Before you take an exam

AI examiners mark every exam, and while the Examination Board has not approved automatic release, a person reviews each result before you see it. People decide every appeal.

An AI examiner rates your work in the areas of the Standard your exam is marked on, and quotes your own words as evidence for each rating. A quote that does not appear in your work does not count. Applied AI Specialist and Applied AI Strategist are marked by three AI examiners, and a named person countersigns the result.

A person reads every cheating flag before your result goes out. On the paid exams, a person also reads every safety event and every result on the pass mark before release; on the free exam, a person reviews every result before you see it while the Examination Board has not approved automatic release. You can always ask a person to look again.

Read the technical manual for how closely the AI examiners agree with people.

Every level is open entry. No prior credential, no lower level first, no course. You must be 16 or over; under 18 needs a parent or guardian's consent. You take the exam in English. You agree to our code of conduct when you register, and pay the fee; Applied AI Foundations is free.

Anyone may take the Applied AI Strategist exam. To hold the title on a pass, you also declare about 2 years of professional experience applying AI. You declare it at purchase, and it sits on the record your examiner sees. We may spot-check it.

You do not book a slot. Your exam link is valid for 1 year, and we email you 7 days and 1 day before it expires. The clock starts when you begin the exam, not when you buy.

Every exam is in English. We have not decided how consent for under-18s works. We publish the consent process here when it is defined.

Identity checking scales with what is at stake. Applied AI Foundations and the Applied AI Badge need a verified email address and nothing else. Applied AI Certified, Applied AI Specialist and Applied AI Strategist need a verified email address until identity checks open, then a government ID matched to your registration.

We use identity data only to verify identity. A national ID number is never a login. We store it apart from exam content and results. We keep it only as long as integrity, reviews and the law require.

The check is not there to watch you work. We never use a camera or biometric monitoring during an exam. The check establishes that the person who earned the credential is the person named on it.

Identity checks are not open yet. No purchase waits for one: a verified email address is all any level asks. We publish the date here.

We adjust the exam so it measures your applied AI skill and nothing else. Covered: physical, sensory, cognitive and learning disabilities; mental health and chronic conditions; temporary impairments; pregnancy and nursing needs.

Possible adjustments: extra time, a quieter setting, screen-reader compatibility and alternative response formats. Also an interpreter or captions for the follow-up questions, rest breaks and alternative scheduling.

Ask from your account at registration, or at least 10 business days before your exam; later requests are best efforts. This includes the free exam. Extra time is usually granted without evidence; larger adjustments may need a short letter. We decide within 10 business days, with written reasons if we decline or grant in part. You can appeal that decision.

Your health information stays confidential and never appears on your credential or the register. An adjustment never costs you anything. It changes how you show a skill, not which skill we certify.

If you do not pass, you can take the exam again. You can retake as often as the waits below allow. Every attempt draws a fresh set of tasks, so nobody retakes an identical task. One exam credit is one attempt, so each retake is a new credit. Applied AI Foundations is free: take it again from 1 day after your last attempt, up to 3 times in any 30 days. A paid retake waits. Applied AI Badge: 7 days. Applied AI Certified: 30 days. Applied AI Specialist: 30 days. Applied AI Strategist: 60 days. Your result page shows the exact date you can buy the next attempt.

After 3 results in a row below the pass mark at one level, we offer a conversation with an examiner. It comes before your next attempt, as an offer, never a requirement. Declining changes nothing.

A result that is not a pass is never public. Nothing is listed on the register except a pass.

Review. Within 14 days of your result, ask for an examiner to re-examine the part of the marking you dispute. It is not a retake, and the decision is written down. An examiner who did not mark your exam decides within 21 days; the system refuses the decision to anyone who marked or countersigned it.

Formal appeal. If you are not satisfied, or the issue is procedural, ask within 21 days of that outcome. Staff who were not involved in your exam, and who did not decide the review, hear it; the system refuses the decision to anyone else. They decide within 45 days, extendable once with written notice.

No fee at either stage. Asking in good faith never counts against you, upheld or not. While one is open, your result reads “under review” and the evidence is held.

An appeal contests a decision about you. A complaint is about anything else: our service, someone's conduct, accessibility, or a process failure unrelated to your result.

We acknowledge within 5 business days and answer in full within 30 calendar days. Raise one from your account, or write to registrar@straitsai.institute.

None of this limits your statutory rights, including raising a data-protection concern with the relevant authority. Our process comes first; it does not replace the law.