Questions about getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam?

[Deanna]

This thread is dedicated to connect you with Red Hat subject matter experts who can help answer your questions regarding Red Hat remote exams. Please see the following resources for Red Hat Remote Exams below:

• Remote Exams Announcement
• Technical Documentation for "Getting ready for your Red Hat remote exam"
• Remote Exams FAQ

For questions on scheduling or redeeming your exams,  please use the Red Hat Certification team comment form here. 

**Our subject matters experts in the Red Hat Learning Community will not be assisting with tasks related to scheduling exams. 

[alpha_piyush]

Thanks Deanna.

And Thanks much all SMEs joined here to support this community, and replying all questions candidates have!

Wonderful initiative!

For connectivity, I am at 100Mbps speed. Bandwitdh and connectivity over wi-fi and RJ-45 cable is stable so far, I ran a ping test to google, red hat and some other sites for 5-6 hours and there was only 3% lost over wifi, and 4% lost when tested on cable.! (Considering all interferences due to apartment setup.)

(Sorry if this question is repetitive!) My question is during the exam, in case if connection drops for few seconds, and re-established, Will the connectivity from my laptop to RH be established automatically, or , Do I need to restart whole test again ?

Thanks in advance.

[JS_Learning]

Hi,@alpha_piyush 

I would say it would depends on the network interruption, its duration, etc...

For your information, during a Remote Exam, my connection was interrupted for around 10 seconds. The Remote Exam environment presented me with a specific screen saying there is a network interruption, and it was attempting to reconnect. It did reconnect automatically, I was able to resume working on the 4 hours exam.

On another note, 4% loss over cable seems high. Have you considered using other type of RJ45 cables which can protect on some interferences? For example cat6 cables have more protection against crosstalk than cat5 cables. Just a thought.

Cheers,

[alpha_piyush]

Thanks Mod. I am planning to replace both cables, from modem to router, and from wifi router to laptop. I will go with CAT-6 for better connectivity. Thanks for the advise, on reconnetion. You are right, that depends on how long it was disconnected, and then if internet connection gets back to normal.

Afterall we try our best to continue connected with pre-planning such this, but it depends on the luck sometime :-)

[rm-rf]

Hi,

I have a similar question to Shaams:

1. Are we allowed to use a TV as external monitor (reason: close to router for wired connection on my small portable laptop);
2. If option 1 is not possible; Can I unplug one (of dual setup) my external monitors from the docking station, cover it with a black t-shirt and use my laptop (closed lid), one external monitor, wired keyboard, wired mouse, external USB webcam all plugged-in to a Targus docking station (wireless network connection though -- another room in the house)?
3. If required, are we allowed to take a 'toilet break'?

Thanks in advance.

[shefeeqyr]

@rm-rf Hello,

3 - Rest room breaks: They are allowed for a specific duration by the Proctors and from what I gather, they are allowed after about an hour from the exam start.

2. Your setup of using one external monitor, external wired keyboard, mouse, usb key on a docking station seems to be acceptable. A couple of things to note are:

The second monitor has to be removed from the room ideally, but if it is not possible at all, it has to be switched off and properly covered. This will be verified by the exam Proctor during the beginning and in between the exam.

Wireless connection: We strongly recommend a wired connection for better stability. Wireless is not prohibited perse, however it is considered as a second choice due to many variables that can impact wireless performance. I would login to the wireless router and block any other device accessing the internet at the time of my exam. Or simply tell other users to pause the usage during that timeframe.

Using TV instead of a monitor is not allowed at this time. The external display device should be a monitor.

Best Regards,

Shefeeq 

[Matt7]

This whole process has been a frustrating experience for me. I just recently took a test and failed by a few points because of some issues I had.

1. The fedora writer doesn't work and kept crashing. I had to get another piece of software to make a bootable USB key. This didn't affect my ability to take the test though and was able to work around it.

2. I tested my setup like 5 times before the test day. Everything passed the compatibility tests and I thought I was good to go.

3. Hop on my exam and the proctor said I needed two cameras, even though all tests passed.

4. Go and grab a laptop with a built-in camera and connected the external camera. I had to spend some time setting up the laptop and getting it connected to a docking station so I can use my monitor. I ended up having to restart a few times to try and get both cameras to work. Proctor said the other camera was not working and I couldn't continue.

5. He then went and asked and finally said it was ok with one camera. I asked if I could change back to my original setup on my desktop since by this time I didn't have my external monitor set up. He starts arguing with me asking why and that too much time has already passed. Basically blaming me for everything that happened. I said because the laptop is uncomfortable for me and hard to see, so that's why I want to switch back. This was about an hour after I should have started my test by now.

6. Come back to the original setup and the camera won't focus on my ID up close. So there was no way to verify my ID.

7. Ended up having to hop on another laptop and this time both cameras came up on that laptop and I was able to proceed. I couldn't use my keyboard, mouse or monitor though and just had to use the track pad and a small screen laptop.

8. Of course my eyes started to strain and I was uncomfortable the entire time. On top of that, by the time I started the test I was already tired and stressed out.

9. While taking the test, I wanted to look at some documentation. Well the documentation was there, but took 5 minutes to load any page. So it was basically useless. Why have the documentation if you can barely use it, just so you can say it's there?


Please RedHat get your stuff together. This is absolutely unacceptable. I probably should have to just rescheduled, but I thought I would be ok taking the exam. I know I would have passed if it wasn't for all the issues I had.

[shefeeqyr]

Hi @Matt 

My sincere apologies for the stressful experience you had. We would like to review your exam from our end and get back to you on this. Seems like there are multiple aspects from pre-exam readiness to the performance of the exam environment that you had issues with.

Can you please submit your feedback - can copy past the same and quote my comments too - in this form? Please mention your user id that was used to login to the exam scheduler and the date when you took the exam too.

Best Regards,

Shefeeq Raza

[Matt7]

Will do

[Veerakumar]

Hi Matt,

Sorry to ask questions now to you. Hope you will get good support from Red Hat.

Tomorrow I have sceduled my exam. In my case am using Desktop with only one external webcam. Hope that is fine. Pls confirm. 

Also when you were able to see your scedulded exam on the "Remote Exam Set-up page". Because still 14 hr to start my Exam, but I could not see my scedulded exam on the "My Exam Session" at Remote Exam set-up page. If you confirm on this would be great info for me, please.

Thanks,Veera

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[Matt7]

I don't remember seeing the exam when you boot into Fedora until the day of. It won't let you in until like 5 minutes or so before I believe. You can verify your setup by using the compability check. If the proctor says you need 2 cameras, you don't. You only need 1 external camera.

A desktop is fine, just no wireless keyboard or mouse and make sure your webcam can focus up close on your ID. That is another issue I had

If the proctor gives you trouble about only having 1 camera, just try and have them contact support or escalate it right then and there.

Yeah I haven't received any response back yet, but I'll probably retake my exam Wednesday anyway. Maybe I can get my retake back at the very least.