ASTRA Ready — Candidate Handbook

1. About the credentials

2. Who can sit the exam

• Anyone aged 18 or over may register.
• Completing the ASTRA Ready course is not required. You may take the exam directly (assessment-only entry).
• You may take the Advisor exam without holding the Associate credential.
• Exam objectives for each level are published on the certification pages. Every exam question is based on a published objective.

3. Booking your exam

• Choose the exam voucher that fits how much preparation time you want. Every voucher is valid from the day you buy it:

• A free retake must be used within the voucher's validity and follows the normal retake rules (section 7).
• An unused voucher expires at the end of its validity.
• Redeem your voucher once, at astraready.com → Certification → Redeem a voucher. A voucher from a training partner, college or employer can only be redeemed by the email address it was sent to. Once redeemed, it belongs to your account.
• Start your exam from your ASTRA Ready account whenever you are ready, 24/7, within your voucher's validity. No appointment is needed.
• You will need a stable internet connection, a desktop or laptop computer with a webcam and an up-to-date Chrome or Edge browser, a quiet private room and an uninterrupted block of time. Phones and tablets are not supported for exams. A system check runs before you start.

4. Identity and exam conduct

AI-assisted supervision (founder decision, 26 Sep 2026)

• Before you start: you show a photo ID and take a live photo, and you give consent. You need a working webcam and must share your screen.
• At the start: a short calibration (about 30 seconds) learns your normal position, lighting and glasses, so the checks are fair to you. You also show the room with your webcam.
• During the exam: software running on your own computer checks for signs such as no face visible, a different face, more than one person, looking away for long periods, leaving the exam tab or full-screen mode, copy/paste, and sustained speech. If something looks wrong, you get an on-screen prompt first (for example, "We can't see your face — please adjust your camera").
• What is saved: we do not upload continuous video. If a check is triggered, a short clip of about 20 seconds around that moment and a screenshot of the exam window are saved. A low-resolution webcam still is also saved about once a minute. Between the stages of a staged case, you may be asked to show the room again.
• Exam screen: your candidate ID is shown on the exam screen as a watermark. Exam content is confidential.
• After the exam: a trained person reviews any sitting with flags. The AI never fails or penalises anyone on its own; a person always decides. A random sample of unflagged sittings is also checked.
• You will see a list of any flags on your sitting, and you can explain them or appeal (section 10).
• Images and clips are kept for 90 days, or until any review or appeal is closed, and then deleted.
• We also check exam data itself for unusual patterns (for example, answers given far faster than reading time allows, or two sittings with near-identical answers). These are also only flags for a person to review.
• Accommodations: if you need to look away from the screen, use assistive technology or take breaks, request an accommodation (section 9) and the checks are adjusted for you.

1. The exam is closed book: no notes, websites, AI tools or other people.
2. A basic calculator is built into the exam screen. Personal calculators, phones and calculator apps are not allowed.
3. Do not copy, photograph, record, share or discuss exam content. Exam content is confidential.
4. You must sit the exam yourself, using your own account and name.
5. Breaking these rules may lead to a result being withheld or cancelled, a credential being revoked, and a ban from future exams.

5. During the exam

• Question types: single choice; select exactly the stated number; match each row; put steps in order; enter a number. Each scored question is worth one point. There is no negative marking and no partial credit.
• Cases: each case gives you evidence (documents, logs, price sheets, messages). Answer only from the evidence given. Organisations and figures are fictional.
• Staged cases: some cases release new evidence in stages. Before you continue to the next stage, you will be warned: "You cannot return to Stage X after continuing. Unanswered questions in this stage will score zero." Ordinary cases can be revisited until you submit.
• Answer order is shuffled for each candidate.
• Timer: the clock keeps running if you leave the page. Answers save automatically. When time runs out, all saved answers are submitted.
• No feedback is shown during the exam.
• Technical problems: if you lose connection, sign in again and resume. Your saved answers and remaining time are kept. If a problem stops you finishing, contact support within 24 hours (see section 10).

6. Results

• The pass mark for each exam is set by ASTRA Ready using evidence from a beta exam and a documented review by the founder and trusted reviewers. It is not a fixed percentage.
• You will see your result (Pass or Not yet passed) and your overall score within 3 working days of your exam. The short wait allows a person to review any supervision flags before results are released.
• Domain-level feedback is shown only once it has been validated as reliable.
• Beta candidates: beta results are held until the pass mark is set. If you pass at the final pass mark, you receive the credential free of charge.

