By Daniel Manetin

Final exams usually mean sitting in a familiar classroom while a teacher walks around the room, but or students taking certain End of Pathway Assessments (EOPAs), the process can look a lot different. For example, classes like Pharmacy and Advanced Cybersecurity have students taking third-party certification exams outside of school, often at professional testing centers, and the experience is nothing like the typical classroom final. The third-party testing experience is something more serious and more controlled, with strict monitoring, outside scheduling, and sometimes added pressure of earning a credential or certificate that could actually lead them to a career.

Students in the healthcare-based Pharmacy class this year took their exams through PSI, a testing center connected to the National Healthcareer Association. As one student, Nate Gish [11], mentioned, “It’s testing through a PSI testing center… They just provide the testing materials.” The format itself felt similar to a regular computer-based test, but the environment was a different story, as Nate mentioned “They have way more cameras. They have cameras in the room, cameras watching.” What sets the process apart the most, he said, is the certification behind it. “Because it gives us certification that leads directly to a job, we couldn’t take it in school,” he added, noting that students had to schedule the exam themselves through the provider instead of it being scheduled for them.

Advanced cybersecurity students also had a similar setup, with the same enforcement on strict monitoring and a professional setup. As student Gabriel Contreras [11] explained, “We didn’t do it in school, we had to do it through CompTIA.” He explained that “they’re basically monitoring all the time, and there’s literally no chance to try to cheat on it.” To get ready, Gabriel mentioned using AI tools alongside course modules to work through practice questions beforehand. Additionally he believes that outside testing is actually more fair than traditional classroom testing. “If you do a third party, I feel like they’re more prepared to test you,” he said. “There’s cameras on the walls… They can literally see you if you pull up your phone. You can’t cheat.” it is clear that third-party exams are changing what finals look like for some students, pulling school coursework closer to the standards of the real working world.

Third party exams are clearly changing what finals look like for some students, pulling school course material closer to standards of the real world. It’s a change of pace for students, especially with the strict monitoring and cold environment, but it can certainly help some with getting used to a realistic environment, and third-party testing can actually help students in the long run with securing fair grades and preventing academic dishonesty.