The exam catalog is the list of exams your association offers. Each exam has its own passing score, retest rules, and eligibility requirements. Testing facilities are the sites where candidates take those exams.
What It Controls
An exam in the catalog includes:
- Its name, permanent identifier, and active status.
- A passing score, which the Record Score screen compares with the candidate’s score when it suggests pass or fail. If you need to know when someone passed, use the candidate’s result details instead of relying only on the date on the exam record.
- A minimum retest period, which is how long a candidate who failed must wait before retesting, and a maximum retest period, which is how long after the failed sitting the retest remains available.
- Optional eligibility requirements, which use rules about the candidate to decide who can book the exam. For candidates on a Canadian jurisdiction path, these rules commonly treat a Canadian attestation of membership or approved status as meeting the requirement to register.
- A pass letter and a fail letter, which are the exam notices staff see by default when they record a result.
- A Portal image and any custom fields your account has defined for exams.
A testing facility includes a name, permanent identifier, active status, address, and free-text notes. When staff schedule a sitting at a facility, the sitting uses that facility’s location, and confirmation emails can include the facility’s address.
Where to Find It
Go to Certifications › Setup › Exams › Catalog for the exam catalog, or Certifications › Setup › Exams › Testing Facilities for facilities.
- Create Exam or Create Testing Facility opens a blank form.
- A row’s Edit icon opens that record so you can change it, and Clone starts a new record using it as the starting point.
- Selecting an exam’s name opens the exam page.
Prerequisites
You need the exam setup permission from your administrator to open either screen.
The Settings
| Setting | Options | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passing Score (exam) | A number | Blank | Compared with the candidate’s score when staff record a result |
| Minimum Retest Period (exam) | Days | Blank | Sets how long a candidate who failed must wait before a retest sitting |
| Maximum Retest Period (exam) | Days | Blank | Sets how long after a failed sitting a retest remains available; blank means no limit |
| Eligibility Requirements switch (exam) | On, off, with rules | Off | When on, only candidates who satisfy the rules can book the exam |
| Pass Letter, Fail Letter (exam) | Any exam notice | None | Sets the notices staff see by default when they record a result |
| Image (exam) | An image file | None | Shows a picture for the exam in the online store |
| Address (testing facility) | Street address | Blank | Used as the sitting’s location and in confirmation emails |
| Notes (testing facility) | Free text | Blank | Stores internal notes about the site |
| Status (exam and facility) | Active, inactive | Active | Keeps an inactive exam or facility out of new bookings, while existing sittings and registrations still point to it |
Dependencies and Precedence
- The pass and fail letters you choose must already exist as exam notices. See Exam Registration Processes and Notices for writing them.
- Eligibility criteria control who sees the exam as available, but they do not stop the order builder, fulfilment, or a manually created registration from proceeding. In the Portal, the same criteria decide whether a candidate can select the exam when booking: an eligible candidate can choose it, and an ineligible candidate cannot.
- A sitting scheduled at a testing facility keeps the facility location from the time it was scheduled, so later address changes do not update sittings already scheduled there.
- Custom fields for exams and exam registrations are defined separately in Setup, and they appear on this form automatically after you define them. If you import exam results with diagnostic or sub-score feedback from an outside testing vendor, plan a dedicated custom field on the exam registration for each value you need to keep, such as a separate field for each diagnostic score. A value with no matching custom field has nowhere to be stored.
- Progress tracking and transmittal eligibility count an exam registration with a status of Credited the same way they count one with a status of Passed.
Tip
If an exam-results integration reports its own testing location or delivery mode, those values may not match a testing facility or field you have already defined in Rhythm. You may need a custom field, for delivery format, for example, to hold a value that has no matching built-in field.
Warning
If your account issues initial licensure transmittals, purchase is blocked until the record holder has passed every exam the program requires. Being registered for those exams, without having passed them yet, does not meet this requirement.
Change Impact and How to Revert
Warning
Deactivating an exam does not deactivate its sittings. An upcoming, active sitting for an inactive exam can still appear to a candidate who reaches it, and existing registrations and results still point to the inactive exam. Staff booking and manual registration screens can also still offer an inactive exam.
- Changing the minimum or maximum retest period changes what candidates are offered from that point forward; it does not change a retest that is already booked.
- You cannot delete an exam, exam notice, testing facility, or registration process that another record still uses. Deactivate it instead to keep it out of new use without breaking records that already point to it.
Permissions
You need the exam setup permission from your administrator to create, edit, or delete an exam or a testing facility.
Validation and Errors
- An exam requires a name.
- If Eligibility Requirements is switched on, you must add at least one rule before you can save.
- A testing facility requires a name. Its address is optional, but if you start entering an address, the street line and city are required. For a US address, the state and postal code are also required.
- You cannot delete an exam, exam notice, testing facility, or registration process that another record still names.
Related
See "Related" in the sidebar for exam registration processes and notices, geographic regions, and how custom fields work in general.