[xiwenc]

OP here. The online exam is run by Pearson Vue. With my brief research I found it’s a British company. That could be the reason they use AM/PM.

I think with better UX on their scheduling app this would have been avoided. Imagine how much cost they could save with minor improvement. It wasted the proctors, customer service and my time. Unless they don't acknowledge own fault and require customers to pay for another exam.

But the thing that made me realize is that the root case is the time notation itself. Imagine how much frustration and unnecessary expenses this could inflict in general.

[sjs382]

I hope this doesn't come off as unnecessarily combative, but the real solution here is to check, verify, double-check and triple-check when presented with notation that's unfamiliar with you.

> How do we solve this more universally?

It's not a universal problem. While entire cultures and countries /could/ invest resources changing (and more people experience confusion centered around any transition), it really isn't a problem for most. And when it is, it's unlikely to be a problem a second time. Once bit, twice shy.

[xiwenc]

Perhaps universal is too broad “scope” here. Companies nowadays offer services on the internet with reach to every corner of the world. Their customers shouldn’t need to adapt any specific cultural or company origin habits to use their services. Companies should adapt instead if they are offering services to other demographics. It should be easily understood without ambiguity. Yes we all learn from mistakes, but what if this doesn’t result in mistakes all.

Thinking of this further, it seems to me this type of issues are related to accessibility.

Regarding double checking unfamiliar notation: it’s my habit to verify when it’s unclear. The problem is that i know what AM/PM mean. This is a special case i misunderstood. One cannot conclude the misunderstanding until pointed out by an external party.

Based on the comments in this post, it’s obvious i’m not the only struggling with this. Imagine what impact this has on general population as the cultural/country borders are pretty much non-existent on the internet.