Online Entrance Exams
An online exam for shortlisted applicants: invitations, private codes, anonymous marking and ranked results.
What you need
Online entrance exams need both the exams and the admissions parts of your plan, with online exams switched on (see Online Exams (CBT)). Applicants sit with no account: each one gets a private access code instead.
1. Create an exam for applicants
Under Exams → Online Exams (CBT), choose "New exam". Under "Who sits it", pick the Applicants option. An entrance exam has no term, gradebook component or practice simulation, its questions come from the chosen class's bank, and it is never assigned to a section — applicants are invited instead. Add questions and press "Publish exam" as for any other exam.
2. Invite shortlisted applicants
Only shortlisted applications can be invited, so shortlist applicants under Admissions first. Once the exam is published, its page shows "Invited applicants". Under "Invite shortlisted applicants", tick each applicant and press "Invite and send codes". Each invited applicant's parent is e-mailed a private access code and a link straight away. Where your school has switched on "Sign-in and account" on the Text messages page, the code is texted instead, with the e-mail as the fallback. Staff never see the code. If an application is no longer wanted, "Withdraw" ends its invitation for good.
3. How an applicant sits
The applicant opens the link from the e-mail, types the "Access code" and presses "Continue", then "Start the exam" when ready. Their application status page also shows the exam, with "Go to the exam". A code works once: it opens one sitting on one device. If it is used on another device, or lost, the applicant presses "Send the code again" on their application status page — a new code goes out and the old one stops working. Staff can do the same with "Send a new code" beside the applicant under "Invited applicants". After five wrong codes the invitation locks, and only a new code sent by staff unlocks it.
4. The entrance fee
If you charge for the entrance exam — the "Entrance exam" stage under Finance → Set up → Admission Charges — it must be paid before the exam opens for that applicant. An applicant who has not paid is told to pay from their application status page and come back. A payment still pending does not count as paid.
5. On the day
The monitor works as it does for pupils. If an applicant loses time — a power cut in the hall, a crashed computer — "Add time" on their row gives it back, with a reason. If you moved the exam's closing time after they entered their code, or the extra time takes them past four hours from then, their browser will ask for a new code: send one with "Send a new code" and they carry on where they stopped. Extra time agreed in advance and exemptions are for pupils only, so an applicant's row does not offer them.
⚠️ Exams sat at home are not supervised
An applicant can open the exam from anywhere, and nobody watches a sitting at home. For decisions that matter, hold the exam at school. Safe Exam Browser is not available for entrance exams yet, so tick "Require full screen" and set an exit limit on the "Screen rules" card, and invigilate the room.
6. Marking, anonymously
Theory answers are marked from "Marking" as usual, but an entrance script shows no name and no number: each is labelled Script and a code, such as Script 1A2B-3C4D, so the marker cannot tell whose it is. Marking an entrance exam needs both permission to mark exams and permission to view admissions. An entrance exam is never pushed to a gradebook and never released.
7. Reading the results
"Entrance results" on the exam's page lists each applicant with their state and score, for staff who can view admissions; the Admissions list shows the same on each application. Positions appear only when every script is marked, nobody is still sitting and the exam has closed — until then the page says what is outstanding. Applicants never see their score; their status page says only that their answers were submitted and the school will contact them.
⚠️ A score never decides by itself
A score informs your admissions decision; it never admits, rejects or moves an application. Make the decision on the Admissions page, as you always have.
How long answers are kept
These are children who are not your pupils, so their entrance-exam answers are deleted automatically if they are not admitted: 90 days after the application was rejected, counted from the day it was rejected, or a year after the exam closed if the application never moved on from submitted, shortlisted or waitlisted. An applicant who enrols keeps their entrance score with their application.
Still stuck?
Email info@tocel.ng and tell us which guide you were following.