6.3 Exam-Day Checklist

Know your delivery channel

CIA Part 1 is administered through Pearson VUE, and you choose one of two delivery channels when you schedule:

• Test center: You travel to a Pearson VUE Authorized Test Center, store your belongings in a locker, and sit the exam on a center workstation under in-person proctoring.
• OnVUE online proctoring: You take the exam at home or in a private location with a remote proctor watching through your webcam and microphone.

The two channels carry different setup rules, so confirm which one you booked. For OnVUE, run the system test in advance (camera, microphone, and a stable internet connection), clear your room of papers and electronics, and be ready for the proctor to ask you to pan the camera around the room. You generally must be alone, with no second monitor, no phone within reach, and no talking. For a test center, confirm the address, parking, and arrival window the day before so the morning is logistics-free.

Identification and what to bring

Identification is the single most common cause of a turned-away candidate. Bring a current, valid, government-issued photo ID (passport, driver's license, or national ID), and make sure the name on the ID exactly matches the name on your IIA registration / Pearson VUE appointment. A mismatch — even a missing middle name or a maiden vs. married name difference — can void the appointment with no refund. Some locations require a second form of ID, so check your confirmation email.

Things to plan for:

• Do bring: your photo ID(s) and your appointment confirmation/authorization details.
• Do not bring to the desk: phones, smartwatches, fitness trackers, notes, scratch paper of your own, calculators (an on-screen calculator is provided when needed), bags, hats, food, or drinks. These go in the locker (test center) or out of the room (OnVUE).
• Comfort: you are allowed an unscheduled break only as the rules permit, but the clock keeps running during the 150 minutes, so use the restroom beforehand. Dress in layers — testing rooms run cold.

Arrive (or log in) early. Late arrival past the grace window is treated as a no-show, forfeiting the exam fee.

The interface and your first five minutes

Before the 150-minute clock starts, you get a short on-screen tutorial. Do not click through it blindly — use it to confirm three things you will rely on for pacing:

1. How to flag a question for review.
2. How to navigate forward, backward, and to the end-of-exam review screen that lists flagged and incomplete items.
3. Where the on-screen calculator and any tools appear.

During the exam, protect the pace you rehearsed in Chapter 6.1: roughly 72 seconds per question, flag-and-return for anything slow, and a final sweep to ensure all 125 questions are answered. Read each stem for the role, the setting, the governing standard, and the immediate task; when two options seem plausible, choose the one most specific to the stated task that leaves the cleanest audit trail.

After you click finish

At a test center you typically see an unofficial pass/fail result on screen immediately after submitting. Note it, then collect your belongings; the official score is posted to your IIA candidate portal afterward, usually within a few business days. If you do not pass, the section-level score report you receive becomes the roadmap for your retake — which the next section covers.

A simple night-before and morning-of routine

Decision fatigue is the enemy on exam day, so remove choices the night before. Lay out your ID(s) and confirmation details, set two alarms, and confirm your route or, for OnVUE, that your room is clear and your equipment passed the system test. Avoid cramming new material the night before; your scaled score is set by retrieval speed and stamina, not by one more chapter read at midnight. A normal night of sleep is worth more points than two extra hours of review.

Use this compact pre-exam checklist:

• Two valid IDs (or one, per your confirmation), names matching registration exactly.
• Arrival/login buffer of about 30 minutes before your appointment time.
• Restroom and hydration handled before check-in — the 150-minute clock does not pause for you.
• Layers of clothing, since testing rooms are often cold.
• A clear plan to start with the tutorial, hit your quarter and halfway pacing checkpoints, flag-and-return, and finish with a sweep so all 125 questions are answered.

Handling stress and surprises

If check-in is slow, the workstation glitches, or the OnVUE proctor pauses you, stay calm and follow the proctor's instructions — these interruptions are logged and do not count against your knowledge. If a question rattles you early, flag it and move on rather than letting one hard item poison your confidence for the next ten. Treat the exam as a sequence of independent decisions: each new stem is a fresh chance to earn a point, regardless of how the last one went. That mindset, rehearsed in your timed simulations, is what keeps your pace steady from question 1 to question 125.