I’ve spent much of this month bellyaching on social media about the poor experiences people have with live proctoring of at-home tests. And I’m not just talking about TOEFL. I’ve read complaints from people taking various tests. Indeed, the LSAT seems to be ground zero for test-taker complaints. On LinkedIn I wrote many things, but concluded with:
Perhaps proctor switching is a pain point for some at-home tests. It seems to come up in test-taker reports with some regularity. Maybe this is an area which proctoring companies could focus on when training proctors. Or maybe they could ensure that individual instances are supervised by the same person all the way through.
Here’s one of my recent LinkedIn rants, which refers to the wall-of-text in the middle screenshot (below):
Staying on the topic of how students experience at-home testing and shoddy proctoring, here is a recent post from social media. The original post will be viewed by thousands of potential test-takers in the weeks ahead.
The post is a wall of text, so here’s a quick summary of what the poster alleges:
- The test-taker has a pretty good experience for most of the test. Their proctor is great.
- Part way through the test a NEW proctor takes over and begins speaking to the test-taker. Sadly, this happens during a part of the test which requires the test-taker to listen to a short lecture. The test-taker isn’t able to hear the lecture over the voice of the proctor.
- The next part of the test is another question which, again, requires the test-taker to listen to a short lecture. During the lecture, the proctor requests a scan of the test-taker’s room. This prevents the test-taker from hearing the lecture.
- Worst of all, the test-taker has a deadline and doesn’t have time to take the test again.
This hits on the two things I’ve been repeating again and again and again in this space. Badly done at-home testing can have a profound impact on the lives of test-takers. But it can also have a profound impact on the reputations of testing companies and on their bottom lines.
I’ve heard similar stories routinely over the past three years.
Business names are censored so people don’t think I’m picking on anyone; this is a problem across the board.
Meanwhile, a petition has been posted regarding live proctoring of the LSAT. It says, in part:
There have been widespread issues for remote testers since Prometric took over proctoring a few months ago. Proctors have been interrupting tests to enforce rules that do not apply to the LSAT. Test Takers have complained about proctors frequently interrupting exams to tell them they cannot touch their face or that they must remove foam earplugs, even though test takers are allowed to engage in both behaviors. When we signed up for our remote tests, we even got instructions from Prometric that we were not allowed to have paper, writing utensils or a drink in our surrounding area when taking the test. These instructions are not correct as scrap paper and writing utensils are a crucial part of taking the LSAT. We are also allowed to drink water during the exam. So why is LSAC okay with Prometric sending us instructions that are clearly incorrect?
Below are some recent complaints, which I gathered in the span of about a week. One can find similar complaints on places like Reddit and Twitter every day of the week.
