e-EQE: 8 Mar 2022 - D Exam - copy to try yourself

Updated 15 Mar 22: to add blurry preview window problem.
Updated 14 Mar 22: possible remedy for frozen chat window added.
Updated 10 Mar 22: clarified that you cannot print after starting the Browser, added problem with missing words. Update 9 Mar 22: added note about Refresh. Also added a note about a backup system. Added additional problem. Yesterday was the e-EQE D Exam (D1-1: 0930-1100 CET - 90 mins, D1-2: 1130-1240 CET - 70 mins, D2: 1325-1645 CET - 200 mins). If you want to try yourself, see here for three files in English: D1-1 (2022), D1-2 (2022) and D2 (2022). The text was extracted from my answers (sorry, no French or German). The EPO normally makes official copies available in the compendium in the week after the EQE.

• I am reasonably confident about the D1 questions in these copies being complete. For D2, I am not so sure - some paragraph numbers were not copied due to the copy/paste issues, and I had some odd words that I had to put back in. 
• See below for some of my comments. I have not discussed the content of the exam, and avoided any spoilers, but feel free to leave comments here or in the Telegram groups.
• I made the exam at the same time as candidates as a bench marker. The Examination Committees have 5 external people per exam, and the answers are used for Committee discussions. They do not directly influence the marking, but allow group discussions on what should and should not be awarded marks. 
• If you had any issues with the exam, report them as soon as possible to helpdesk@eqe.org. Formally, complaints must be filed no later than midnight on the day of the exam you are complaining about. I have helped update Preston Richard's template for EQE complaints to make the process a little easier, especially after a tiring day. Even if you have miss the formal deadline, submit all complaints that could affect your marking or performance as quickly as possible.

1. Telegram chat groups

• Join the EQE Telegram groups to discuss issues with other candidates: Main group (306 members), Study group (128 members), ABC&PE-claims (188 members), D&PE-legal (152 members) and Marketplace (69 members). The groups are public, and open to any tutors or candidates. A few rules: treat others with respect, no discussion of cheating, no exchange of large sections of copyrighted materials (use of excerpts for study and discussion allowed). During scheduled exams, no discussion of the exam questions or answers. During mocks, no restrictions.

2. WISEflow, before the exam, after the exam

• It is now strongly recommended to log-on to WISEflow at least 60 minutes before the start of the first part of each exam. This gives you a chance to see if everything is working. After clicking on the correct exam flow, you enter the flow page. 
• Early camera check: It is possible to start the FLOWlock/LockDown Browser in the flow page up to 60 minutes before the exam to test your camera and microphone by performing the ID check. 
• If you do not need to print, you can just stay in the Browser, waiting for the exam to start. 
• If you need to print using that computer, you must exit the Browser, restart your internet browser, log back in to WISEflow, and enter the flow page again. You will also need to perform the ID check again. 
• It is also possible to print using a second computer logged into WISEflow, but this second computer must be turned off and out of reach during the exam.
• Print BEFORE starting the FLOWlock Browser: 10 minutes before the start of the exam, any printable documents will appear on the flow page. Click on the refresh icon (clockwise arrow) or press F5 to see them. 
• All copies of my own answers were available 45 mins after the scheduled end of the last part (D2).
• Last year, there were some problems last year with missing pages in the pdf's, so check them to see if they look complete and report any problems. It was a pdf conversion issue, and the complete answers were correctly submitted and could be easily be reconverted. I have not heard of any similar issues this year. This year, one person in A had the first letters of each paragraph missing and some words in between were also missing.

