Keyboard layout problem on Red Hat exam

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I took the RHCSA exam for 1-2 weeks ago and I did not pass, so I'm preparing for the re-take. I can try to cover the gaps I have in my knowledge, but one thing that surprised me during the exam was the keyboard layout. I'm based in Norway and when arriving for the exam I had to use an american keyboard or a norwegian keyboard with an american keyboard layout. I could not change this and the settings did not allow for changing this. The proctor also told me that I could not change that.

This made me unable to type symbols like a bracket [, a curly brace or a dollar sign... which makes it kind of hard to do the exam. I had to use like 20 minutes or something before they took over the machine remotely and copied the characters because it was not possible to type them.

Has anyone else had this experience and what did you do about it ? I thought that I might get another keyboard layout on the exam, but when having worked with different keyboard layouts before I have always been able to either find the characters somehow or change the layout which was not possible this time.

I dont see any way of actually preparing for this and even though I have taken the exam now I still dont know how I would type those characters again because it was not possible and I think I tried every key combination possible.

[Fran_Garcia · Accepted solution]

I can confirm I've sat in exams and used a localised keyboard layout succesfully (Spanish in my case). Being unable to type special characters like slashes, brackets, etc doing workarounds or simply being unable to do so looks like a significant impairment and it absolutely should not be necessary.

If possible, I'd suggest taking your exam using the remote option (using your own laptop) and testing if the keyboard works OK.

If you took your exam at a testing place, it sounds to me you should be able to report this malfunction so you don't need to endure it . Exams are challenging enough not to be fighting with these kinds of annoyances.

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I took the exam at an authorized test center. I spoke to the test center and they say that they cannot do anything about it because Red Hat has given them the equipment necessary to do the exam and if there are any problems this has to be taken up with Red Hat as they are not authorized to do anything.

Yes, I agree, exams are challenging enough to not have to worry about the keyboard layout. The annoying thing here is that I wasted time and effort on this and when receiving the result I was 19 points away from passing which might have been the wasted time and resources I used on the keyboard layout issue. I have however needed to fill in s few gaps in my knowledge so I I'm not sure I could blame it entirely on that though.

I only have.a Mac at home and that is an Apple Silicon mac so while it is a nice computer it is not authorized to to be used on the exam. That being said I live in an apartment building without sound isolation between the different apartments, so you can basically hear people talking which does not make it a suitable place. No idea why the building is like that, but its from the 1950s I believe.

I have contacted Red Hat about this, but I'm not sure what they can do. There was no hardware problems with the keyboard so I dont know how to prepare for this since I think they will only say that they cant do anything about it. 

[FabioReis]

Hi @exceed 

Usually, the virtual environment of the maps to the US keyboard. That's why is not possible to change the layout. 

If you're considering taking the remote option please consider this setup, and test the remote exam image to avoid any issues before the exam date.

Regards, 

Fabio 

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Remote exam is not an option for me because of reasons stated in my previous post. I dont know what to do on the re-take though. According to Red Hat they cannot help with this since its not standard layout... but they are the ones that have provided the hardware according to the test center so that is kind of a strange reply. I have taken a Red Hat exam for many years again and did not experience any problem like this.

[FabioReis]

@exceed 

I would recommend you try to raise a ticket with the certification team by sending an email to certification-team@redhat.com. 

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I have done that. They say there is nothing they can do because its a "non-standard keyboard layout" which is a strange thing to say since they provided the hardware according to the test center.