“The PEB would like to reaffirm its position with regard to screen breaks and the time taken to upload documents during the 2020 Qualifying Examinations, which have been subject to discussion on social media. There was never any intention to penalise candidates who did not take screen breaks or who used the full-time allowance to upload documents.
“The inclusion of screen breaks was necessary in order to comply with Health and Safety Regulations.
“The published document ‘Essential Information for Candidates taking PEB Qualifying Examinations in October 2020’ stated that ‘Within the total examination times, you can manage how you use your time as you wish. For example, you can take several short screen breaks, one longer break, or none.’
“The times allowed for printing, scanning, converting to PDF file format, saving and uploading were set to ensure that candidates had adequate time to undertake these tasks in what was a new format for Qualifying Examinations.”
PEB Governance Board
Date published: 10 December 2020