3. FLOWlock / LockDown Browser

• Thankfully, I did not have any major problems, but others did (see below). For one of the ID checks, it would not use my external camera (it had only selected the laptop inetrnal webcam, and it could not be selected. I solved it by exiting the browser (there is a hamburger button at the top right with an Exit Browser option.
• Assignment buffering: I did notice that after opening the assignment (exam) in a tab, it sometimes took a few seconds to appear. Once it seemed frozen, so I closed the tab and re-opened it. Others reported it as being up to a minute delay. 
• Browser updates: it is now expected that you verify the software at least once in the morning BEFORE each exam. You should be using the latest version of FLOWlock / LockDown Browser
• To verify: after logging-in to WISEflow, click on the drop down menu next to your name and select "Edit profile" and "Test Browser". This will start the FLOWlock / LockDown Browser, and check that it is up to date. 
• Several people did report Browser stability problems after updating - everything was fine during their mock exams in February.
• Browser crashes: many people had this issue. After successfully starting, the Browser spontaneously vanished, with just the desktop backdrop being visible. This issue was seen by some during the mocks. It is unclear what the cause is.
• if an internet browser can be opened, you can restart WISEflow.
• if no options are available, you may need to to reboot your computer, and then restart WISEflow.
• Another Browser crash reported after successful mocks: "My WebCam worked well during mock exams in Feb, but it has been disconnected when I tested it on Monday and the Lockdown browser crashed in my windows-laptop.. don't know why... I tried to test my WebCam again today without using USB-Hub but directly via the USB port of the laptop. It seems to work well. Wish it also works tomorrow. I also have a Mac for backup (also extra WebCam, Cable, Keyboard, Mouse for backup). I feel that Mac seems to be more stable than windows-laptop for the Lockdown browser system - only personal feeling ;-"
• Prepare a backup system: I just heard about someone who had no problems during the mocks, but could not get into any parts of the D exam yesterday because the Browser would not recognise the laptop internal camera (a personal laptop with no external cameras connected). What a disaster - a year of preparation flushed away by WISEflow. If you have had crashes, or you are worried, prepare a backup system and have it in your room, turned off and out of reach:
• Borrow a computer to which you can have full administrator privileges. The recommended technical specs are very low. Or ask your IT department if they have an old one that they can reset and give you administrator privileges.  
• You will have the least chance of technical issues if you use a dedicated desktop with one screen (at least 27 inch), one camera, one microphone, one keyboard, one mouse, one loudspeaker device, one printer, direct wired (USB/HDMI) connections to all peripherals, administrator access, cabled (LAN) access. The chances of problems are even more reduced by connecting to a non-company network.
• Chat window frozen: one person many people found after logging in after a crash that chat window remained open in the 'Calling representative' mode. There was no way to stop it, move it, or to contact an invigilator. This meant that it was not possible to request an unscheduled break, for example, or to report any other issues. 
• helpdesk suggested refreshing - the refresh icon is the "clockwise arrow" at the top left between X and (i). F5 should also work (at least in Windows).
• if it still does not work, continue working on your exam. If you need to contact the helpdesk, call +49 89 2399 5155 (helpdesk number with very limited capacity).
• Can't find Refresh: Refresh will solve a lot of problems. The refresh icon is the "clockwise arrow" at the top left between X and (i). F5 should also work (at least in Windows).
  
• Blurry assignment preview: many candidates have reported this problem. The assignment preview window is the only possibility in FLOWlock to allow side-by-side comparison, so the blurriness makes this unusable. The official guidance received from the helpdesk, both during the mocks and during exams, is to not use the preview window, or that it was due to the individual system.
• a solution reported in the Telegram groups was to adjust the text zoom ratio in WINDOWS/ Display Settings to 125% before starting the FLOWlock Browser. 
• Note that this WINDOWS setting cannot be set or reset during the exam. 
• The zoom level of the FLOWlock Browser and all the tabs can be set during the exam using the selection menu which appears when the (i) icon in the top left is clicked.
• It is also possible to separately change the zoom level of an assignment tab using CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE, or the (-) and (+) buttons in the assignment tab toolbar. Zoom settings can also be set directly by clicking on the arrow next to the percentage in the assignment tab toolbar.
• It is only possible to separately change the zoom level of the answer tab using CTRL+SCROLL MOUSE.

