Online Exams (CBT)
Setting a computer-based exam, getting pupils signed in, watching it live, and marking and releasing results.
Getting online exams
Online exams appear in the menu under Exams → Online Exams (CBT) once two things are true: Tocademy has switched online exams on, and your school is on the Standard plan or above. If the menu item is missing, ask Tocademy. If the page says online exams are not included in your plan, your school administrator can change the plan. Until then a pupil's exam page tells them plainly that online exams are not part of the school's plan, rather than showing an empty list.
1. Create the exam
Go to Exams → Online Exams (CBT) and choose "New exam". Pick the class and give the exam a title. Under "Who sits it", leave "Pupils — assigned to a class, marks can reach the gradebook" selected. Choose the subject, the term and "Scores which component", then set when it "Opens" and "Closes" — pupils can start only inside that window — and "Duration (minutes)", and the venue if you know it. Press "Create and add questions". The exam's own page opens at adding questions, with the same settings, filled in, under "Exam settings" above: you carry on there rather than filling anything in again.
2. Add the questions
Questions come from your question bank, and only approved questions can be used. Under "Fill automatically", say how many questions of each difficulty you want and press "Preview selection" — you see exactly which questions were found before anything is added — then use the button beneath the list to add them. Or search under "Add from the question bank" and add questions one at a time. Open "Exam settings" near the top of the page to change its title, timing, venue, instructions, shuffling or the number of attempts, then press "Save settings".
3. Assign it and publish
Under "Assign a section", choose each section that sits the exam and press "Assign". An exam with no section assigned will publish, but nobody can sit it. Then press "Publish exam". Anything that must be fixed is listed under "Cannot publish yet"; if the problems are only warnings, you can read them and press "Publish anyway". Publishing freezes the questions, the marks and the grading bands, so every pupil is marked on what they were asked. A section can still be added after publishing, and "Close to new attempts" stops anyone new from starting. Nothing is sent to a pupil when an exam is published — it simply appears on their exam list under Exams in the Student Portal. If you later change a published exam's opening, closing or length, each pupil assigned to it is told in their portal inbox, and never their family, and their list says the time has changed.
4. Give each pupil a sign-in code
A pupil sits an online exam from their own Student Portal login, so every pupil needs one before exam day. Open the pupil's record and, in the "Student Portal" box, press "Issue sign-in code" with the pupil in front of you. If the pupil has no login yet, the same press creates it — there is no separate invitation for a pupil. The code is shown with the school code and their admission number, and works once, for 15 minutes. The pupil opens the sign-in page, follows "Pupil with a sign-in code?", types the school code (if the page asks for it), their admission number and the code, types a new password twice and presses "Set my password". From then on they sign in with their admission number; if they forget their password, issue a new code the same way.
5. Set the exam rules
Open "Exam settings" and, under "When and where", fill in "Venue" — for example ICT Lab 2 — and press "Save settings"; pupils see it on their exam list, and it can still change after publishing. Then open "Exam-day security": the "Screen rules" card is off unless you switch it on. Under "Submit a pupil's exam after they leave the exam screen", pick a number of times, or leave it on "Never — only count it". The pupil is warned before the last one. Tick "Require full screen" to hide the paper until the pupil is in full screen; the clock keeps running while it is hidden. Then press "Save screen rules". You can relax these rules at any time, with a reason once pupils have started, but you cannot tighten them once anyone has started. Exam Security and Safe Exam Browser explains what they can and cannot stop.
6. Before exam day: the readiness check
"Exam-day readiness" at the top of the exam's page lists every problem at once, rather than one at a time: no candidates in the assigned sections, pupils with no portal login, and pupils who would be refused if the exam opened now, each with the reason. Where unpaid fees stop pupils starting an exam, those pupils are listed here too, so it can be settled before the morning of the exam rather than at the door. A member of staff who may do so can use "Authorise fees" on the monitor to let a named pupil sit, with a reason; the bill itself is unchanged.
7. Watching it live
Choose "Monitor" on the exam's page. The list of candidates updates within seconds as pupils sit, and shows each pupil's state, whether they are "Out of full screen", how often they have left the exam screen, and when they were last seen — "Seen just now", or how long it has been. Press "Timeline" beside a pupil to see their sitting event by event. Under "Alerts" you are told when a pupil leaves full screen or reaches a number of exits you set. None of this is a verdict: a pop-up, a screen reader and a flat battery all look the same from here, so a person decides what it means.
8. Ending a sitting, withholding a result, adding time
Each row on the monitor offers what applies to that sitting. While a pupil is sitting, "End sitting" submits their answers so far and their score stands — this cannot be undone — and "Add time" gives back minutes lost to a power cut or a crashed computer. After they finish, "Withhold result" hides the result from the pupil and their family and keeps it off the gradebook, and "Reinstate result" brings it back later. A pupil the screen rules submitted can be let back in with "Allow to continue": they carry on with the time they had left, their answers kept, and their screen exits counted again from zero — not once the result is released, pushed to the gradebook, withheld or marked. Every one of these asks for a reason, which is kept on the record and never shown to the pupil, and every one is recorded. The pupil is told only that the school ended their exam, never why, and a family is not told when a result is withheld. For extra time agreed in advance, type the minutes and a reason on the pupil's row and use "Grant"; "Remove extra time" takes it away again.
Pausing a pupil whose computer fails
Each pupil's time runs from when they start, not from when the exam opens: on an exam open from 8:00 to 9:00 with 30 minutes allowed, a pupil who starts at 8:10 finishes at 8:40, and one who starts at 8:45 still stops at 9:00 when the window closes. If a pupil's laptop fails or they are taken ill, use "Pause" on their row and give a reason: their clock stops, their screen says the exam is paused, and they cannot answer until you resume them. Their answers so far are kept. Move them to another computer if you need to — they sign in as themselves and open the exam again. When they are ready, use "Resume": they get back exactly the time they had left, never past the window's close. The row shows "Paused" with the minutes they will get back while it waits. A paused sitting nobody resumes is submitted when the window closes. To give more time on top, use "Add time" once the sitting is running again.
9. Marking theory answers
Objective questions are marked automatically. Theory answers wait for a teacher: choose "Marking" on the exam's page, answers are grouped by pupil, twenty pupils to a page by default (thirty or fifty if you choose), with pupils who still have answers to mark first. Read each answer beside the model answer, type the mark and press "Save mark"; an answer still to mark says "Awaiting marking". A blank answer still needs a mark, even zero, or that pupil's result can never be finished. To revise a mark, use "Show marked answers too (to moderate or regrade)", fill in "Reason for the change" and press "Change mark" — every change stays in the answer's marking history.
10. The gradebook, and releasing results
Press "Push scores to gradebook" to put each finished pupil's score in the gradebook exactly as a hand-entered mark would appear. You can push while marking is still under way: a pupil with an answer awaiting marking is skipped and named, and goes across when you push again after marking it. When every answer is marked the page says "Marking is complete". Releasing is a separate step. Where the release step is switched on, pupils and families see a result only after you press "Release results to candidates", and anyone still awaiting marking is held back until you finish and release again. Where it is not switched on, a result is visible as soon as it is fully marked, and the page says so if you press the button. A practice simulation is never pushed to the gradebook.
Still stuck?
Email info@tocel.ng and tell us which guide you were following.