Testing Center Policy??

[ericalw]

So I have taken over 6 tests and over 4 at the same testing center. The last time I took an exam I took my break but I still had 5 mins to spare so I began to just set up some of the things I knew would be asked on the vignette. Once my time started I began and about 10 minutes in the testing center person came up and told me that since I had begun before my break was over she had to take my paper and I had to restart with fresh paper. Is this standard everywhere? I never have had this and as far as I know NCARB has never said this was not allowed. If this is the case I would like to report this to this specific center because though I still passed and had time most of the time you do not have the ability to restart after 10 mins of taking notes on a vignette. I was really offput to say the least...

[noshington]

Sounds like some power tripping B.S. to me. I've had a few really bad experiences at testing centers, and I would definitely report it. Even if this is an actual policy, it sounds ridiculous.

[wachant]

Need to clarify, were you writing out notes during your break? Or did you have time to spare at the end of your first section?

In my experience, they never let me back to my computer after a break closer than 2 minutes prior to the end of the break. And when they did so, they said to make sure not to start anything till that time is up.
However, they also did encourage the use of any tutorial time, prior to beginning the first section, to brain dump anything you'd like.

It will certainly vary from center to center, but if they never caught onto it before, that doesn't necessarily make it legal. To my knowledge, you can only be working on test related stuff while the test timer is counting down. But as I said, that's based on my experiences between 2 different test centers.

[JeromeS]

Report 'em.

on occasion, I decided not to take my break and sat there the whole 15 minutes, while the timer clicked down.

[robo122]

i always use part of my break time to write down notes & tables that i will be using for the vignette

[bruceni]

You are not allowed to be at the computer during the break. At most you should only be allowed in with 1 or 2 minutes remaining. I've been told every time not to do anything until the test starts. During the tutorial, that time is yours to do what you want. Only during the Multiple choice do you have 10 minutes, but for the vignettes your tutorial is only 60 seconds. So if you were writing stuff during the break in front of the computer before the vignette, that is definitely against the rules.

Good thing you passed. But I'd let it slide and be more mindful next time. Use tutorial time for brain dump. Break time for break.