Nicole Gambino
Pearson VUE’s testing process treats candidates like maximum-security prisoners instead of professionals. Despite constant camera surveillance, you’re subjected to invasive inspections and harsh, inflexible policies that assume guilt before trust. They made me remove my hair scrunchie and wouldn’t provide one of their “approved” bands until I showed them I wasn’t hiding anything in my hair — a completely humiliating and unnecessary interaction. The environment is cold, authoritarian, and needlessly stressful — especially during high-stakes exams where mental clarity matters. There’s no sense of empathy, support or even basic human respect. Yes, test integrity matters. But Pearson’s approach is excessive and dehumanizing. There must be a better way to protect exam security without stripping away dignity. How did we end up with British oligarchs owning a monopoly on American standardized testing? And why does it feel like you’re walking into a military checkpoint just to take a test?