7. Retakes

• You may sit each exam up to 3 times in any rolling 12-month period.
• After a sitting that is not passed, you must wait 14 days before sitting again.
• Each attempt uses a different exam paper where available.
• Every voucher includes one free retake. After that, a further attempt needs a new voucher.

8. Your credential

• Credentials are valid for 3 years from the date of issue.
• To renew, pass the exam that is current at the time of renewal. There is no continuing-education renewal route.
• Each credential has a unique ID and a public verification page showing your name, the credential, issue date, valid-until date and status (Valid, Expired, Replaced or Revoked).
• If a certificate is reissued (for example, a name correction), the old ID shows "Replaced" and links to the current one. Reissue does not extend validity.
• Certificates are issued by ASTRA Ready; the company that operates ASTRA Ready is named in our Terms of use. The certificate shows the ASTRA Ready brand, your name, the credential, the dates and a QR code. Scanning it opens the verification page, which confirms the credential and its status. The company that operates ASTRA Ready is named in the Terms of use.

9. Accommodations

10. Appeals and complaints

• Result review: within 14 days of your result, you may ask for your exam to be checked for scoring or technical errors. We will re-mark it and reply within 10 working days.
• Item challenge: if you believe a question was wrong or unclear, describe the case and question (without copying it) within 7 days. Challenged items are reviewed; if an item is found faulty, it is removed from scoring for everyone who sat that paper and results are recalculated.
• Misconduct decisions: you may appeal within 14 days. A person not involved in the original decision will review it.
• Complaints: email hello@astraready.com. We acknowledge within 48 hours and resolve within one month at most, and aim for 15 working days.

11. Privacy of your exam data

• What we collect: your name, email, account details, answers, timings, results, credential records and, for supervised exams, your ID photo, a live photo, periodic webcam stills, short clips and exam-window screenshots saved when a check is triggered, and supervision flags. Face comparison during the exam runs on your device; we keep only the match result, not a face template.
• Why: to deliver and score your exam, issue and verify credentials, prevent cheating, improve exam quality (anonymised statistics) and meet legal obligations.
• How AI is used: the supervision checks run on your own device and only produce flags for a person to review. No automated decision is made about you.
• Who sees it: ASTRA Ready staff and reviewers who need it, and our hosting and email providers. We do not sell your data.
• Public information: only what the verification page shows, and only to people who have your credential ID or link.
• How long we keep it:
• Supervision images and clips (ID photo, live photo, webcam stills, flag clips, screenshots): 90 days after the exam, or until any review or appeal is closed if later.
• Supervision logs (flag types, times, match scores, reviewer decisions, with no images): 1 year.
• Exam answers, timings and item-level results: 3 years (the life of a credential), so results can be re-scored, challenged or audited. After that, only anonymised statistics are kept.
• Credential records (name, credential ID, issue and expiry dates, status): while the credential is valid and for 5 years after it expires or is revoked, so employers can verify past credentials.
• Learning progress and account details: while your account is active. If you do not sign in for 3 years, we delete your account data after emailing you at least 48 hours before.
• Invoices and payment records: 8 years, as Indian company and tax law requires.
• Accommodation evidence: deleted as soon as the request is decided.
• Your rights: you can ask to see, correct or delete your data (except records we must keep to verify a credential or meet the law) by emailing hello@astraready.com. We reply within 30 days.

12. Cancellations and refunds

• Exam voucher: you ask within 14 days of purchase and have not started any exam attempt with it.
• Course purchase: you ask within 14 days of purchase and have completed no more than 2 chapters.
• Our fault: a technical failure on our side stops your exam and we cannot give you a free replacement attempt within your voucher's validity.
• Something we sold does not work as described, whatever the date.

• A voucher once any exam attempt has started with it, including the free retake that comes with it.
• A voucher that has expired. Validity dates cannot be extended.
• A sitting cancelled, or a credential revoked, for breaking the exam rules.
• Partial use of a bundle. A bundle is refunded in full under the conditions above, or not at all.

13. Contact