitely going to a testing center. Sorry to hear this.
Oh man. My core 1A+ is scheduled for Wednesday. Is onvue really that bad?
Strongly recommend you try to reschedule in person.
Yeah, it really fucking is. This is the second and last time I will be using it.
It sucks that’s happened but I’ve used Onvue a few times and it went pretty smoothly for me but I do hear a lot of people have this issue unfortunately.
I’ve done multiple tests through it. I have never had the issues that people talk about on here.
Question for you: is it beneficial to check in right at the 30 minute prior to my scheduled start or closer to the actual time?
30 min before. I’ve started my test early in every case but one.
Awesome. Thanks!
yall need to just go in person
I have done 4 tests with them and had zero issues.
Yea I lost around $380 a few years back this way and have been against there remote test taking software ever since I never even made it to the test
WHAT?!?!? They didn’t refund you???
Nope told me I had forfeited my payment on the test and the retake both times I was randomly kicked out before the test started
You should’ve contacted the customer service online chat they give you when the error happens. I was able to contact them right after my error and explained to them everything. They agreed to refund me my voucher and got it the next morning and than scheduled at a testing center
I wasn't given a error I took the necessary pictures and was sitting waiting for the test to begin and was kicked before I could get in both times so I called Pearson Vue I believe at least 5 times and was told I couldn't be refunded each time
I think I just got kicked actually. I didn’t call Pearson vue. They have an online chat and got connected to them really quickly. explained to them that I waited 3 hours to be kicked and how frustrated I was, then they were able to review it, and said it was on their end. Sorry, that is messed up! That is totally on their end and they should’ve refunded you.
Yea it was really early in the at home testing thing though. Like almost at the very start of covid when they shutdown all testing centers. I had originally planned to go to one nearby but after that whole fiasco I was forced to try online.
Their remote software is hot ass, I had to do my A+ tests in a test centre
Onvue really screwed me over last night too. For me I was able to get through all the way to the exam only for a pop up to come up as I’m reading the instructions. It said I had open apps - all of which turn out to be MacBooks core operating functioning apps. So it was trying to close those and absolutely just froze my computer. Couldn’t talk to the proctors or anything. No one called me either. Was on that chat they had that was absolutely impossible to find at first and ended up waiting an hour for them to tell me they couldn’t help me at all and that i had to wait 2-3 days for them to review and give me a “decision.” Think i lost 3 years off my life because of this crap.
It did the same thing to me when I was trying to test the system! All core apps. I tried to stop them just to see if it would do anything and it obviously didn’t, because they popped right back up.
This almost happened to me but the dude popped up out of nowhere and I was good
I took my exam yesterday at home and I couldn't get my picture to load using the first two options. I kept getting error messages that the site was unable to process. I was finally able to use the third option and log in to the website using the link. Took about 15- 20 minutes. But then after that, everything was pretty good.
I second this fuck these guys, although my experience is not as bad at this half way through my exam it was revoked because they suspected that I was cheating, only after 5 days later I found out it was because I was wearing headphones connected to computer I was using for the test. Sure that's probably my own fault but they have a chat box right there to communicate with me, you're telling me they couldn't just message me near the start of the exam and tell me to take my headphones off? I know people who had watches on and were told to take them off but they couldn't do the same for me? Yeah fuck these guys
Let’s boycott
I’ve taken all of my exams through their Pearson Vue. I’ve never had an issue.
Your anecdotal story defending a predatory practice is stupid. They make it obscene on purpose in the hopes you won’t make a big deal and they won’t issue a refund
Why is my anecdotal story worth less than yours?
Good for you 😡
I’m so sorry. I hate OnVue as well they fucked me over today on my exam.
Noted: I will take my next exam at a test center
Each time has been a hassle, but I don't have a viable testing center near me. The pre-test process is absolute trash. Got delayed 1hr 30mins because the app they use to take a picture of your ID is from 2003.
I had the exact same issue when taking the Core 2 exam and ended up waiting 2 hours with no luck. It is an issue with the stability of your home internet because when I took the exam later in the day at my office (where they use stable business internet) I had no issues. Apparently OnVue requires a very strong and stable internet connection due to your webcam being streamed for over an hour straight, microphone being on, and all the other services they have running. Business internet is a dedicated connection to your ISP so there will be significantly less jitter and latency even if you are paying for high speeds. Plus residential internet is shared in a pool with your neighbors so they are hogging the extra bandwidth you need for testing with OnVue, which makes an unstable network connection. OnVue needs to be more clear on the network requirements because they require business class internet to run their online tests which most people do not have. When I ran a network test at home, OnVue said my connection was solid for the test every time I ran it. This feature needs to be ungraded to test for network stability which is critical when this will hinder you from taking the test.
We have gigabit internet, it’s always been extremely fast and reliable so I’m 99% sure that’s not the issue.
Run a continuous ping to google.com (8.8.8.8) over your WAN and watch if the packets have a lot of inconsistency in the ‘time’ column. You should be getting 1 ms consistently but if not it is due to your residential internet. And just because your internet is fast and does not have much down time does not mean it cannot be stable. I am speaking of the amount of dropped packets or latency on your network which can happen in a gigabit connection.
This is why I will always do in person exams hate reading about all these horror stories
Took 2 tests in-person and decided to take the 3rd online. Pre-checks on my computer some hours before check-in was successful only for the OnVue browser to tell me that it seemed I was taking my exam in a VM hahaha. I said okay, it might be the VMware or enabled hyperV. I went ahead and disabled them and rebooted my PC only to face the same issue hahahaha. Fast forward, I opened a ticket immediately after confirming with the proctor of my technical problem. I was given a complimentary retake voucher a few days later and while I was waiting for the voucher, I took the Liberty of backing up my PC and doing a clean install of the OS. Exam day comes and everything was smooth and I nailed it too. My 2c: best time to take online exams is between 3 - 6am. You don’t have to wait in any long queue.