[Journeyman]

Hi all, had a situation and wondering if anyone has any experience with this. I just took Reg on 12/9 and with 2hrs and 38 minutes left my exam crashed on me and the prometric staff had to reboot my computer. This was right after I submitted a testlet so no way to tell if prior testlet data was still in tact. The staff assured me this has happened before and ‘shouldn’t’ affect my score or submissions. Has anyone had this happen to them? What was the outcome? Also my NTS still shows on the NASBA website (I thought I remembered that going away after I tested before).

[Icarito]

NTS stayed for at least a week after I tested.

[Journeyman]

Thank you for letting me know! That adds some comfort.

[Puppykoala]

It won't affect your score. When I was taking BEC, computer crashed during 4th testlet. Staff rebooted the machine and everything including the unfinished testlet 4 was still there. The program is smart enough to save for you in case of technical issue.

[Journeyman]

Thank you very much! Very reassuring. Now to pray the effort was enough haha.

[Matt]

Yep. Just happened to me last Friday 12/6 taking my FAR exam. I got pretty F**ked… One of my SIMS was to consolidate financial statements. I decided to copy paste the problem from the exam program into the excel that's provided through the exam. I work in public and I work in excel like 90% of my day, so using excel is just easier for me. I did all the work for the consolidations, eliminating entries, etc in excel. After completing the consolidating worksheet I went to type in my answers back into the exam program. I literally typed in the first 2 consolidated balances (cash and inventory or whatever) and it crashed…

Same thing as you from there. Exam administrator came and rebooted the computer. I lost everything I did in excel, but the 2 answers I had typed in were still there. So I would guess you are fine. Me however.. I was obviously pissed off and distracted, I honestly thought about just straight up leaving right then and there since I knew I was screwed. Decided to finish though. Then 5 minutes later the computer crashed again… This time they couldn't even get it to reboot and I had to switch to a new computer. All in all, I probably lost about 20 minutes of work/time dealing with it, and then was rushed to finish the last 5 SIMs.

I ended up not finishing the last SIM. So unless that's my throwaway, I'm 99.9% for sure failing…

[Journeyman]

@matt

I really hope you put that in the comments at the end of the test and had the exam staff document as well. I would even call and explain what happened. That’s horrible. 20 minutes on FAR is a very big deal.

[Matt]

Oh of course I did. I sent NASBA a lengthy email the second I got home and also followed up with Prometric. I left that test center absolutely fuming. They actually responded the next day and said to follow back up with them once the scores are released and I may be eligible for a free retest if I fail. So sounds like they'll at least compensate me for the test fees.

[aaronmo]

I had 4…FOUR…REG exam crashes. FOUR. The staff told me I wouldn't lose time, but I did…about 11 minutes. It happened to several in that center, and the center said it was the exam program. I forget exactly what the process was…I've written about it here before, but the staff gave me a report, or a case number…I sent a letter to NASBA…they got back to me and told me they'd look into it.

I never heard back, I got my pass anyway.

This is circumstantial, but another person who took the exam, and who had the same issue, told me they got a letter back from NASBA shortly after their letter letting them know they could reschedule for free. I THINK when you send the complaint, NASBA checks the test, sees if they think you passed, and then either pushes you off, or let's you reschedule. This is speculative based on two letters.

[Journeyman]

Very interesting. Haha I’m scared to do that… if this happens to be wrong and I read into it wrong (imagine if they say they’ll let me test again for free but I actually passed).

[Matt]

Four?!? Wow lol, I thought twice was bad enough…

Here's the reply I got back from NASBA's candidate care:

“Thank you for contacting NASBA’s Candidate Care.
We are sorry for the disruption you experienced while taking the FAR examination on 12/06/2019.
We have looked closely at your examination file and can confirm for you that all of your answers in all five testlets were captured, saved and successfully transmitted to the AICPA for scoring.
Due to the fact that you finished the exam and submitted it, there is a good chance you may have passed.
If after you receive your score, you find that you did not pass, please contact NASBA’s Candidate Care again, as you may be eligible for a free retest of this section.”

Hard to tell if there are any implications here or not..

[Journeyman]

Matt,

That is a strange email! It makes me not even want to see the reply they will send me. On yours it says “good chance you passed.” That looks like a positive sign, but you’re probably like me in that you don’t want to take that as hope if it’s not meant to be. If only there was a boiler plate response they could send so that we wouldn’t read into it… you know? Like what happens if mine is different, does that mean I failed and you passed, the other way around, or completely irrelevant as it comes down to who is typing the email…? These tests and waiting periods will make a sane person crazy.

[Recked]

Given the published pass rates are anything but “good chance you passed” I would take that as a good sign.
Obviously don't get your hopes up too high, but I'd be pretty pumped if I got that email.

[Journeyman]

I’ll take his email as the more-likely-than not that he passed. Mine, substantial authority standard at best and maybe even only reasonable basis 😂.

[aaronmo]

Agree – I read that as “we can't tell you you passed, because we can't score your test independently, but don't worry about it.”

If memory serves, my letter was more like:

We got your letter. We'll look into it. It didn't have any verbiage like yours…but it may not be a form letter either.

[Matt]

Just figured I would follow up here. I didn't want to jinx myself, but wanted to let ya'll know that I did end up passing!!! Got an 84 without answering my last SIM…

[Author]

Replies