EXAM - How the heck can I take it?

Doing an internet search will not help you get this thing moving.

You'll need to access this page directly   [HERE]

Yeow!  Here are the costs:

Fee Category	Non-Participating Organization	Participating Organization
PCIP Application Administration Fee – includes first two years of qualification, account maintenance and listing	$995	$395
Account Maintenance Renewal Fee - assessed after the first two year period and every two years thereafter	$99	$99
PCIP Training/eLearning Course - includes access to eLearning course and ability to take the exam once.	$1250	$995
PCIP Exam Fee	$395	$395
PCIP Exam Retake Fee	$395	$395

Here is a breakdown of the steps you need to take:

1) Pre-Register. 

Go to this site [HERE], and enter your demographic information. You will need to know if your company is a Participating Organization (PO) and if they are, enter the reference code.

This takes all of 2 minutes.

Upon submitting my info, I received an email confirmation almost immediately stating that they've received my registration.

2)  Registration is reviewed.

You have no additional actions yet.  My review and reply to this pre-registration took just about 4 hours.  I wonder if this would take longer on the weekend with nobody in the office?

Here is a copy of the email I received:

PCI Security Standards Council

7/24/2013 10:50:01 AM
Dear Dan Whatsyername,

Thank you for showing interest in the PCIP Program. You will receive two invoices in the next couple of days. One for the application fee and one for the training and/or exam fee. Once the invoices are paid you will receive credentials to log into the portal to submit your PCIP Professional Application.

If you have any questions please contact pcip@pcisecuritystandards.org

Thank You,

Dawn Perna
PCIP Program Manager

T: +1 (781) 876-6222
pcip@pcisecuritystandards.org

Please do not reply directly to this email.

So now I wait for the invoices and will update this post when I do.

3)  Invoice

Well that didn't take long.

Approx. 4 more hours later and I have the first .pdf invoice by email.

Dear PCIP Candidate,

Thank you for your interest in the PCIP Program. Attached is an invoice for your PCIP Application fee.
                       
Please note that until payment is received, we are unable to issue login credentials for the PCIP Application.  All application fees are NON-TRANSFERABLE and NON-REFUNDABLE.

Best regards,
Lynsey

Lynsey Chaplik, Sr. Staff Accountant
Accounts Receivable
PCI Security Standards Council, LLC
401 Edgewater Pl., Ste. 600
Wakefield, MA 01880 USA

Options for payment include:

          1)  Mail invoice and a personal check.
          2)  Mail invoice and include your credit card number, exp date, security code
          3)  Wire transfer the loot
          4)  Fax invoice with a credit card number.

Funny.  They shouldn't have to tell an exam candidate "do not email credit card info", but they do.  I would suggest that if you do email your credit card info that they automatically fail you on the exam giving you a score of "LOL".

They won't take phone orders either.

Now I just need to come up with some cash and get the second invoice.

This isn't going to be cheap.

4)  Second Invoice.

The second invoice for the exam came 24 hours later.  They've processed these pretty fast.

But, man, this sure isn't cheap (have I said this before?).

I need to work on some funding before I can progress.

5)  OK, Work paid

Here's the latest email:

PCIP Registration

We have received payment for your application fee. Thank you.

You now need to login to the website portal to complete the second part of your PCIP application.

To login to the PCI SSC portal please visit https://programs.pcissc.org and choose the 'PCIP Application' area.

Your username to access the portal is below
Username: xxxxxxxxxxx

You can retrieve your password using the 'Forgot Password' feature located here.

https://programs.pcissc.org

Please do not reply directly to this email.

6)  Complete the second part of the Application

Click on the link indicated in the email above
https://programs.pcissc.org

 Then there are three parts:

          A)  Download and sign the "ATTESTATION" document at 

               https://programs.pcissc.org/user/pcipreg/PCIP%20Application%20Attestation.pdf 

          B)  Upload a copy of your resume

          C)  Upload your signed copy of the "ATTESTATION" document from step A above and click on the check box if you agree to "advocate, adhere to, and support the Code of Professional Responsibility".

7)  OK, I did some of this stuff. 

And received the following email from the testing center:

On Tuesday, October 15, 2013 11:57 AM, "PearsonVUEConfirmation@pearson.com" <PearsonVUEConfirmation@pearson.com> wrote:

**PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL**

PCI Security Standards Council has requested a Pearson VUE Web Account be created to allow you to schedule and manage your exam appointments at www.pearsonvue.com. Below are your username and temporary password.

Username:	myname123
Temporary Password:	‎NotGonnaHappen

When you first sign in, as a security measure for your protection, you will be required to select a new password. We recommend choosing your new password carefully to make it hard for anyone else to guess.

We recommend choosing a new password that is both easy to type and easy to remember so that you do not have to record it where someone else might see it. Your new password must contain at least seven characters and may not contain your username. Use both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers and/or symbols, preferably in unexpected ways. Avoid names and words that would be easy to guess.

THE PCI SECURITY STANDARDS COUNCIL STRONGLY RECOMMENDS THAT YOU SCHEDULE YOUR EXAM IMMEDIATELY AS NEARBY TEST SITES MAY NOT HAVE AVAILABILITY TOWARDS THE END OF YOUR SCHEDULED TESTING WINDOW. NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED DUE TO NEARBY TEST SITE AVAILABILITY.

If you have any questions, please visit our website at pearsonvue.com/pci/contact to find the contact information for your testing program.

Thank you for choosing Pearson VUE!

 
8)  Now to set up a testing date.

I'm not ready for this, but having the date set will get me to move more in a more focused manner.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  It looks like there is ~ a 30 day window to select the date.  I didn't complete this process in a timely manner and was left with a very small window.