After completing an exam, you can request a manual review by our Exam Marking Team within 5 working days of receiving your results. Reviews are conducted independently of the original marking. They may increase your score but will never lower it, and once a review decision is issued, it's final.

Exam Review Timeframes

The timeframes below are provided directly by our Director of Content and behalf of our Exam Team (April 2026 update).

Exam	Estimated Review Timeframe	Eligible for Review
Blue Team Level 1 (BTL1)	10 working days	Yes
Blue Team Level 2 (BTL2)	20 working days (initial marking)	No (human-marked, final)
Certified Security Operations Manager (CSOM) - Practical	10 working days	Yes
Certified Security Operations Manager (CSOM) - Theory	20 working days (initial marking)	No (human-marked, final)
Certified Junior Detection Engineer (CJDE)	10 working days	Yes

A working day is defined as Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays and UK bank holidays. 

For example:

If a client requests a BTL1 Manual Review and SLA is expected within 10 working days and you submit on a Friday, the first working day would be Monday. Weekends and bank holidays are not counted, so the total time may extend beyond 10 calendar days. 
👉 10 working days ≠ 10 calendar days

How to Request a Review

You can flag your exam for review directly on the eLearning platform via the Training Exam tab. No support ticket is required.

Important:

• Reviews must be requested within 5 working days of receiving your results
• Each exam attempt can only be reviewed once
• BTL2 and CSOM Theory exams are not eligible for review, as they are fully assessed by our human examiners 

Key Points to Know

• Reviews may increase your score but will not lower it
• Once a review is complete, the decision is final and cannot be appealed
• Exam queues can range from just a few submissions to well over 100 during busy periods. Marking is a detailed process, so we kindly ask for your patience while the team works through reviews
• When you request a manual review, you're also welcome to send to the Support Team specific points or reasoning about where you feel your answer was correct. Referencing the exact question and explaining your thinking helps the Exam Team focus their review, though all submissions are re-assessed against the same marking scheme regardless
• If you've requested a manual review, we recommend waiting until the review is complete before claiming your physical reward. If your score increases, you may become eligible for a higher tier reward (for example, a gold challenge coin instead of silver)

If your review goes beyond the expected timeframe, raise a support ticket and we'll make a note of your case and provide an update.

Important: For fairness, we cannot prioritise any individual exam. Policies are set by the Exam Team and no exceptions can be made beyond what is outlined in this article.

What to Expect

• You'll receive an email notification once your review is complete
• We cannot disclose correct answers or step-by-step solutions
• The final mark after a review may increase, but it will not decrease
• Each submission is assessed independently, so feedback from one attempt does not carry over to another

Exam Marking Policy

Each exam attempt is marked independently and in isolation, using a consistent and predefined marking scheme. This means:

• Feedback or scores from previous attempts are not considered when marking a new submission
• Markers do not see your previous submissions, ensuring objectivity and consistency
• The marking scheme has remained unchanged, though we've improved efficiency through internal tools and standardisation

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did I score lower on my second attempt even after receiving feedback? Each attempt is assessed independently. If you corrected one part but missed another critical section (for example, initial access or ransomware artifacts), the score may still be lower.

Does the reviewer see my first submission when reviewing my second? No. Reviewers assess each report on its own merits. Your previous report is not taken into account.

Can I receive a breakdown comparing both of my submissions? We don't provide comparative analyses between exam attempts. We only assess what was submitted in the current attempt, not prior efforts or feedback.

Can I challenge a review outcome? Review decisions are final. All marking is aligned with our internal criteria and conducted by qualified examiners.

Why does the same feedback message appear more than once in my exam result? This isn't a system glitch. It's how our automated feedback engine is designed to work.

If you didn't quite meet the criteria on more than one related question, the system may display the same feedback message multiple times, even though it's referring to different responses in your submission. 

This repetition doesn't mean you were penalised more than once. It simply reflects that the same skill or topic wasn't clearly demonstrated in multiple parts of your exam.

Disclaimer

All exam reviews are conducted in line with the Exam Board marking criteria. No exceptions will be made outside the rules stated above. By requesting a manual review, you acknowledge that the outcome is final, unless a clear marking or system error is identified on our side.