Assessment Center Tips and FAQs

PAEA Exams Can Be Taken on an iPad
The Assessment Center now allows students to take exams on iPads. This enhancement is a direct response to program requests.

To take advantage of this new feature, students must download SecureClient. Students will need to ensure the latest version of the app is downloaded either by allowing automatic updates or manually updating SecureClient.

Currently, the only tablet that can be used to take PAEA exams is an iPad. The iPad Mini is not compatible due to screen resolution requirements, which are listed here. There are a few important differences in how the iPad app works:

• Using the iPad app may benefit students who require the use of zooming to increase the size of the test text and images by using pinch gestures. We urge students to exercise caution to ensure that pinching does not change their answer selections.
• The iPad version does not currently have the ability to highlight stem text or strike out answer options like the computer app.
• The digital notepad still only uses the keyboard. Students cannot draw with their finger or an Apple Pencil in the notepad, so it functions similarly to the computer version.
• The app will ask users to enter lockdown mode before entering the test – clicking “no” will prevent students from entering the test, while clicking “yes” will disable buttons and gestures that allow test takers to access other apps.

Unproctored Exams Will No Longer Use PINs
Beginning with exams scheduled on Monday, November 13, Unproctored exams in the Assessment Center will no longer have a PIN added by default. This means that students can start their tests with the Unproctored delivery type at any time within the scheduled date range without intervention by a proctor.

Exams scheduled before November 13 with the Unproctored delivery type selected, regardless of the actual exam administration date, will still have a PIN set. For those previously scheduled exams, proctor users can remove the PIN within five days of the scheduled start date to allow students to begin their exams at their preferred time.

With these changes, the delivery types available in the Assessment Center will work as follows:

• In-Person Exams are scheduled for a set time with a PIN set, administered in SecureClient. These exams may be scheduled until the time they are set to begin.
• Unproctored Exams are scheduled for a date range without a PIN, administered in SecureClient. These exams must be scheduled at least a day before they are set to begin.
• Remote Proctored Exams are scheduled for a date range with a PIN, administered with a third-party remote proctoring service with monitoring resources, as they will not require SecureClient. These exams must be scheduled at least a day before they are set to begin.

Update SecureClient for Mac Users
We are pleased to announce Mac SecureClient has been updated by Apple for Macs and the latest iteration should prevent future scoring problems.

The latest version is available in the App Store. For many Mac users, the update will be done automatically, so the update may already be in place for some. However, Apple has a setting that can be turned on/off for apps to update automatically so it may not have auto-updated for everyone. We recommend turning on “auto-update” by going to your App Store settings and ensuring Automatic Updates is checked.

Please alert your students that it is important to check that they have the most up-to-date version of SecureClient before an exam begins. Here are instructions for those who want to manually update their apps.

Student Access to Assessment Hub
Your students will access the Assessment Hub to retrieve score reports once faculty have released those reports. This is the only reason students will need to access the Hub.

For students to access PAEA exam score reports, they must confirm their email and set a password in the Assessment Hub by following a link they will receive via email from PAEA. We have sent multiple email reminders to students to ensure they are prepared for test day.

We recognize that students have busy schedules, so we are asking that program staff help us remind them of this necessary step. Please remind students to look for the email which was sent on Monday, September 11 and will expire on Friday, September 15, follow the link, and choose a password. This quick activity will make a big difference when students try to access their score reports.

If students have not received an email inviting them to set up an Assessment Hub account, lost that email, or the link has expired, programs may reset this link for individual students. The staff member will go to the Assessment Center > Assessment Hub > Student Roster > Manage Students. The staff member must filter to the graduation year and select the correct student and then click Reset Password.

Student User Agreement
When students sign into SecureClient or Surpass to start an exam they will enter their keycode and PIN as directed and be asked to acknowledge a student agreement. The check box is grayed out until the student actively scrolls through the whole agreement. After that task is complete, they can check the acknowledgement and start the exam.

