Rescheduling exams due to site closures

At times, you may need to close your test center temporarily for planned or unexpected reasons. For example, your test center may need to close if you are moving to a new location or due to weather-related issues.

If your test center needs to close, follow these steps:

Check if there are any appointments scheduled during the time your test center will be closed. (For more information, see Checking the schedule in Site Manager.)
Create a closed rule for your test center in Site Manager. This will prevent candidates from scheduling exams while your test center is closed. Make sure that the dates you set for the closure cover the entire time that your test center will be closed. (For more information, see Specifying when your test center is open and closed.)

If no appointments are scheduled during the time your center will be closed, the process is complete. Skip step 3.

If your site closure will affect scheduled candidates, you must notify Pearson. The process for notifying Pearson varies by test center location:

Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao, Mongolia, South Korea: Contact Channel Care at (+86)10-59892600. (If you are calling outside of normal business hours, contact VSS or a program coordinator instead of Channel Care.)
Japan: Contact VSS at 0120-355-183.
All other locations: Create a Site closure case. When you create the case, select the same closure dates that you used for the closed rule in Site Manager. For more information about how to create this case, see QRC - Creating a site closure case for your test center. This document is available in the Resources application in the Connect portal.

Once notified, Pearson will inform any affected candidates about the site closure and instruct them to reschedule their exams.

If you later determine that you must extend your site closure, repeat this process.

Ending a site closure early

In some situations, you may want to end a site closure earlier than its scheduled end date. For example, if you closed your test center due to bad weather that ended sooner than anticipated, you may want to reopen your test center early.

If no candidates were impacted by your original site closure, you can delete the closed rule you created in Site Manager. This will end the site closure early.
However, if candidates were impacted by your original site closure, Pearson does not recommend ending your site closure early. Depending on the exam sponsor, candidates who are affected by a site closure may have the option to reschedule their appointment. If candidates have this option, the appointment will appear unchanged on your test center schedule until it is rescheduled. This means that if you reopen your test center early, your test center schedule may display appointments for candidates who most likely will not arrive because they believe your test center is still closed.

If you reopen early and a candidate does arrive, you must run RMA to confirm the candidate's appointment is still marked deliverable on your test center schedule (for more information, see Running RMA manually and Checking the schedule in Admissions Manager). If it is, the candidate is allowed to take their exam on their original appointment date. However, it is more likely that candidates will not show up until the site closure's original end date has passed.