2.1 Pearson VUE / OnVUE Rules

Pearson VUE is the delivery vendor, not Queensland Fire Department

The Queensland Fire Department (QFD) recruit firefighter process includes an Online Cognitive Ability Test. QFD does not run that sitting in a station day-room with a station officer walking the aisle. After you apply, after QFD accepts you into the campaign, and after QFD invites you to Online Assessments, the sitting is delivered through Pearson VUE using OnVUE online proctoring.

Pearson VUE is a commercial test-delivery organisation. OnVUE is Pearson's remote-proctoring product: a human offsite proctor watches you through your webcam while you sit on a laptop or computer in a quiet location of your choosing. On 1 July 2024, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) became QFD. Pearson's public supervised-testing page for this pathway has still used a qfes URL slug; treat that as a vendor page address, not a signal that you should prepare a third official paper or a different department's exam.

This OpenExamPrep chapter is independent study material about that delivery layer. It is not a QFD publication, not a Pearson VUE publication, and it does not claim official approval, review, partnership, or exact equivalence with either organisation.

The invitation is the scheduling key

You cannot invent a Pearson appointment because you clicked submit on the application. The published gate is:

1. You apply in the live campaign window.
2. QFD accepts you into that campaign (eligibility is Chapter 1; this chapter assumes you received an invitation).
3. QFD invites you to Online Assessments.
4. You run the OnVUE system test on the machine, webcam, and network you intend to use.
5. You schedule appointments only inside the allocated window in the invitation.

If the invitation is not in your inbox, you do not have a bookable Online Assessments slot. If the invitation names a window, Pearson appointments outside that window are not yours to take. Later campaigns will publish different dates. Treat every calendar figure in this section as an example unless your live QFD or Pearson email repeats it.

Worked example: Pearson page dated 9 September 2026

Pearson's QFD supervised-testing page (updated 9 September 2026) showed the following 2027-campaign registration windows. Cite them as an example of how QFD split the two batteries that year, not as a permanent annual rule:

Those two windows are sequential, not one combined sitting. In that example, Mechanical Reasoning closed in mid-September; Core Abilities opened later the same month. A candidate who treats "online assessments August–October 2026" from the May 2026 Calendar of Events as one interchangeable blob can miss the Mechanical Reasoning close-out while waiting to "do literacy first."

The May 2026 Calendar of Events placed Online assessments in August–October 2026 for the 2027 campaign, after Applications (May–June 2026) and the Beep Test (July 2026), and before the Operational Focused Abilities Test (OFAT) in November 2026. Calendars change. Your invitation still controls the bookable days.

Count the example windows if it helps you see that they are not the same length: 20 August through 14 September 2026 is 26 inclusive days; 23 September through 13 October 2026 is 21 inclusive days. Those counts are arithmetic on a published example, not a QFD promise that every campaign will last 26 and 21 days.

Your machine, your room, an offsite proctor

Delivery facts you can teach from the current pack and Pearson's OnVUE model:

• You sit on a candidate laptop or computer with a working webcam.
• A Pearson offsite proctor supervises. They are not a QFD station officer in the room with you.
• You choose a quiet location. A spare room with a closed door is the usual study advice. A café, a vehicle, a shared kitchen, or a station recreation room is a bad plan because noise, other people, and prohibited objects trigger stops.
• You need a valid, unexpired identity document. The name must match the Pearson booking.
• After you schedule, Pearson issues a confirmation letter. Keep it as the booking record. It is not scratch paper for working mechanical items during the sitting.

OnVUE generally requires a system test (webcam, microphone, bandwidth, browser permissions). QFD's Pearson path tells candidates to run that check after invitation and before booking. Run it again on sitting day on the same machine, same network, and same webcam. A work laptop that blocks camera drivers, or a shared family PC that installs an update overnight, is an avoidable failure. The system test is not the scored exam and not the Pearson QFD Sample Demonstration (Section 2.3).

What must not be on the desk

The April 2024 Firefighter Recruitment Candidate Information Pack (still linked from the 2026 recruit page) states that pens, pencils, note paper, phones, and calculators are not permitted in either assessment. That ban covers Mechanical Reasoning and Core Abilities. It is not a Mechanical-only rule, and it is not relaxed because Core Abilities includes numeracy.

Because scratch paper is banned, Mechanical Reasoning pictures (gears, circuits, kinetic-energy sketches taught in later chapters) have to be solved on screen. Core Abilities numeracy has to be done by inspection and mental arithmetic. Independent OpenExamPrep chapters later in this guide train that constraint. They do not replace Pearson's own Sample Demonstration or OnVUE check.

Identity, confirmation, and who can stop the sitting

Use the identity document you booked with. An expired card, a partner's licence, or a digital-wallet screenshot is not a plan. If Pearson's confirmation letter lists a start time, convert it once before you launch OnVUE. Do not open a phone during the sitting to re-read the email.

The offsite proctor can pause or end a sitting if someone walks in, if a phone lights up, if you leave the webcam view, or if you appear to use notes. QFD's recruit page warns that missing or failing a stage generally means no re-attempt in that campaign. Cognitive sittings do not have a published in-campaign retake. Treat a security termination as a lost campaign attempt unless QFD writes to you with a different instruction.

Booking and environment traps

• Booking a Pearson slot before the Online Assessments invitation exists.
• Treating the 20 August–14 September 2026 Mechanical Reasoning window as a permanent annual rule instead of a 2027-campaign example.
• Sitting Core Abilities first "because literacy feels easier" when your invitation and Pearson record still require Mechanical Reasoning in an earlier window.
• Using a phone, a calculator, or a notepad because "it is only for numeracy."
• Running the OnVUE system test on a library PC, then sitting at home on a different laptop.
• Assuming an independent practice site, a paid tutor, or a Facebook PDF is an official Pearson instruction sheet.