• How can I gain access to my program’s roster and proper Assessment Center permissions? Your program director or PAEA account manager is responsible for granting Assessment Center permissions, and not everyone will have the same access. If you are missing access to complete a task, please check with your PD or account manager.
• What PAEA Assessment Center permissions do I need? Here are the most common roles: (Program Directors can assign one or multiple roles)
  • Ordering Agent: Users with this role have permission to use the PAEA Assessment Shop to order exams.
  • Assessment Hub User: Users with this role have permission to manage the program’s student roster, schedule exams, and view score reports in the PAEA Assessment Hub.
  • Exam Proctor User: Users with this role have permission to proctor exams within the Exam Delivery Platform. This role is not for remote proctoring services.
• PINs now available five day in advance. The exams will show in the Monitor tab five days in advance with a status of Scheduled (locked) with a lock icon. Exams will change to Ready at the scheduled start time.
• Void button in the Exam Delivery Platform no longer available. If you need to void a test after it’s started, please contact customer service. If the exam has not started, go back to the Assessment Hub to cancel the exam.

We are pleased to announce Mac SecureClient has been updated by Apple for Macs and the latest iteration should prevent future scoring problems.

The latest version is available in the App Store. For many Mac users, the update will be done automatically, so the update may already be in place for some. However, Apple has a setting that can be turned on/off for apps to update automatically so it may not have auto-updated for everyone. We recommend turning on “auto-update” by going to your App Store settings and ensuring Automatic Updates is checked.

Please alert your students that it is important to check that they have the most up-to-date version of SecureClient before an exam begins. Here are instructions for those who want to manually update their apps.

The exams will show in the Monitor tab five days in advance with a status of Scheduled (locked) with a lock icon. Exams will change to Ready at the scheduled start time.

If you need to void a test after it’s started, please contact customer service. If the exam has not started, go back to the Assessment Hub to cancel the exam.

There are two equated forms available of the End of Curriculum™ exam. If a student fails on his or her first attempt and the PA program would like the student to retake the End of Curriculum exam, they may do so only once and no earlier than 60 days after their initial administration. This ensures that the student and program have adequate time to develop and implement an individualized remediation plan.

One limitation of transition from ExamDriver to the new Assessment Center is that we can’t tell the Assessment Center that the students have already taken their max allowed End of Curriculum attempts. Therefore, the Assessment Center thinks students who took End of Curriculum twice in ExamDriver can be scheduled for a third exams (second retake). While programs can technically schedule these students for a third End of Curriculum in the Assessment Center, it would be against PAEA policy, and we ask that you please refrain from doing so.

Your students will access the Assessment Hub to retrieve score reports once faculty have released those reports. This is the only reason students will need to access the Hub.

For students to access PAEA exam score reports, they must confirm their email and set a password in the Assessment Hub by following a link they will receive via email from PAEA. We have sent multiple email reminders to students to ensure they are prepared for test day.

We recognize that students have busy schedules, so we are asking that program staff help us remind them of this necessary step. Please remind students to look for the email which was sent on Monday, September 11 and will expire on Friday, September 15, follow the link, and choose a password. This quick activity will make a big difference when students try to access their score reports.

If students have not received an email inviting them to set up an Assessment Hub account, lost that email, or the link has expired, programs may reset this link for individual students. The staff member will go to the Assessment Center > Assessment Hub > Student Roster > Manage Students. The staff member must filter to the graduation year and select the correct student and then click Reset Password.

In this article, “The End of Raw Scores, and the Benefits of Scale Scores,” we explain that starting with the launch of the new platform on August 23, PAEA will be removing the scale score conversion calculator and replacing it with a raw score look up table.

As an update, upon launch of the Assessment Center the PAEA End of Rotation Exam conversion tables for Versions 6, 7 and 8 will be available in Assessment Hub under “Exam Driver Score Reports”. The remainder of the conversation tables (Version 2, 3, 4 and 5) will be available in September.

Upon launch of the Assessment Center, ExamDriver score reports for the PAEA End of Rotation™ and PACKRAT® exams, from 2012 through July 2022, will be available in the Assessment Hub under “ExamDriver Score Reports”.  The PAEA End of Curriculum™ exam will undergo additional quality control checks for accuracy and reports will be available in September of 2023.

