Updated 3 Feb 22 during Mock. Thankfully, the technical and functional issues with WISEflow and LockDown Browser are much less than last year. But candidates can still have individual issues due to hardware / software incompatibilities or disabled permissions.
WISEflow now has a list of computer recommendations, and provides user guides and troubleshooting. Experience form last year is that you will have the least chance of technical issues if you use a dedicated desktop with one screen (at least 27 inch), one camera, one microphone, one keyboard, one mouse, one loudspeaker device, one printer, direct wired (USB/HDMI) connections to all peripherals, administrator access, cabled (LAN) access. The most chance of issues were with a corporate laptop without administrator access, laptop with an internal and an external camera, intelligent firewalls, or active virus scanners.
Use this LAST CHANCE to test your setup to make sure that you will not have any technical issues during the exam, even if you have already participated in an earlier Mock. At least join at the start of the session to run through the ID checks, and participate for an hour or so to check that the webcam and monitoring continue to work. The currently available mock flows will remain open until 6 March 2022, but you will not be able to test on your own with full invigilation.
The Pre-Exam mock will use Pre-exam (2021): Part 3 only. The Main Exam flow will be a single flow with all 2021 exams (A, B, C, D) – you may use any of the papers.
- The participant password is: abc
Things to do and to check:
- Turn off screensavers, sleep/hibernate functions, scheduled tasks like virus checking and backup, and delay windows updates.
- Printing. As in the real examination the printable parts will be made available approximately 10 mins before the start of the flow (you might have to refresh your browser page).
- Taking entry images. Hold your valid ID card or passport into the camera, next to your face.
- Video and audio surveillance. Try the integrated chat widget (human invigilation will however be very limited).
- If you have a technical issue during the mocks, contact the invigilators using the chat widget. If this is not working, these are mocks, so you can also ask in the EQE Telegram Groups for advice.
- If you are kicked out and need to get back-in, enter WISEflow and start the flow (Lockdown Browser) and complete the ID check (if necessary). The chat widget appears bottom right before you are asked for participation or administrator passwords. So, you can access it from any computer with an internet browser where LockDown Browser is also installed.
- The invigilator password was not shared in the e-mail, so you will have to request it from the invigilators if you have technical issues. The invigilator password is needed to enter the flow after the start, or to exit early. There are also other WISEflow functions that can be accessed when instructed by an invigilator, such as saving or printing.
- Practice using the External references to see if they can be accessed. You should also try to search in the EPO Guidelines using Advanced Search, and navigate to the National Law tables. Browser shortcuts that work on my Win10: SHIFT+LEFT MOUSE (open in new tab), F5 (refresh – or use icon), ALT ← & ALT → (backward & forward – or use icon), SPACE or PAGE DOWN (scroll down), SHIFT+SPACE or PAGE UP (scroll up), HOME & END (top & bottom of page), jump to pdf bookmarks using toolbar icon, CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE (zoom – or use icon, or (i) options), CTRL+A, CTRL+C.
- Practice opening tabs, copy/pasting into your answer, and searching in the exam. Try not using the computer for 10 minutes to see if your screensaver or sleep/hibernate freezes the system.
- Test commands and actions that you may need, such as Winkey-SPACE for changing keyboard layout, F5 (or click on Refresh icon), CTRL-ALT-DELETE to allow a different network selection.
- When you have practiced enough with the exam, you can see whether some of the actions that caused problems last year will still cause you to be kicked out. For example, using ALT-TAB and multiple-finger gestures on a touchpad.
- On my system: hitting ALT-TAB ONCE generates a warning that it is an unauthorised action, and if repeated will require the adminstrator password to continue.
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