This year has flown by and we can hardly believe it’s time for final exams again. We know that this year has been challenging and full of changes for many test takers, so we want to share some insights for making final exams go as smoothly as possible. These build on some of the tips we shared last semester that you might find useful heading into finals season.

1. Close Out Your Tabs and Disable Notifications

Before you download our browser extension and start your exam, we recommend closing out all of your open tabs and disabling any notifications that may disrupt your exam. This will help protect your privacy and minimize distractions to ensure you perform your best. Please note that if the “Close Open Tabs” Lock Down setting is enabled on your exam, Proctorio’s software will temporarily close any tabs you have open and reopen them upon submission of your exam.

If the exam you’re taking has video recording enabled, pop-up notifications might get flagged to your exam administrator. In these scenarios, exam administrators may inadvertently gain access to sensitive information while reviewing these flags. To protect your sensitive information and ensure you’re not unfairly flagged during the course of your exam, we highly recommend temporarily disabling outside notifications. As a reminder, Proctorio uses Zero-Knowledge Encryption, which means that only approved representatives at your institution have access to the encryption keys used to decrypt and view test-taker recordings.

2. Get Comfortable and Creative

While this year was immensely difficult and many of us missed being back in the classroom, one of the advantages of taking remote exams is the flexibility to customize your exam experience in a way that no testing center could accommodate. You can take your exam from your kitchen table, from your home office, or wherever you feel most comfortable! Additionally, night owls who do their best thinking at 3am can log on at any time within their appointed exam window to complete their exams.

If video recording is enabled on your exam, please ensure that you are centered within your webcam frame, the lighting within your exam environment is balanced, and you are sitting an appropriate distance from the webcam. This will ensure that your webcam successfully captures your image, enabling you to pass the pre-checks and enter your exam with ease. If you have any difficulty, our Support team is here to help via live chat. Just click the Proctorio extension icon at any point during the pre-checks and click the live chat button.

3. Customize Your Screen Time

Zoom fatigue is definitely a thing and we know that screen time can get tedious. Try out tools like blue blocker eyeglass lenses (available even if you don’t have a prescription) or “Night Shift” dimmer settings on your device that eliminate blue light, especially if you’re testing at night. Of course, if you’re going to try out any of these features, we recommend also using them during your test prep so there isn’t anything new to throw you off on exam day.

4. Contact Our Support Team With Any Issues

If you need additional support during the pre-check process or during your exam, please initiate a live chat with one of our Support Agents, available 24/7/365, by clicking the Proctorio shield icon in the right-hand corner of your browser window.

We hope these tips come in handy as you work hard to finish the semester in the next few weeks. Best of luck with your exams and have a great summer!

Note: This blog post was updated for clarity on June 23, 2021.