The second wave of ExamDriver reports will be migrated to the Assessment Center in September. This will include all remaining reports not migrated in the initial effort along with End of Curriculum score reports. If programs are in need of yet-to-be migrated score reports prior to the final September migration, please contact us at exams@paeaonline.org.

In ExamDriver, time-based accommodations were scheduled simultaneously when the student was scheduled for their exam. There is now a change to this process. In the Assessment Center, time-based accommodations are now part of the student roster under manage students and needs to be entered before scheduling a student for their exam event.

Faculty will need to review all their students with time-based accommodations in the Assessment Hub under “Manage Students” to make sure time-based accommodations are accurately entered.

In the new Assessment Center, you can schedule students’ exams in their local time zones. This includes the ability to schedule in separate events if you have students taking remote exams in different time zones. To do this, you can indicate the time zone where the student will take the exam at time of scheduling.

The benefit is when the student gets their confirmation email, it will confirm the time zone where the student will sit for the exam. This is a feature of scheduling in the Assessment Center. Please be aware that all exams will be converted to Eastern Time in the Exam Delivery Platform when Proctor users view the Monitor Exams tab.

No, anyone that has Exam Proctor user permissions in your program’s PAEA Member Roster can proctor any exam.

The Assessment Center now allows students to take exams on iPads. This enhancement is a direct response to program requests.

To take advantage of this new feature, students must download SecureClient. Students will need to ensure the latest version of the app is downloaded either by allowing automatic updates or manually updating SecureClient.

Currently, the only tablet that can be used to take PAEA exams is an iPad. The iPad Mini is not compatible due to screen resolution requirements, which are listed here. There are a few important differences in how the iPad app works:

• Using the iPad app may benefit students who require the use of zooming to increase the size of the test text and images by using pinch gestures. We urge students to exercise caution to ensure that pinching does not change their answer selections.
• The iPad version does not currently have the ability to highlight stem text or strike out answer options like the computer app.
• The digital notepad still only uses the keyboard. Students cannot draw with their finger or an Apple Pencil in the notepad, so it functions similarly to the computer version.
• The app will ask users to enter lockdown mode before entering the test – clicking “no” will prevent students from entering the test, while clicking “yes” will disable buttons and gestures that allow test takers to access other apps.

Beginning with exams scheduled on Monday, November 13, Unproctored exams in the Assessment Center will no longer have a PIN added by default. This means that students can start their tests with the Unproctored delivery type at any time within the scheduled date range without intervention by a proctor.

Exams scheduled before November 13 with the Unproctored delivery type selected, regardless of the actual exam administration date, will still have a PIN set. For those previously scheduled exams, proctor users can remove the PIN within five days of the scheduled start date to allow students to begin their exams at their preferred time.

With these changes, the delivery types available in the Assessment Center will work as follows:

• In-Person Exams are scheduled for a set time with a PIN set, administered in SecureClient. These exams may be scheduled until the time they are set to begin.
• Unproctored Exams are scheduled for a date range without a PIN, administered in SecureClient. These exams must be scheduled at least a day before they are set to begin.
• Remote Proctored Exams are scheduled for a date range with a PIN, administered with a third-party remote proctoring service with monitoring resources, as they will not require SecureClient. These exams must be scheduled at least a day before they are set to begin.

When students sign into SecureClient or Surpass to start an exam they will enter their keycode and PIN as directed and be asked to acknowledge a student agreement. The check box is grayed out until the student actively scrolls through the whole agreement. After that task is complete, they can check the acknowledgement and start the exam.

1. For in-person exams, the order in which the proctor and student start an exam is important.
2. The student(s) enters the exam room. At this time, the proctor should check the student as present and remove the PIN. The student can also open SecureClient and check for updates at this time but not enter their Keycode.
3. Only after the proctor has removed the PIN may the student enter their Keycode, review their exam details, and review and acknowledge the Examinee Agreement.
4. Finally, they will be stopped after the Examinee Agreement until the proctor is ready to begin the exam by Unlocking.
5. Note: If the student enters their Keycode before the faculty removes the PIN:
   • On a PC: The “remove PIN” button will be blocked and the student will have to enter the PIN rather than have the proctor unlock.
   • On a MAC: You will need to find another device for the student or uninstall and reinstall SecureClient if another device is not available. This is a bug that the team is working on fixing.

