Surpass - Secure Client (what a pain)

[AJWhite1970]

And yet yesterday it was all working fine through proxies....

 

For whatever reason something somewhere is massively overloaded

[jnfarmer]

Just had a look on Twitterverse and loads of people piling in on the Cambridge Assessments Twitter account. The only thing they're coming back with is to log a ticket on their helpdesk...

[RLR]

I just got this from their form I submitted online:

 

Hi,

 

We are aware of some loading issues with the online exams and the invigilation screen. We are working to resolve this and provide more resources to these exams.

 

Please bare with us while we work on the problem.

 

Kind regards,

 

*** Name Redacted***

Service Desk Advisor

Edited November 4, 2021 by elsiegee40

[jnfarmer]

I just got this from their form I submitted online:

 

AKA - we're trying to chuck a boat load more RAM in a server.

[AJWhite1970]

Make the gerbil run faster....

[kennysarmy]

Just had a look on Twitterverse and loads of people piling in on the Cambridge Assessments Twitter account. The only thing they're coming back with is to log a ticket on their helpdesk...

 

What's the account name?

[RLR]

Poor one out for the IT team there.

[exodia_nb]

AKA - we're trying to chuck a boat load more RAM in a server.

 

LOL

 

we now have another student connected.. one more to go!

[RLR]

What's the account name?

 

https://twitter.com/search?q=%40admissionstests&src=typed_query

[AM369]

Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing is the account. Having some issues as others with it jist not loading. Help!

[jnfarmer]

What's the account name?

 

Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing on Twitter: "Stay calm, it’s test day (3 November)! Good luck to everyone taking BMAT, ECAA, ENGAA, NSAA, CAT, MAT, MLAT, OLAT and the Philosophy Test. You’re prepared and you’ve got this! #admissions https://t.co/1FD7cecQno" / Twitter

 

Enjoy! Loving the irony of their original post.

[mavhc]

It's running on Azure, so either they never tested horizontal scaling, or they forgot to pay the bill

[sonofsanta]

Looks like I was lucky in getting both our kids started this morning--dragged myself in yesterday even though I still felt ill so I could test and get set up, and I'm bloody glad I did now.

 

Concerned now, though, that they won't be able to upload when the test is finished--anyone knows what happens in that case? Does the software save the result somewhere that we can grab and keep safe?

 

Errors about "Invalid keycode" are, obviously, secret code for "I can't get to the web service"--worked that one out yesterday when I couldn't get the test paper to work, took a guess it was web filtering, hey presto now it works. I love an accurate error code

[Hangedsanchez]

They said on Twitter not to worry, the window to start the window is open until 1pm. Unfortunately, the conference rooms we're in aren't booked for all day.... Edited November 3, 2021 by Hangedsanchez

[AJWhite1970]

We've sent ours out for some air under supervision and without phones or bags.

 

This needs to be called now, been in there for nearly 2 hours

[FragglePete]

Not sure what I can do now. Keycode not valid. Cambridge says we need to contact the BTL help desk but they're not answering and no reply to tickets yet.

 

Very poor.

 

Pete

[RLR]

Looks like I was lucky in getting both our kids started this morning--dragged myself in yesterday even though I still felt ill so I could test and get set up, and I'm bloody glad I did now.

 

Concerned now, though, that they won't be able to upload when the test is finished--anyone knows what happens in that case? Does the software save the result somewhere that we can grab and keep safe?

 

Errors about "Invalid keycode" are, obviously, secret code for "I can't get to the web service"--worked that one out yesterday when I couldn't get the test paper to work, took a guess it was web filtering, hey presto now it works. I love an accurate error code

I asked their support the same question. This is the reply:

 

Yes if you take the devices offline and run the exams they will likely fail to upload. As long as the software in not uninstalled then the responses will remain recoverable. Once things aren’t as blocked up with traffic, reconnect the PCs and reopen SecureClient – this will trigger an upload attempt. If that still fails (and the invigilate screen still shows “awaiting upload” for these exams), give us a call and we’ll talk you through the recovery process.

[AJWhite1970]

On the plus side - we have this all again tomorrow with TSA, TMUA and TSAS1 exams....

[jnfarmer]

We're finally on the phone to the support people...

[RLR]

On the plus side - we have this all again tomorrow with TSA, TMUA and TSAS1 exams....

 

We need this working tomorrow as we have a student that is allowed to leave the room so will need their test pausing by the invigilator.

 

Our 5 students have just finished and their exams did get uploaded. 2 failed initially but a retry sorted it. Took a while!

[chris11256]

Ours started slightly late so should be finishing at about 10 past, will be interesting to see how many managed to upload.

[FragglePete]

I'm getting a loading screen now - but has been stuck for about 10 minutes.

 

Invigilator pages now load, but the candidate is missing from the exam we have listed for them.

 

Oh, the joy!

 

Pete

[AJWhite1970]

This is crazy - a couple of schools have finished, vast majority haven't started, paper is compromised as Asia managed to take it in early hours. Students stressed and no longer in frame of mind to take test

[kennysarmy]

We've been told to try after 11am when the load on their system will reduce and it will work!

 

We will see.

[jnfarmer]

Our candidates can now see the instructions but still nothing showing on the invigilator screen.