Security+ Exam Day Checklist

Exam day for CompTIA Security+ (SY0-701) comes in two flavours — a Pearson VUE test centre, or online proctoring from home via Pearson's OnVUE system — and each has its own checklist. Either way, you will face a maximum of 90 questions in 90 minutes, a mix of multiple-choice and performance-based questions (PBQs), with 750 on a 100–900 scale needed to pass. This guide covers only the day itself: what to verify beforehand, how check-in works, how to pace the exam, and what happens afterwards. For study planning, see the Security+ study schedule instead.

The night before: five checks for everyone

1. Confirm your appointment details in your Pearson VUE account — date, time, and crucially whether you booked a test centre or OnVUE. Mixing these up is a genuinely common way to lose an exam fee.
2. Check the name on your booking matches your ID exactly. Identification requirements are set by CompTIA and Pearson VUE and can vary by country, so review the current ID policy in your booking confirmation or on comptia.org rather than relying on a forum post. If there is a mismatch, contact Pearson VUE before exam day, not at check-in.
3. Know your check-in window. Your confirmation email states when to arrive (test centre) or when the check-in process opens (OnVUE). Build in generous slack — a missed window is treated as a no-show, and CompTIA vouchers are not refunded for no-shows.
4. Stop studying by the evening. One light pass over notes at most. The marginal fact you cram tonight is worth less than the working memory you will need for PBQs tomorrow.
5. Decide your PBQ policy in advance (more on this below), so you are executing a plan under pressure rather than inventing one.

Test-centre checklist

• Bring the ID your confirmation specifies. Leave study notes in the car or a locker — personal items are not allowed at the workstation, and centres provide secure storage.
• Arrive well before your appointment time. Check-in involves ID verification and signing the testing rules; the exact procedure is Pearson VUE's, and staff will walk you through it.
• Expect to be provided with what you need. You cannot bring your own paper or devices; the centre supplies an erasable board or equivalent for working notes. Use it for a quick "brain dump" of formulas, port numbers or acronyms as soon as the exam starts if that steadies you.
• Ask about comfort logistics up front — toilet breaks and re-admission are governed by the centre's rules, and knowing them beforehand prevents mid-exam anxiety.

Online proctoring (OnVUE) checklist

Testing from home trades travel for environmental responsibility — the burden of a compliant room is on you.

• Run the system test on the actual computer and network you will use, ideally days ahead and again on the morning. Pearson VUE provides the test; a webcam, microphone and stable connection are essential.
• Clear the room. A cleared desk, no second monitors within reach, no notes or books visible, and a closed door. During check-in you photograph your ID and your workspace, and a proctor reviews them before releasing your exam.
• Be alone and stay on camera. Interruptions — someone entering the room, you leaving the camera frame — can end the session. Warn your household, silence everything, and treat the full exam window as untouchable.
• Check the current OnVUE rules for your exam in your confirmation email, since policies on breaks and behaviour are set by Pearson VUE and CompTIA and can change. When in doubt, assume stricter rather than looser.

A useful dress rehearsal: sit a full 90-minute timed practice test at the same desk, at the same time of day, under the same no-notes conditions. ExamPractice's timed practice-test simulation mode works well for this final-week run-through; the fuller method of scoring and reviewing practice exams belongs to the Security+ practice test strategy guide.