1. For in-person exams, the order in which the proctor and student start an exam is important.
2. The student(s) enters the exam room. At this time, the proctor should check the student as present. The student can also open SecureClient and check for updates at this time.
3. The student may enter their Keycode, review their exam details, and review and acknowledge the Examinee Agreement.
4. Finally, they will be stopped after the Examinee Agreement until the proctor shares the PIN. Once the student puts the PIN in the exam will start.

In the Assessment Center, unproctored exams do not require a PIN.

1. The student signs into SecureClient and enters the Keycode they were supplied in their confirmation email. This will start the exam.
2. No PIN is needed.

1. When you schedule a student for an In-person exam, this requires the student to use the lockdown browser at the remote location.
2. Have the student sign on to the video call via a second device, i.e. a phone or tablet that sits to the side of the student for the faculty to proctor.
3. Follow the instructions above to start the exam as if in person.
4. Note that PAEA does not require the use of a proctor for remote administrations of PACKRAT® and End of Rotation™ exams. These exams may be given Unproctored. End of Curriculum™ exams must be given in person.

1. After you schedule a student for a remote proctored exam, send the third-party vendor the instructions, which can be found on this page under the Remote Proctor link. Note: At this time the instructions cannot be sent till the day of the exam, we are working to fix that.
2. The student will need to schedule a time to test with the third-party vendor.
3. At the time of testing the student signs into the third-party vendor’s website as instructed by them and follows their instructions to initiate an exam.
4. When instructed by the third-party proctor the student will navigate to the exam delivery platform website, https://paea.surpass.com/takeatest. When in this third-party environment students DO NOT use SecureClient, the third-party vendor’s technology replaces it. They will enter their Keycode, verify that their name and exam details are correct. Then the student will acknowledge the Examinee Agreement, and finally, the third-party proctor will give them their PIN to begin the exam.
5. Note that PAEA does not require the use of a proctor for remote administrations of PACKRAT® and End of Rotation™ exams. These exams may be given Remote Unproctored. End of Curriculum™ exams must be given in person.

While this can technically be done during in-person exams, exams are timed and have scheduled breaks. Exams should not be paused unless there is an emergency or a student accommodation for frequent breaks. In-person proctors may pause the exam in the case of an emergency.

For students using Macs, they are technically taking their exam offline, so the proctor does not have the same controls. If they need to take an unscheduled break, they can close their computer to disconnect from the exam. When they return, they will enter their Keycode again. Their progress and exam clock will resume where they left off.

Third-party proctors do not have access to pause an exam in an emergency. In that case the student should disconnect from the exam by closing their browser. When they return, they will enter their Keycode again. Their progress and exam clock will resume where they left off.

1. Faculty and proctors do not need to download or open SecureClient. The lockdown browser is only used by students.
2. The SecureClient lockdown browser MUST be used by students for in-person or unproctored exams. If a student tries to use the direct link instead of the SecureClient browser for an in-person or unproctored exam, they will get an “Invalid Keycode” error.
3. To start a remote proctored exam with a third-party vendor, the student will sign on to the vendor’s website and when instructed, navigate to the direct link. They will NOT use the SecureClient browser. The vendor’s software will replace SecureClient.

A bit of patience is required in ending the exam. Because SecureClient downloads the test content and then uploads results, students need to be careful not to shut down their computers right after clicking the final “Exit Test” button. Wait for SecureClient to return to the Keycode screen or close down to ensure that their results have uploaded.

If the student closes out of an exam and the results upload properly, on the Monitor screen of the Exam Delivery Platform you will see a green “finished” check.  If a student closed down before verifying and the exam had uploaded or had a connection issue, you will not see a green “finished” check. Ask the student to open SecureClient again and enter their Keycode. This should allow the results to finish uploading.

The Exam State column denotes the current status of a student’s test. Many of these states will not apply to PAEA exams. The below key can be found starting on page 31 of the Assessment Center User Guide.