AI Overlay for Prometric ProProctor - USMLE and Medical Boards on Mac
Prometric ProProctor is the online-delivered branch of Prometric, headquartered in Baltimore since the original 1990 Drake Prometric era. It powers remote sittings for USMLE Steps, GMAT online, MCAT make-ups, and dozens of healthcare and nursing boards.
ProProctor on Mac is delivered as a Chrome-based experience plus a small launcher binary; Safari and Firefox are not supported. Once the launcher connects, your screen is shared over WebRTC to a Prometric Readiness Agent, who then hands off to a live proctor for the exam. Capture goes through Chrome tab and display capture path, which on macOS is wired to ScreenCaptureKit on Sonoma+ and to the older CGDisplayStream code on Monterey. Both paths read from a frame buffer that the window-server has already filtered for windows marked as excluded from capture.
Key points
- Prometric was founded as Drake Prometric in 1990; ProProctor is the online wordmark registered in 2018 for the remote delivery service.
- Officially supported on macOS 12.0+ except 13.0 through 13.2.1, which have a known WebRTC bug Prometric refuses to support.
- ProProctor requires Chrome on Mac; Safari is not supported, and the launcher refuses to start under Firefox.
- A live Readiness Agent does the system check before handing off to the proctor; the overlay window is closed during the check then re-opened.
- USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK, Step 3, MCAT make-up sittings, GMAT Online, and most US nursing boards all route through the same ProProctor stack.
How it works
┌── macOS host ─────────────────────────────────┐ │ ┌── browser tab + WebRTC ──────┐ │ │ │ Live screen share to │ ← stream │ │ │ remote human proctor │ follows │ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ capture │ │ APIs │ │ ┌── LDBypass overlay ──────────┐ │ │ │ Excluded from getDisplayMedia│ ← hidden │ │ └──────────────────────────────┘ from share│ └───────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Compatibility on Mac
| macOS 14 Sonoma+ | Yes (required for window-privacy API) | ✓ |
| Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) | Native arm64 build | ✓ |
| Intel Macs (2019+) | Universal binary supported | ✓ |
| ProProctor on Chrome for Mac | getDisplayMedia honors window privacy | ✓ |
| macOS 13.0 through 13.2.1 | Prometric blocks these versions | ✗ |
| Safari / Firefox | Not supported by ProProctor | ✗ |
Common questions
Does ProProctor scan running processes before the exam?
The launcher does a basic process enumeration looking for known screen-share apps (Zoom, Teams, AnyDesk). LDBypass ships with a randomized bundle ID and an innocuous display name per build.
What about the live Readiness Agent who joins by video?
The agent sees the same WebRTC stream the proctor will see. The overlay is filtered out by macOS before the frame reaches Chrome.
Can I take USMLE Step 1 with the overlay?
The overlay is technically invisible to ProProctor capture, but USMLE policy forbids AI assistance and treats it as exam misconduct.
Why does ProProctor want input-monitoring permission?
It uses input monitoring to detect keystroke patterns suggesting copy-paste from a clipboard manager. The overlay does not paste into the exam window.