Administering exams

Use the following page as an outline to prepare for administering your first exam as a Certiport Authorized Testing Center (CATC). If you have not yet registered to become a CATC, please see our Getting Started page.

Baseline preparations

  • The person administering the exam must be associated to your center as a Proctor. See our associations and roles page for detailed info.
  • All Test Candidates must register an account with Certiport. Each candidate will only ever need one login/username. If you are unsure whether you have previously registered, please contact us.
  • Each computer used for testing should be set up and configured prior to exam delivery. See our Get Started page to determine which delivery method is right for your CATC.
  • For downloading and installing the Compass exam delivery system (Login required)
  • We have a Top 10 checklist page that covers additional administrative and technnical checks that should be performed prior to delivering an exam.

Exam launch pathway

The following is only an outline, please see below for links to more detailed instructions.

Important: All exams must be administered adhering to the items detailed in our full exam policies.
  1. The Proctor will validate the Test Candidate's identity by checking a government-issued picture identification card and then verifying the testing environment before administering any exam. If the Test Candidate is being proctored remotely, the Proctor must also inspect the exam environment.
  2. Each Test Candidate will double-click the applicable desktop icon to launch the exam delivery software. If the candidate is being proctored remotely, they would instead click on a link they received in an email, or log in through a browser.
  3. Each Test Candidate will enter their username and password to log in; these will be the same credentials used for their Certiport.com user account.
  4. Test Candidates will select whether or not they will be using an Exam Group (optional). Using exam groups provides additional tracking and reporting functionality. View the guide for more information regarding exam groups.
  5. The Test Candidate will select how they will be paying for the exam. They could be using their own voucher , or may be covered through a different payment type through the CATC.  If they are not using a voucher, they can click the 'Next' button and if available, the automatic debiting of a payment method will occur from the CATC's inventory/licenses.
  6. The Test Candidate will then choose the program, suite, and individual exam to be taken (e.g., Microsoft Word 2019).
  7. They verify their personal information and agree to any NDAs, EULAs, or other terms of use.
  8. On the last page, the Proctor will need to verify that all the information is correct and check a box before entering their Proctor credentials to unlock and launch the exam for the Test Candidate. The exam timer does not begin until after the test candidate reviews the exam tutorial.
  9. The Proctor will observe the test candidate(s) throughout the duration of the exam using the appropriate observation methods.

Seat time

It is important to note that there is more to administering an exam than just letting the Test Candidate go through the timed portion of the certification exam. Additional time will be required to administer an exam from start to finish with input from both the Proctor/Teacher as well as the Test Candidate. This administrative time combined with the allotted exam time is known as the “Seat Time”. These additional actions may include tasks and logistics such as classroom planning, launching the software, signing in, potentially downloading updates to the software and/or exam content, loading times, reading and agreeing to terms/conditions, completing demographics, reviewing the tutorial, sending in comments, and uploading/viewing the exam results.


Additional support

For an enhanced summary of the Compass download, install, maintenance, and exam launch process, see our Compass page. For detailed instructions on our delivery systems, please refer to our quick reference guides.

If you have technical problems while delivering exams, contact us (inside the U.S.) or one of our Certiport Authorized Partners (outside the U.S.).