Take ANY AWS Certification Exam from Home

AWS have recently announced additional support for those affected by exam center closures caused by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. You can now take any AWS certification exam from your home or office with online proctoring. There’s additional support in extending certification expiration dates, exam retirements dates (SAA-C01 and BDS-C00) and voucher expiration dates too.

Here’s the full announcement text:

In response to recent temporary testing center closures, AWS Certification is offering additional support to candidates who need more time to reschedule exams, recertify, and use vouchers.

• You can now take all AWS Certification exams with online proctoring. Due to expected high demand, the wait time for online-proctored appointments may be longer than usual. To learn more about online proctoring—how to start, how it works, requirements, etc.—visit the Pearson VUE site.
• We are automatically extending certification expiration dates in cases where you may need additional time to recertify. Updated expiration dates will soon be available in your AWS Certification account. Certification extensions also extend availability of your AWS Certification benefits.
• We are extending retirement dates for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C01) and AWS Certified Big Data – Specialty (BDS-C00). Our Coming Soon page has additional information about these exams.
• We are automatically extending voucher expiration dates in cases where you may need additional time to use them. Updated expiration dates for vouchers purchased from Xvoucher will soon be available in your Xvoucher account. Information on how to access your account or contact Xvoucher is on our voucher page.

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This is great news for anyone who has put in the hard work to get prepared for their AWS certification exam only to find that the exam testing centers are closed. The ability to take an AWS exam with online proctoring has previously been reserved only for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam and I used this method to take the Cloud Practitioner from home in November last year.

How to take your AWS Certification Exam from Home

First, you go to https://aws.training and sign-in with your certification account, then choose “Access Certification”:

Next, you need to click “Go to your account” to get redirected to certmetrics.com:

From the next page select “Schedule New Exam”:

On the next page you need to select the AWS Certification exam you’d like to take and then make sure you select “Schedule with Pearson Vue” (not “Schedule with PSI”):

You’re then presented with the options to take your exam “At a local test center” or “At a home or office”. Choose the latter option and book an appointment time.

You will then be advised to download some software to your machine and run a pre-check system test (best to do this ahead of the scheduled date to make sure you’re setup properly). The test checks your network connection, microphone and webcam and asks you to take photos of the space around your desk. I had to take photos of the workspace from the back of the room, the left hand-side of my desk and the right-hand side. You also need to take photos of some ID (I used a driver’s licence).

The exam is proctored so you do have someone on the other side of your webcam watching and making sure you’re not cheating. On the day of the exam, the proctor asked me to manoeuvre my laptop around to show her my workspace through the webcam before starting the exam. You need to have a clutter-free workspace with no additional monitors and the room should be quiet and clear with no one else around. I recommend making sure you log in and get set up at least 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled exam time as I had to take the photos of the room and ID again.

As long as you can satisfy the requirements mentioned above, I definitely recommend taking your exam from home if you can’t get into a test center where you live. One additional thing to note is that with online proctored exams you can’t take any breaks so try to make sure you won’t need a toilet break during the exam or the exam could be terminated!

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