CLICK BELOW FOR MORE ABOUT D EXAM (no spoilers)4. D Exam (general impression)

• The copy/paste is still unreliable. Most of the D1 questions were fine, but the D2 was very mixed. I did not spend time making the answer nice, but I did often delete multiple empty lines because when you are working in one answer window, you don't want to scroll up and down too much. Exam candidates should not be wasting time on compensating for poor technical performance.
• Using headers (Heading 4 is the smallest) works well - you then have a clickable overview in the Table of Contents, allowing jumping between the headings. But it is still irritating that you cannot easily see which parts are in the same paragraph, so when you apply a Heading style to a selection, the whole paragraph afterwards often changes with it. It is solved by putting in a hard return, but again exam candidates should not be wasting time compensating for these technical roadblocks.
• I am not a fast typist, but I managed a similar speed to on paper
• For exams where argumentation structure repeats (like D2 and C), copy/paste of parts of your answer, or quickly making a template from the first piece is faster (as long as you don't forget to change all the facts in the pasted version.) Unfortunately, any formatting applied in your answer is lost when you copy/paste within your answer. Why does WISEflow hate formatting?
• I did not use the highlighting / annotation in the assignment (exam) tabs because there is still no side-by-die mode available. I just copied everything to the answer window, and lightly highlighted some keywords, of made some words bold in my timelines. 
• I like being able to use the explicit questions as checklists in my answer to make sure I don't forget anything

5. D1 (content and methodology)

• The D1 questions were reasonable, although there was not much PCT 😞. However, this is positive for most candidates as they have a much deeper knowledge of EPC. Almost everything had been asked before in previous exams, or could be considered from the core of the syllabus.
• Some of the questions seemed to have quite open answers, so it was necessary to be strategic about which comments were to be explained in detail, and which should be skipped. This year, there were only 45 marks for D1 (last year, in 2021, there were 50 marks), so the time for D1 was reduced. I ran out of time on all the D1-2 questions (questions with fewer marks are the most dangerous for keeping to the time because there is less time for thinking). 
• I copied each question into my answer first, with three Heading 4's: Question, Analysis and Answer. I read the questions using the copy in my answer, and made a rough vertical timeline in each answer by copying the sentences exactly with facts and dates, and pasting them in chronological order. I did not waste time making it neat - I used the exact wording from the question, so the dates were not always in the same place, but it was chronological. For D1, this was fine, but it did make my D2 timeline a little chaotic.
• I copied the last part of the questions ("the explicit questions") as a rough framework for my answer to make sure I didn't forget anything
• The calendars were needed quite a few times. 

6. D2 (content and methodology)

• The D2 was 55 marks this year (last year, in 2021, there were only 50 marks). I thought there were a lot of rights and inventions to work through, and I could not get to everything I wanted to go through. It seemed a lot to get through, even with extra time.
• It was a simple technology, anyone can understand 👍. I prefer this in D2 because technological understanding is tested anyway in the ABC Exams.
• The explicit questions at the end were classic D2-style questions, being explicit about which combinations to discuss 👍.
• I think most people should get close to the end in 3 hours, and pick up quite a few marks explaining what they were doing
• It was possible to solve things in parallel, so you can examine each issue separately, work out the specific impact, and bring all the issues together at the end.
• The style was very similar to last years D2. 
• D2 methodology: I did it the same as here in my Mock2 - D2 exam post, except this time I made the timeline digitally. This ended up being a little chaotic, so I had to edit the labels a little to keep them short and clear. 
• I used 5 tabs (one for each page), so that I could jump from page to page quickly. I did read the exam in the assignment (exam) tabs, put I took the information and made notes in my timeline, or in notes about each application/patent/disclosure, or in a to do do list. These were all made digitally, and left in.
• Iin general, if you see something in an exam that you knows gives marks, you should try and write it (like novelty attacks in C Exam). I know you risk getting lost, but if you stick to a strict step-by-step approach, you may not get to the end. For this D2, you can (and should do that). For example, one of the D2 questions asks "how can we improve", and this can be answered as a list of possibilities with each improvement (file opposition, file appeal, new filing) being handled in parallel. The consequences of performing the improvement (how it helps the client's business) can also be done in parallel.