We recently wrote about Oracle’s at home proctored exams. Amazon is now starting to do the same. They announced it last month. As of now, it is only valid for the practitioner exam. Taking the exam anytime of the day or night is a nice feature to offer.

It’s offered from PearsonVUE so the rules are pretty similar to Oracle’s. See our blog post from when Oracle started offering it for our take. I think more people fall into the category of the online proctored exam being useful for AWS though. Here’s why:

Computer requirements

Same as in the Oracle blog post

Room requirements

Same as in the Oracle blog post. Still a problem for me because it is a physical layout issue.

Privacy

Same as in the Oracle blog post. Prepare your family/roomates so you have a room to yourself.

No Breaks

The AWS exam is significantly shorter than the OCP. Which means you aren’t likely to need a bathroom break and not being to take on is a non-issue.

No writing

This is still a problem for me. I write a lot down during exam. Facts I think i”ll forget. Questions I want to go back to. What I want to remember between questions in case one question answers another. I also like to track how many I am unsure of because it gives me confidence that I’m not failing.

Depending on your test taking style, not writing things down may be a non-issue though. It’s not like you are tracing complex loops here!

My thoughts

While I can’t do this, I think it is a good option for folks who have more space and/or live further away from a testing center. It’s definitely an easier sell than on the OCP!