Lamar University’s Testing Center has moved into a new location at 4530 Jimmy Simmons Blvd., formerly the International Student Center.
The new facility provides additional testing stations, accommodation rooms, and easier access for students and community members testing manager Emma Moore said.
The center moved about a month ago after temporarily being located in the Hayes Biology Building.
The center contains two testing labs, Pearson and Prometric, which administer different types of professional, academic and certification exams.
Newton said the Pearson lab offers a variety of exams, including the Texas Success Initiative Assessment, HESI exams and CLEP exams.
“We do TSI’s, assessment for you to apply for Lamar,” Newton said. “We do the HESI for the nursing department. We do CLEP in case you want to CLEP out of a class. We have Pearson VUE, which can do insurance licensing, Texas real estate licensing. We do the Texas Educator Certification. We also do Metro Institute testing. We do a little of all of it here.”
The Pearson lab contains multiple testing cubicles.
“We also have three separate rooms for accommodations for students or candidates that need a separate room to be tested,” Newton said.
Aubree Elmore, a sophomore nursing major, recently took the HESI exam at the new location. Elmore said the center had a thorough check-in process before testing.
“I thought the security, the pat downs, like how they check the people to make sure they didn’t have anything, I thought it was very thorough,” Elmore said. “The sign-in process was good.”
Elmore said the location is also convenient for students living on campus.
“The parking was convenient,” Elmore said. “I like how it was down the street from the dorms.”
Emma Moore, testing manager, said the Prometric lab offers a variety of professional exams.
“We do anywhere from automotive to financial exams,” Moore said. “Some of these are very high-stake exams. They cost thousands of dollars to take, so everything is audio and video recorded in this testing lab.”
Moore said the Prometric lab also administers exams such as the GRE, CPA exams, and LSAT. It also has separate accommodation rooms available for candidates whose requests have been approved.
Although Lamar students use the Testing Center, Moore said the Prometric lab also serves members of the Southeast Texas community who need professional or certification exams.
“Most of our people that test over here are people from the public,” Moore said. “In the other lab, they have some people from the public, and they also have a lot of students that test over there.”
Moore said the new location means access and parking are more convenient for repeat test takers.
“We have several people that take multiple exams and used to take them in the other places that we were at,” Moore said. “They like this location a lot better because everything is right here.”
Newton said the staff is still settling into the facility after the recent move, but the new space is working well.
“We do love it. It is nice,” she said.
For more information visit lamar.edu/career-and-testing-services/testing.