Since the last time I took an exam, Oracle switched from Pearson VUE in person testing to online testing from your home/office. This page explains the process of buying a voucher and scheduling an exam. Some of the steps aren’t obvious, so I comment on those in more detail.

Remember to study before you buy the exam as your exam must be taken within 6 months of paying. See our Java 21 OCP Certified Professional Study Guide page for details!

• Part 1: Paying for the exam
• Part 2: Assigning the exam attempt
• Part 3: Scheduling the exam (you are here)

Step 1: Sign up for the exam!

To sign up for the exam with your voucher go to the Java 21 page on MyLearn. (or whichever version of Java you want to take the exam for.) You get prompted to activate your “subscription” (it’s still an exam attempt misleading called a subscription.

I chose to skip the option about personalizing my experience on MyLearn. Then you get to the page you want. Scroll down and choose “Register Now.” Ignore the course. It’s expensive and you haven’t bought it. Luckily, you don’t need to and can register for the exam.

You see the exam name and timing. All exams are proctored online. You can click either “Schedule your Exam” option.

Also on this page is a summary of what you need for the exam. it’s not thorough. For example, it tells you that you need a computer with a mic and webcam, but not that you need admin access. (Don’t use a work computer). They provide the details later on a webpage.

The detailed text before the schedule page is:

• Computer – Use a personal desktop/laptop that has a reliable internet connection, microphone, and webcam.
• Id – Ensure that you have your government-issued ID for verification at check-in. The ID must match exactly first and last name used for exam registration. Have two forms of acceptable IDs available if additional validation is requested.
• Testing space – Checkin is 30 minutes before. You must not have access to any mobile devices, watches, other electronics, materials, books, screens, or anything else deemed unacceptable by the proctor. You should be the only person in the room, no other voices should be heard, and you should not speak during the exam. Make sure you take the exam in a quiet room, free from distraction. Headphones and virtual backgrounds are not allowed.

Step 2: Schedule the exam

Choose your time zone and the desired date for the exam. After you choose the date, it shows you the available times. There seem to be six start times per day (NYC time: midnight, 4:30am, 7am, 11:30am, 3pm, 7:30pm). Some days slots are full. Note that the exam is not given on weekends and options are available roughly two months out.

Then click “Save and Continue”

Select the one radio button that is an option and “Save and Continue” again

Then enter the name on your id and a contact phone number if there is a problem during the exam. Finally, agree to the terms and conditions. Which include a link for the details for the computer and id requirements. Then you get to schedule the exam.

Step 3: Learning path for validating system

Oracle provides a learning path to validate your setup. This walks through downloading the secure browser for your operating system. It’s called “Lockdown Browser OEM”. Good to know so you can delete it after the exam. The learning path took about 10 minutes to go through. It closed most of my applications, but oddly not the Chrome browser that I launched it from. (I was watching Hulu in the background in Chrome during the test)

Since the last time I took an exam, Oracle switched from Pearson VUE in person testing to online testing from your home/office. This series of three blog posts explains the process of buying a voucher and scheduling an exam. Some of the steps aren’t obvious, so I comment on those in more detail.

Remember to study before you buy the exam as your exam must be taken within 6 months of paying. See our Java 21 OCP Certified Professional Study Guide page for details!

• Part 1: Paying for the exam
• Part 2: Assigning the exam attempt (you are here)
• Part 3: Scheduling the exam

Step 1: The emails

Within 10 minutes Jeanne and Scott each got an email confirming payment. It also included the order number, customer support id, and the note about waiting up to two days.

About 40 minutes later, I got an email titled “Activate Your Oracle University Digital Learning Exam”.

Step 2: Assign exam attempts

This is a weird step. I bought one exam attempt for myself and Oracle wants me to distribute the exam to myself as if I am a company. Click on the “Exam Attempts Administration Tool” and the click the edit icon under “Assign Attempts”

Then click on “Assign Exam Attempts”

Enter your email and the number “1” and click “Add to List”. Then you check a box that you have consent to send email to these individuals. Which is weird because it is still you. And submit. So after all that work, you – the individual who bought the exam is now assigned a voucher to take an exam.

This generates an email titled “Oracle Exam Attempt Assigned” which tells you that you can sign up for an exam at long last. Yay!

Now that you have an attempt, you can schedule your exam. See Scheduling the exam

Since the last time I took an exam, Oracle switched from Pearson VUE in person testing to online testing from your home/office. This series of three blog posts explains the process of buying a voucher and scheduling an exam. Some of the steps aren’t obvious, so I comment on those in more detail.

Remember to study before you buy the exam as your exam must be taken within 6 months of paying. See our Java 21 OCP Certified Professional Study Guide page for details!

• Part 1: Paying for the exam (you are here)
• Part 2: Assigning the exam attempt
• Part 3: Scheduling the exam

Step 1: Find the page for your exam

To start out, you find the page for your exam. For example, the Java SE 21 Developer Professional Exam Number: 1Z0-830. Alternatively, you can start from the page of all the exams.

Once on the page for your exam, note that there are three “steps”.

1. “Recommended Training” – taking Oracle’s training is optional. It is also expensive so I recommend opting not to take it. Our Java OCP 21 Certified Professional Study Guide is two orders of magnitude less expensive.
2. “Review Exam Topics” – this lists the exam objectives
3. “Register and take the exam” – this section has a link to “Buy Exam”. There is also a link to “Buy Exam” at the top of the page before you get to these three steps. Both buttons take you to the same place so click either of them.

Step 2: Choose the Exam Type

The previous step takes you to a generic page for buying an exam with no memory of which exam it is. Choose the first option “Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and Technology Exams”. The Java Professional Cert is considered a “Technology Exam”. If you are not in the United States, you’ll see different prices. Click “Purchase” under that first column.

Note: If you are taking the Foundations exam click the fourth option. Unless you were specifically asked to, it is unlikely you are taking the Foundations exam. I wrote a blog post about why to choose the OCP instead back in Java 11 and the reasons still apply.

Step 3: Add to cart

You then get taken to a page inviting you to add a “subscription” to your cart. This page confirms Java is a choice for this type of certification.

Tip: the word “subscription” is misleading. It’s not a subscription. It’s a single attempt at taking one exam. It’s really an exam voucher which is not the same thing as a subscription. I guess they are sharing the processing engine with the Oracle University subscription option.

Choose “Add to Cart.”

Step 4: Go to cart

After clicking “Add to Cart”, the page doesn’t take you to your cart. You need to click on the shopping cart in the top right corner manually which will give you a preview of your cart. Then click “View Cart” to actually go to your cart.

Step 5: Sign in (if you haven’t already)

You can sign in at any point in the process. When viewing the cart is the latest opportunity though.

Step 6: Checkout

Now you can click the “Checkout” button

I’m not showing the checkout screen as it has my personal info on it, but they want to know

• Customer type – I choose Individual (there’s also an option for corporate). For individual, they want a contact phone number
• “Service” address. (aka mailing address) They wanted a county and town. Which is odd. The post office doesn’t want both in the United States
• Name/Email
• Phone number (yes, again)
• I clicked “preferred” for this address which defaulted the billing address to the same
• Payment info – added my credit card. Depending on where you live there may be tax. For Jeanne it was about $22 in tax

Then I clicked the “Place Order” button. I got taken to a screen with an order number and customer support id. it also says “Within 2 business days, you will receive an email from Oracle University containing a link and instructions to activate your subscription. If you have questions or need assistance, please Contact Us by filling out a support form under “Order Processing”.

Spoiler: it does not take two days. See Assigning the exam attempt for what to do when you get the exam.