Well, the summer is almost over and many of us are still stuck inside.
With tests still to be taken, you may be among the few taking your FINRA exam from home. If so, there are a few things that you should know…
Taking Your FINRA Exam From Home? Beware…
We have tutored many students that have successfully (and unsuccessfully) taken their FINRA exam from home.
However, by “unsuccessfully” we don’t mean that they failed. Surprisingly, in some cases the student was never able to finish the exam in the first place.
In fact, two of our students in the last week weren’t able to finish their exams due to technical glitches. Hence, we thought a blog post on the subject might be appropriate (and hopefully helpful!).
One student was never able to get to even begin the exam, and another was shut out of the system after a little more than a couple dozen questions.
So…Is There Tech Support?
Yes.
But, unfortunately there isn’t much available help at this point. If you experience a glitch, your best bet is to submit a request for support on the platform and then see what happens.
From the feedback that we’ve received from our students (who took the Series 63 Exam and Series 7 Top-Off Exam), the queue in the tech support line can have over 20 people at a time. Some patience will be required.
Be prepared to potentially wait hours if this happens to you. And in many cases you won’t be able to take the exam at all that day (one student mentioned that after being “kicked out” of the platform three times, it locked them out).
What Should I Do to Avoid This Possibility?
First, keep in mind that this tech glitch is real but it’s not clear how frequently it occurs. We’ve had multiple students successfully complete the exam online at home (and/or at work) with no issues.
Plus, given the ongoing pandemic there aren’t many good options.
While some might avoid going into a testing center to avoid the possible spread of the virus, we also understand that low-risk populations may be OK with that risk, and precautions (such as required mask-wearing) at the testing centers help.
Anecdotally speaking, we know several cases where our students preferred to go into a testing center to avoid the distracting thought that the system might crash on them in the middle of their exam.
This is a totally legitimate concern. You want your mind laser-focused on the task at hand. Any mental energy spent elsewhere is a waste of resources (at a critical time).
Overall, we encourage you to make up your own mind, but be aware of the risk of taking the FINRA exam at home before you take it. Good luck with it!