When I took the Java 21 certification, Oracle was essentially using Zoom to proctor the exam. Today I took the Oracle AI Vector Search Professional certification so I could see the new exam engine. It’s much better! (separate blog post on the actual vector search exam)
Requirements/testing the software
Oracle has a page that summarizes requirements. The exam now uses a browser plugin named Proctorio. You download the plugin right before the exam and remove it right after. IF you do a the exam readiness check, you still install the plugin after that and install a fresh copy before the real exam.
The plugin ensures you close the necessary programs on your machine. Like other browsers. Oddly it was fine with me having Slack and a few other things open. It also prompted me to unplug my second monitor.
Then it has you take a picture of yourself (actually 3-5 of them) and scan your id. The tool didn’t pick up on my id when I was holding it automatically so I had to press a button for that picture to be saved. And yes one id. There was one place that said two ids, but they only checked one. (And the exam page says one id)
The plugin lists the following information
What’s recorded during the exam
- websites visited
- location
- identity document
What’s restricted during the exam
- one monitor
- full-screen mode
- no new tabs
- no clipboard
- no printing
- no downloads
- no right-clicking
During the exam
The exam readiness practice was a good representation of what you saw. Very important is to click to open the right navigation with extra options. It included a calculator (available, but not needed for this exam) along with a digital exam. There were also options to zoom in or out which would be super useful on the Java cert exam since some of the questions are very long. And of course the usual functionality to flag questions for review.
On the real exam, there was also an option to report feedback on questions to Oracle. There was also a small video of your video in record mode, and a chat with proctor button. There as also an 80% battery indicator. I was at 100% so not sure what that referenced.
More on the whiteboard since that was the most important thing for me. You can use your cursor to draw on it. Or you can click the “T” button and then click where you want to be on the whiteboard and type. You have to do this each time you want to type. There’s a delete button but it deletes the whole whiteboard contents. There isn’t an eraser to erase just part. You can leave the whiteboard open or close it between questions. It remembers what is written on the whiteboard when you close it. Also, you can’t scroll to add more space so think about how you are using the space.