We want you to be prepared for the expected and unexpected on exam day! Below are our recommended best practices to help you develop your exam delivery policies.
Note: For video guides, see these recorded webinars:
- Enterprise Portal: "The Complete Guide to Prepping for Exam Day" (link opens in YouTube)
- Legacy Portal: "The Complete Guide to Prepping for Exam Day" (link opens in YouTube)
Pre-Exam Day Preparations
- Mock Exam
- Preview Your Exam
- Assessment and Post Settings
- Proctor Training and Preparation
- Exam-Taker Communications
- Additional Preparations for On-Site Exams
Mock Exam
Create a Mock Exam for your exam-takers before the first exam posting. This enables them to ensure that their devices meet requirements and are properly set up. They also can become familiar with the exam features.
When building a Mock Exam, make it as similar to a regular exam as possible. Add notices and attachments. Include at least one of each question type that you plan on using this semester. Enable the same features that you intend to enable on the actual assessment, such as Spell Checker and Text Highlighting.
A Mock Exam is critical if you are using ExamID, so that you can capture a baseline photo.
Preview Your Exam
Use the Preview Exam feature to view your exam as an exam-taker would, but without actually taking the exam. This is an excellent way to review the questions on the exam and make necessary changes before posting it.
- Enterprise Portal: Create and Preview a Practice Exam (Tutorial)
- Legacy Portal: Create and Preview a Practice Exam (Tutorial)
Assessment and Post Settings
- When setting up the assessment, add your exam proctor(s) to the course settings or to the assessment settings so that they will have access to the assessment information.
- When you post this assessment, set the Download Start date/time to 24-48 hours before the actual date/time of the exam. This way, the exam-takers have plenty of time to download the exam.
- Exam-takers should also be given only one download for an exam. If additional downloads are needed, they can easily be changed on an individual basis.
Proctor Training and Preparation
- Ensure that the proctors know how to access the assessment information, including the assessment password, the universal resume code, and the list of exam-takers, and more. Also ensure that they know how to adjust the number of downloads, check the status of uploads, and remove an upload. See: Enterprise Portal: Exam Proctoring
- If your institution has a support package, provide the ExamSoft Support number to the exam proctor(s).
Exam-Taker Communications
- Share this article with the exam-takers: Best Practices for Exam-Takers and Exam-Taker Quick Start Guide
- If the exam-takers will take the exam remotely or will bring their own devices to your site:
- Encourage them to download the exam as early as possible. This way, if they have any issues, they'll have time to get help before the exam begins. Downloading the exam in advance also ensures that no internet issues will prevent them from taking the exam on exam day.
- Share the links to the Disable Anti-Virus Software instructions before exam day, and encourage the exam-takers to complete these procedures before exam time.
- Advise the exam-takers to fully charge their devices before the exam.
- For optimal performance, advise the exam-takers to restart their devices within 24-48 hours of exam day.
Additional Preparations for On-Site Exams
- Bring a list of all exam-takers scheduled for the exam. Take attendance to determine who must be contacted and scheduled for a make-up exam.
- As a backup, it's helpful to print a copy of your exam and to bring Scantron forms in case any exam-takers experience technical issues or forget their devices. You can import the answer files to ensure that their results are included in the assessment reports. See: Enterprise Portal: Print an Assessment
- Consider preparing loaner devices. Set the devices up with Lab User accounts to ensure that no exam-taker information is stored on the device. See: Examplify: Basic Lab Setup or Examplify for iPad: Lab Setup
- If you are using lab computers or providing loaner devices:
- Install the latest version of Examplify. See: Examplify for Windows and Mac: Download, Install, and Register Examplify or Examplify for iPad: Download and Install Examplify
- Disable Anti-Virus Software before the scheduled exam time.
- If the exam uses ExamID, the exam-takers must have an internet connection to start the exam. See: Connect Your Device to the Internet for Exams with ExamID
- Read the section on Potential On-Site Issues (below).
Potential On-Site Issues
Internet Issues
- For exams with ExamID, the devices must be connected to the internet to start the exam. In the event of an internet outage, a hotspot connection can be used.
- For exams without ExamID, if the exams have been downloaded in advance, then the exam-takers will be able to complete their exams without internet access. The answer file will be saved and secure on their device until they are able to reconnect to the internet and upload their answer files.
- If your exam has an upload deadline, edit the Post Settings to adjust the deadline as needed. This will allow students to reach an area with internet access in order to upload their answer file. Don't worry, they will not be able to re-enter their exam once they've exited a secure exam.
- Be ready to make photocopies or print from your downloaded file, if students are unable to download their exam.
Power Outage
- If the devices have fully charged batteries, it's possible that the exam-takers will be able to complete the exam.
- If you choose to postpone your exam until power is restored, ask the students completely shut down their devices to stop the timer on their exam.
Site Evacuation
If exam-takers are required to leave the site (for example, if there is a fire drill), follow these best practices.
- Instruct the exam-takers to completely shut down their devices to stop the exam timer. Examplify saves content periodically. Anything that was entered 60 seconds before the shutdown is secure.
- DO NOT instruct them to submit the exam.
- Closing a laptop may only put the computer to sleep rather than shut it down. If the computer is not shut down, the timer will keep running.
- When you are ready to resume the exam, announce the universal resume code. You can find this code on the Proctoring page. When the exam-takers restart their devices, they will need to enter this code to resume the exam.
Bring-Your-Own-Device Issues
- If an exam-taker has technical issues or has forgotten to bring a device, we recommend that you provide a loaner device or furnish a printed exams and a Scantron form.
- If device issues occur during the exam, we recommend powering down the device immediately. DO NOT instruct the exam-taker to submit the exam. After the device has been off for at least 5 seconds, restart it. Depending on the length of the outage, the exam-taker might be able to resume the exam immediately or might require a resume code (which can be found on the Proctoring tab).