About open and closed rules

Pearson VUE Test Centers (PVTCs) and PVTC Government Centers must be open for a minimum of eight hours per week. To accommodate long exams, at least four of these hours must be consecutive (for example, 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM on a Monday).

The number of hours or days that PVTC Selects are required to be open varies by test center. For more information, see Additional requirements for PVTC Selects.

Open and closed rules define your test center's hours of operation and determine when candidates can schedule appointments:

Open rules define the specific days and hours when your test center is open.
Closed rules define the specific days and hours when your test center is closed (such as during holidays or for emergencies).

When the testing system interprets the rules you create, it first uses the open rules to determine all the days and hours when your test center is open. It then looks at your closed rules and subtracts any days and hours when your test center is closed.

It is critical that you maintain accurate open and closed rules. If your open and closed rules do not match your actual hours of operation, candidates may schedule appointments when you are not open and later arrive to find that your test center is closed.

It is also critical to set your test center hours in advance. Some exam sponsors allow their candidates to schedule exams months in advance. Pearson recommends that Pearson VUE Test Centers (PVTCs) and PVTC Government Centers set their hours at least six months in advance. PVTC Selects are required to set their hours at least twelve months in advance.

Note the following tips for creating rules:

Normally, you should have one open rule to define when your test center is generally open (for example, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM).

When you set up your general open rule, you might not want the start time to be the same time test administrators normally arrive for work. It is a good idea to allow time for staff to prepare for the day and to allow time for staff who are running late due to situations such as traffic or bad weather. Also, keep in mind that some exam sponsors instruct their candidates to arrive 15 to 30 minutes before the scheduled appointment time.

As an example, consider a scenario in which your test administrators normally arrive at 8:00 AM. If you allow 45 minutes for staff preparation and assume that some candidates will arrive 30 minutes before the first appointment of the day, you could have your general open hours start at 9:15 AM.

After establishing when your test center is generally open, create closed rules to define times when your test center will be closed.

For example, you might want to create a closed rule to specify that your test center is not open on Friday evenings. In addition, you might want to create a closed rule to cover a lunch period each day, such as from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM.

Create closed rules for holidays at the beginning of the year. This way, you do not have to remember to create closed holiday rules during the rest of the year.

Be extremely careful not to create a closed rule if there are already appointments scheduled during the period when you want to close the test center. Before creating a closed rule, follow the procedure in Checking the schedule in Site Manager to check for scheduled appointments.
If you need to close your test center temporarily, you must create a closed rule to prevent candidates from scheduling exams while your test center is closed. For more information, see Rescheduling exams due to site closures.

For detailed instructions about creating open and closed rules, refer to the help instructions built into Site Manager. For information about locating help instructions, see Application instructions in the Connect portal.