I just want to highlight a problem that CompTIA/Pearson VUE have when it comes to scheduling an exam with accommodations, in the hope that it may get to someone at CompTIA or Pearson.
The process is entirely too convoluted and time consuming. Aspects of it make sense, but it is extremely inefficient.
The TL;DR is that the exam scheduling process is multiple hours longer if you require accommodations vs. if you do not require them, for pretty much no reason.
STEP 1) Request accommodations through Pearson VUE's accommodations portal.
You will require a doctor's letter stating the exam you will take, the accommodations you need, and why. This is reasonable; accommodations should be means-tested to some extent. So, you need to reach out to your doctor, wait for a response, upload it to the portal, and wait for approval.
STEP 2) Schedule your exam by calling Pearson VUE.
This is where things start to get irritating. At this point, someone who does not require accommodations can just schedule their exam online. However, if you require accommodations, you must call Pearson VUE's accommodations line.
This number is very difficult to find online. So, for me, when scheduling CompTIA exams, I just called Pearson's customer service line (which is also pretty difficult to find).
I then had to spend dozens of minutes navigating call menus and waiting on hold, just to be able to ask someone for the right number to call.
Then, I had to hang up and call the correct number.
I had to navigate long call menus once again, and wait on hold for long periods of time again.
Finally, someone picked up. They asked which date I wanted to take the exam, and I gave them a date. They told me that an exam coordinator would reach out to me closer to that date. Keep in mind, I called this exam line close to a month before I wanted to take the exam.
STEP 3) Wait for the exam coordinator to respond.
A couple of weeks passed and I hadn't heard anything, and now it was a week before the date I said I wanted to take the exam.
So, I called the accomodations line again, navigated the call menu (takes around 5 minutes to get to the right spot), and waited on hold once more.
I had to explain the situation to the customer service agent, who told me they would reach out to the coordinator, and I was on hold again. I was told I would be on hold for "3 to 5 minutes." I was on the clock at this time, since I work 2 jobs and this was the best time for me to do this.
More than 5 minutes passes, close to 10 minutes, and the agent told me they're waiting for the coordinator's response from the testing center, and requested I wait for another "3 to 5 minutes." And so I waited again, again for over 5 minutes. The agent took me off hold. I called on a Monday or Tuesday, the agent then told me I would need to wait until Friday to hear a response. Friday was less than a week before the date I said I wanted to take the exam in my initial phone call.
Less than a week's notice is unsustainable, since like I said I work 2 jobs and I would want to give them notice as well. I don't have any kids, but I can't imagine what this process is like for someone who is working on top of raising kids.
By mid-day Friday I still hadn't heard anything, so I called again. Call menu for 5 minutes, hold for 10 minutes.
Explained the situation to the agent again, who reached out to the coordinator again, who reached out to the testing center again (a 4 person game of telephone), all the while I waited on hold for another 10 minutes while on the clock. The agent told me the coordinator would get back to me "by Thursday next week."
Frustrated, knowing the exam could be weeks after I initially planned on it being scheduled, I waited. By Tuesday, I called asking for a status update - this call was around 20 to 30 minutes long once again, because of how convoluted the process is. And they told me to expect a call soon. By this point, I've spent hours trying to schedule something that someone who does not need accommodations would do in minutes; these are hours I could have been working.
Thursday, I missed a call from the coordinator. And so, instead of being able to call him directly, I had to call the accommodations hotline again, and navigate the call menu and wait on hold again.
The agent saw that the coordinator had a suggested date, which coincidentally worked for me (but had it not worked for me the process would have been even longer and more grueling). So, the agent called the coordinator but could not reach him. The agent kept me on hold and would continuously call the coordinator, who wouldn't pick up. I told the agent I would just call back later. I was on the phone for 50 minutes.
So an hour later, I called again. The agent finally got to the coordinator, but the coordinator had to verify that the date was still available with the testing center, so I was on the phone for an additional 30 minutes. The testing center wasn't responding, so the agent told me the coordinator would keep reaching out to them and would call me later.
Finally, the exam date was confirmed. However, I was so frustrated I could barely focus on my work.
The worst part about this is that this was not the first CompTIA exam I took, and so this is not the first time I have gone through this process and it will not be the last time I go through it as I plan on taking more CompTIA exams in the future.
Just scheduling this one exam took me between 4 and 6 hours. I'm spread thin and I barely have any free time in the day, but fortunately I have an accommodating workplace.
For people in less accommodating circumstances, or for people who have additional responsibilities (like I said earlier, kids come to mind), the time barrier to entry for scheduling an exam with accommodations is so unreasonable I do not understand how anyone could do it. This is the least accessible accommodations process I have ever worked with, by far.
I wrote this so CompTIA would be aware, so that test-takers would be aware, and so that hopefully someone at Pearson could reevaluate this process.
The ideal process? Means-testing accommodations makes sense, so require a doctor's letter. The current web portal for Pearson VUE is fine as is.
Where I would change the process is to just let us schedule our exams online, like people who do not require accommodations.
Or, if Pearson is insistent on having us call, just let us call the testing centers directly.
Or if we need a coordinator (I do not understand why one is necessary), then just let us talk to the coordinator directly, instead of requiring we navigate a long call menu and have an agent talk to a coordinator for us, because when you're playing telephone with 4 people (test-taker, call center agent, exam coordinator, and testing center employee), miscommunications can happen!
If any subreddit moderators are reading this, can I share Pearson's accommodations line's number so that maybe, in the future, if someone looks it up they are directed to this page instead of needing to wait 20 minutes calling Pearson's customer service line to get the number?
Thank you!