The TestNav Early Warning System (EWS) saves the student's responses to a local, encrypted backup file called a saved response file (SRF) when TestNav cannot communicate with the Pearson server. This allows the student to either continue testing or exit the system without losing data.

TestNav safeguards against interruptions in Internet service to prevent lost or inaccurate student response data. TestNav EWS runs in the background within the application without additional installation or action necessary. It gives TestNav a high degree of fault tolerance and provides additional fail-safes in the event of unexpected network disruptions during online testing.

When the network is functioning normally, TestNav saves the student responses to the SRF and sends student responses to the Pearson testing server periodically, while the student tests.

If a student's testing computer or device cannot transmit responses to the Pearson server during a test, for example, due to public internet slowdowns, outages, or other network issues, EWS saves the student's responses to the SRF.

EWS allows the student to either continue testing, even after an interruption, or exit and resume testing at a later time, with all their previous answer data preserved and ready for submission.

When the network connection is re-established and the student logs back into the test, the responses are uploaded to the Pearson server automatically, and the SRF is erased. 

For timed tests, EWS stops the timer during any testing interruptions, and the timer resumes where it left off when the student logs back in.

For information on EWS triggers and troubleshooting, see Early Warning System Triggers.