One of my colleagues taught a PMP Prep course in early April, and one of the candidates in her class took and passed the online exam.
Here is the un-edited feedback from that individual:
"First of all, I learned that if you have an in-person exam scheduled, you will not see the online option. In order to see it, you need to cancel your exam (Fees are waved for now), and then re-apply and you will see the option.
I will do a quick bullet list of things that are good to know:
• you require a working webcam and microphone
• you can not have your phone near you during the test
• the test is open 30 minutes before to allow you to do the check-in process, which I will detail below
o it performs a systems test to ensure your internet speed is sufficient, and that you have a working microphone and webcam.
o they make you take pictures of your face, your ID (drivers license, etc) and 4 pictures of your desk area (front, back, left, right)
o you sign disclaimers about not sharing details of the test,etc.
• there is a tutorial at the beginning that lets you get used to the provided calculator and whiteboard (YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED A PHYSICAL CALCULATOR OR SCRATCH PAD/PEN)
o the whiteboard has plenty of functionality, and allows you to use text, which would allow the “brain dump”
o here’s an overview of the feature https://home.pearsonvue.com/op/online-proc...eboard-overview o unfortunately the calculator must be operated with the mouse. It does not interact with your keyboard
• they make you download and install an application (OnVue) which, once the test begins takes over your full screen
• highlight/strike through options are available, but the application makes you highlight the text, and then choose strikeout or highlight (there are keyboard functions, but they are not very intuitive. I think highlight was Alt+J for example)
• There is a chat function at the top. If you click it, it calls a proctor (they won’t be immediate). I did this at the beginning just to see the feature, not realizing how it worked. They just wished me luck, and I proceeded??. This function would be used by the proctor in case of technical issues. If they could not reach you there, they would reach out via phone (this is your only exception to the phone rule)
• just a tidbit, because I was unsure – I had snacks beside me on my desk and ate them along the way, as well as water of course. They did not raise any concerns.
• The 10 minute break allowed me to use the restroom and stretch a bit. I only used around 4 minutes.
Aside from that, the interface is pretty intuitive. Everything I explained above is walked through in the tutorial.
For more information on it, here’s a link. In fact, this is where you need to go to take the test when it’s time!
https://home.pearsonvue.com/pmi/onvue"
It would be great if others who have taken the PMP exam online in the near term could share their experiences! Saving Changes...
Ranjeet DesaiSenior Proposal Engineer| Rockwell automation Pune, India
Today I took online , everything was going smooth and I had solved 70 questions , suddenly the screen got stuck and was not moving ahead . I raised the issue , the first proctor wasn't able to solve . I waited for 15 minutes and again connected them the next proctor told me to end task the onview platform and restart again but still the problem was not solved finally they told me to restart, I restarted the laptop and started on view but it got stuck again and the proctor closed my window. Unfortunately I wasn't able to Complete my test due to onview application error . I will have to schedule my test once again.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Oct 01, 2024 11:58 AM
Rami Kaibni
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Ranjeet, sorry to hear that. Unfortunately as far as Ive heard, this happened in more than one occasion to candidates and this is why I always recommend going to a testing Center, if possible, as the technology part will be off your shoulder and one less thing to worry about. Good Luck!
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Oct 01, 2024 4:05 AM
Replying to Ranjeet Desai
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Today I took online , everything was going smooth and I had solved 70 questions , suddenly the screen got stuck and was not moving ahead . I raised the issue , the first proctor wasn't able to solve . I waited for 15 minutes and again connected them the next proctor told me to end task the onview platform and restart again but still the problem was not solved finally they told me to restart, I restarted the laptop and started on view but it got stuck again and the proctor closed my window. Unfortunately I wasn't able to Complete my test due to onview application error . I will have to schedule my test once again.
Ranjeet, sorry to hear that. Unfortunately as far as Ive heard, this happened in more than one occasion to candidates and this is why I always recommend going to a testing Center, if possible, as the technology part will be off your shoulder and one less thing to worry about. Good Luck! Saving Changes...
Regarding the online Pearson VUE experience, I can only say it was horrible. I am not sure at all if this post will not be deleted as it goes against many beautiful praises for Pearson VUE and its online functionality. Let me describe my story, though.
I was supposed to take the exam today, Saturday August 2nd 2025 at 9.30 AM CEST. Yesterday I duly checked if my MacBook worked properly running Pearson VUE's test functionality. The test discovered no issues at all.
Today, duly at 9 AM CEST I started my registration. The system did all the checks with mikes, the camera etc., everything went fine, I took the pictures of my face, the ID-passport, the testing space via their app that was installed on my phone, too. So, everything was working smoothly until their system discovered that there were apps running on my Mac. I was advised to press Command, Option and Esc to display the apps and force quite them. But...there were none. And this was a blocker... So, I informed their agent. It took him around 20 minutes to even comprehend the issue. He asked me many times about my name, email, test ID, PMI credentials, etc. Finally he logged an issue.
And that was the end of the story... No exam...I contacted the PMI and explained the issue stating that I am raising an official complaint against Pearson VUE.
The issue is simple: you run a test check the day before however on the exam day half way through the registration (after the pics of the face, ID, test room - front, back, left, right are taken) their system suddenly discovers some critical issues. It simply means that their testing functionality is inconsistent - it detects no technical issues one day before the test, and some other technical layers of their app discover issues half way through the registration on the exam day - so, their tech check does not "see" the issues but their overall registration system does detect them later, on the exam day.
I learned later that closing them would require some special commands to be typed in the Terminal. Well, yeah, everyone could figure that out using a google search but under the pressure (and given no apps are allowed, so no google search, either...), when you are running out of time because their system discovers this half way through..., it is not such an easy task.
I hear many voices speaking critically of Pearson and its online incarnation Pearson VUE. I understand it is a monopoly but there are other options and such reputable institution as PMI could probably consider other choices, too. Saving Changes...
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