1
The day before
~24 hours out · The evening before
- Stop studying. Marginal cramming hurts retention and increases anxiety. Trust your prep — close the cheat sheet, close the deck, walk away.
- Verify your ID. Government-issued, unexpired. Name on the ID matches the name on your Skilljar registration character-for-character. If not, email
[email protected] now.
- Run the ProctorFree setup check end-to-end on the exact machine you'll use tomorrow. Webcam permission, microphone permission, modern browser (Chrome works best). Stop at the consent screen — don't click Start.
- Physically disconnect external monitors. Single monitor only. ProctorFree's AI flags multi-monitor setups even if you're not using the secondary screen.
- Clean the desk. Remove all notes, books, sticky notes, phones, second devices. The room should look bare to a webcam pan.
- Test the internet at your test location and time of day. Wired ethernet beats wifi. Pause any background backups or large downloads scheduled for tomorrow.
- Disable browser extensions or use Incognito. Extensions occasionally interfere with proctor capture. A fresh profile rules that out.
- Disable system notifications. macOS: turn on Focus mode. Windows: Focus assist → "Alarms only". A notification popping mid-exam can trigger a flag.
- Lock the room. Tell anyone in your house the 90-minute window is off-limits. Lock the door if possible.
- Charge your laptop fully and leave it plugged in for the exam.
2
Exam morning
~2 hours before · Non-work day recommended
- 7+ hours of sleep. The single biggest predictor of how you'll perform. If you didn't sleep, consider postponing — there's no purchase-to-start deadline.
- Light breakfast. Protein + complex carb. Avoid heavy carbs, sugary cereal, or anything that triggers a 60-min crash. Examples: eggs + toast, oatmeal + nuts, Greek yogurt + fruit.
- Normal caffeine if you're used to it. Do not add extra "for the exam" — extra caffeine spikes then crashes mid-test.
- Bathroom + water before starting. No bathroom breaks during the 90 min. Water at the desk is acceptable; remove anything else.
- 15 minutes before start: one final pass. Open the cheat sheet once, scan it top to bottom, then close it. Don't try to learn anything new.
- Government ID on the desk. Visible. ProctorFree will ask for a webcam scan.
- 3 deep breaths. Slow exhale. You've done the work.
- Open Skilljar, click "Set Up Proctoring". Complete the face scan, ID scan, environment scan.
3
Final mental checklist before clicking Start
Internalize these — you can't reference notes during the exam
- Read the last sentence of each question first. Anthropic stems bury the actual ask in the last sentence after several lines of context. Going straight to the ask tells you what to look for in the preamble.
- Name the failure mode before scanning options. Pattern-recognition gap? Structural gap? Compliance requirement? Naming it filters the four options down to one or two candidates almost immediately — and it's the muscle that beats the over-engineering trap.
- Target ~1 minute per question. 60 Qs in 90 min leaves a 30-min buffer for the second pass. The mock exam's pacing pill drilled this into your reflexes — that pace is the target here too.
- At 1.5 minutes, mark the question and move on. Don't burn your buffer on a single stuck question. The marked Qs get the review pass.
4
ProctorFree body language rules
Avoid auto-flags
Don't do any of these
- Look away from the screen for more than a few seconds (even to think)
- Talk, mutter, or read questions aloud — audio is monitored
- Cover your face — even for a yawn or a moment's pause
- Move hands to your lap or out of webcam frame
- Allow anyone else to enter the room (auto-flag for multiple faces)
- Wear headphones unless pre-approved by academy-support
- Switch browser tabs or open new windows
- Keep your phone visible in webcam frame, even face-down
- Eyes on screen by default. Look at the keyboard briefly if you need to type — that's normal — but don't gaze off into the room.
- Hands on keyboard or visible to webcam. Resting position should be on the desk surface, not under it.
- Sit still-ish. Don't lean out of frame to think. Don't slouch so far back that your face leaves the frame.
- Read silently. Even a whisper triggers the audio flag.
5
After you click Submit
Result is shown immediately
If you pass: close the tab, take a walk, celebrate. Drop your score in #ix_claude_partner_learning_path on Slack so the team can cheer you on — and your prep notes help the next person.
If you fail: don't panic. The patterns are learnable. Look at which scenarios scored low → drill those Skills bullets → retake. The exact retake cooldown isn't published in the Terms; email
[email protected] to confirm before re-scheduling.
- Don't share specific exam questions or answers. Per Exam Policy §1, exam content is Anthropic's Confidential Information. Sharing can invalidate your certification.
- What you can share: that you took it, your score, your general impressions, the patterns you found useful in prep. That information helps your teammates.
- If you have a 14-day window to appeal an invalidation (per Exam Policy §4). Email academy-support with "appeal" in the subject if anything looks wrong.