Imagine an end-semester paper sat by 5,000 candidates across several programs, in two sessions on one day. The figure is hypothetical; we picked it to make the planning concrete. Below is the checklist we would work through with an exam office in that position. It assumes the exam runs inside Proctorly, which is how our online exam software for universities is designed to work, with no LMS or ERP required.
Eight to ten weeks out: decisions
- Confirm which papers move online. Some may stay in halls. With the Proctorly Examination module, the same exam can run in a center and online with one seat plan and one set of results. Proctoring inside the hall itself is not offered yet, so hall candidates stay with your invigilators.
- Set the assurance level per paper. Most universities choose Every flag reviewed for end-semester exams, where a Proctorly reviewer records a decision on every automated flag before it reaches you.
- Decide identity rules. Face checks run at the start and through the session. Decide whether photo ID capture is required.
- Name the decision makers. Who sits on the malpractice committee, and how do candidates appeal? Write it down now, because agreeing on it in results week is much harder.
- Set retention. Your institution sets how long recordings are kept, per exam policy. Tie it to the length of your appeal window.
Six weeks out: papers and sessions
- Build papers from the question bank.
- Use item pools so questions and options are randomized and neighbors do not see the same paper in the same order.
- Set section timers, navigation rules and per-section instructions.
- Plan sessions. With 5,000 candidates, two sittings of around 2,500 are easier to support than one. Self-booking of slots can spread the load further.
- If you run the Examination module, store finished papers in the sealed paper vault with timed release.
Four weeks out: candidate communication
Most exam-day problems begin as unanswered questions. Send candidates a short notice that covers:
- What is captured during the exam, and why. There is no hidden monitoring, and candidates must be told before the exam starts.
- Device and connection requirements: a laptop, desktop, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone; Chrome, Safari, Edge or Ulaa; at least 512 Kbps download and 128 Kbps upload.
- Whether the paper needs the small Windows desktop app.
- How to reach support: it is available 24×7 during exams from the help link on the exam screen.
- What a flag means, and that a person reviews it before your institution decides anything.
Our candidate guide, what is a proctored exam, is written for this moment, so link to it in your notice. Also point candidates to the public system check, which runs in the browser without logging in and stores nothing. A practice sitting in record-only mode makes a good rehearsal as well.
Two weeks out: rehearsal
- Run a record-only practice sitting for every candidate group. Device and browser problems show up there, before they count.
- Walk your exam-day team through the control room, which shows every online sitting live: who has started, who has been flagged and who needs help.
- Agree escalation paths between your office, your IT team and Proctorly support.
- Confirm accommodations with our team at exam setup, so the agreed arrangements are in place for each sitting. Recording accommodations per candidate is planned.
Exam day
- Staff the control room for the full window, including late starters.
- Track connection problems separately from integrity concerns. A dropped connection is a technical issue.
- Keep a short incident log of anything decided on the day.
The week after: review and results
- At Every flag reviewed, only reviewed cases arrive in your queue. With one reviewer for every 40 candidates during the exam, review keeps pace with the sitting instead of piling up afterwards.
- Send confirmed incidents to the committee. There is no penalty before its recorded decision.
- Export evidence packs for any case likely to be appealed.
- If you run the Examination module, scripts move into on-screen marking and results on the same record, without an export.
Running the whole cycle on one record means fewer handovers, and handovers are where data usually goes missing. Our exam management system page covers the twelve stages in detail.
Frequently asked questions
Can 5,000 candidates sit at the same time?
Plan capacity with us against your actual timetable. Many exam offices prefer two or more sittings because they are easier to support, and self-booking of slots spreads candidates across the times you open.
Do we need an LMS to run this?
No. The exam runs inside Proctorly. If your courses already use Moodle, Proctorly can also monitor an exam that stays in Moodle. Moodle monitoring with OAuth and LTI 1.3 is live and supports Canvas, Blackboard, and other learning platforms.
What if a candidate’s internet drops mid-exam?
The candidate should contact support straight away through the help link. A dropped connection is never treated as misconduct. Resuming after a dropped connection with answers kept is planned and not available yet.
Planning your own season? Share the exam calendar and candidate numbers and we will build the timeline with you. Book a demo.