Pearson Digital Functional Skills

[networkmangler]

Has anyone done a Pearson Digital Functional Skills test? or planning to do it?

 

I'm trying to follow the guidance but some of it doesn't make sense

 

One section says "Please note that as the FS Digital Test Player is running in an online environment, a strong, stable and constant internet connection will be required throughout the test" . It then says in another section "Centres must ensure candidates do not access the internet in Section A".

 

There is another part that says "Candidates are required to have access to email software. They will not be required to send an email but must have access to suitable software which allows them to create an email, copy to more than one recipient and add attachment" How will we do this?

When you open most email software it asks you to setup an account before you can do anything

 

I can't see this running very smoothly

[MisterTechMan]

We are running this exam for the first time this year and have faced many problems.

 

The guidance is all over the place and contradicts itself, we found guidance which is rather hidden deep on the site, but is from May 2024. If you browse to the Digital Skills via the navigations menu, it takes you to old documentation (the POP/LAN guide).

 

We have run a few demo tests, and there is a bug with question 5 - it informs the learner that they have not completed it, however question 5 is just an instruction page with no tickable boxes. This has been passed onto Pearson support but we have yet to have a response.

 

The whole process is very messy, with Exams having to download each learners assessment material one by one, rename the folder, upload each folder to the correct PC, wait for the learner to sit the exam, then go and retrieve each set of files individually from the PCs to then upload them to pearson for each learner. It's concerning that the process is so manual and flaky for what is a Digital Skills exam!

 

Feel free to PM if you have any specific questions or want to discuss more in depth!

[Dan_G]

Just to drag up an old thread, I'm trying to get it up and running and the player just refuses to connect - done all the usual firewall check, disable AV, try off site on a non-school device.  Pearson support isn't great.  I've only ever used the LAN version (POP) with the server-hosted admin dashboard for BTEC exams, but the guidance (that contradicts itself all over the place) suggests we can't use that one for Digital Functional Skills.

 

 

 I've whitelisted these already:

1. 1. btecng.pearson.com
   2.  
   3. 4/16/26
   4.  
   1.  
   2. edexcelonline.pearson.com
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. iam.pearson.com
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. pearson.com
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. springboot-prod.identity-prd.pearson.com
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. springboot-prod.priv.pearsonprd.tech
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. userportal.pqs.pearsonprd.tech
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26
   5.  
   1.  
   2. www.pearson.com
   3.  
   4. 4/16/26

On one guide they state:

Whitelist BTECNG.Pearson.com

Important: Firewall ports that need to be open 443, 52221 & 52222 

On another, it's

Your network must allow incoming and outgoing traffic over port 443 to reach our IP / web addresses 159.182.72.158 and https://btecng.pearson.com

Important: Firewall port that needs to be open 443

I've done all that, and tried at home too outside of the network with firewall and AV disabled.  It's an odd one.  It doesn't look like it should need anything special but refuses to connect

Edited April 17 by Dan_G

[Dan_G]

Sorted it if anyone ever sees this.... app was trying to use TLS 1.0 (which was disabled).

 

Quote

There is a Microsoft support article here, detailing how to enable TLS 1.2 for .NET Framework on the Test Player machine, which should resolve the issue. This would allow the Test Player to use TLS 1.2 to connect to our server. You would need to add the registry changes near the bottom of the page and restart the computer before you see the changes. This would be the Configure for strong cryptography keys for 32-bit applications that are running on 64-bit OSs.

 

[Chrisbf1]

On 20/04/2026 at 09:03, Dan_G said:

Sorted it if anyone ever sees this.... app was trying to use TLS 1.0 (which was disabled).

 

 

Amazing , this worked a treat.