Exam Management

This guide provides comprehensive information on creating, configuring, and managing exams on the R's PlacePrep platform.

Exam Lifecycle

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Planning → Draft → Add Questions → Publish → Share Exam Code → Active → Closed → Evaluate

An exam has one of four statuses: draft, published, closed, or archived. Only published exams can be joined by students.

Planning Phase

Before creating an exam, consider:

• Objective: What skills are being assessed?
• Target Audience: Which college(s) should be able to take this exam?
• Scope: What topics will be covered?
• Duration: How much time is appropriate?
• Difficulty: What level of challenge is suitable?
• Schedule: When should the exam be available?

Creating an Exam

Step 1: Access Exam Builder

1. Log in to the admin panel
2. Navigate to "Exams" from the sidebar
3. Click "Create New Exam" button
4. You'll be directed to the two-step exam builder

Step 2: Basic Details

Fill in the fundamental exam information:

Exam Name

• Use a descriptive, clear title
• Include company name and year if applicable
• Example: "TCS NQT Mock Test 2025"

Description

• Provide context about the exam
• Mention topics covered
• Include any special instructions

Duration

• Set time limit in minutes
• Typical ranges:
  • Quick quiz: 10-15 minutes
  • Topic test: 20-30 minutes
  • Section test: 45-60 minutes
  • Full mock test: 90-120 minutes

Negative Marking

• Specify percentage of marks deducted for wrong answers
• Common values:
  • No negative marking: 0%
  • Standard: 25% (1 mark deducted for 4-mark question)
  • Strict: 33% or 50%
• Consider the exam difficulty when setting this value

Exam Schedule

Start Time:

• When the exam becomes accessible to students
• Must be a future date/time for new exams
• Students cannot attempt before this time

End Time:

• When the exam automatically closes
• Must be after the start time, and must be in the future
• Any attempt still in progress is auto-submitted once this time passes

Visibility

• All — anyone with the exam code can join
• College — only students from the colleges you select can join

Admins can only restrict an exam to their own college. Super admins can select any colleges.

Step 3: Exam Settings

Configure advanced options to customize the exam experience:

Allow Early Submission

Enabled (Recommended):

• Students can submit when they complete all questions
• Reduces waiting time
• Allows students to finish at their own pace

Disabled:

• Students must wait until time expires
• Ensures all students have equal time
• Useful for standardized testing

Enforce Fullscreen Mode

Enabled:

• Exam enters fullscreen automatically on start
• The first fullscreen exit shows a warning; the second auto-submits
• Tab and window switching is also detected: the first switch warns, the second auto-submits
• Helps maintain exam integrity

Disabled:

• Students can use normal browser window
• More comfortable for some users
• Suitable for practice tests

When to Enable:

• High-stakes assessments
• Competitive exams with rankings
• Tests requiring strict proctoring

When to Disable:

• Practice tests
• Low-stakes quizzes
• Accessibility considerations

Show Ranking

Enabled:

• Students see their rank after submission
• Ranking based on:
  1. Total score (higher is better)
  2. Time taken (faster is better for same score)
• Encourages healthy competition
• Motivates improvement

Disabled:

• Results show only individual performance
• No comparison with other students
• Reduces pressure
• Suitable for learning-focused assessments

Step 4: Question Selection

The second step of the builder is where you add questions. There are three sources:

1. Question Pool

Questions parsed from the markdown content files, filterable by:

• Company: TCS, Infosys, Accenture, etc.
• Section: Aptitude, Coding, Verbal, Logical, etc.
• Type: MCQ, numerical, coding
• Year/Pattern: 2024-NQT, 2025-IRT, etc.

Click a question to add it. Duplicates are blocked. Marks are assigned in the builder, not in the markdown file.

2. Custom Questions

Write a question directly in the UI. You can create MCQ, numerical, and coding questions, and set the marks yourself.

3. AI-Generated Questions

Generate a set of questions with Groq or Gemini. You choose the purpose (practice, class test, or company-wise), the sections, the total marks, and the maximum marks per question.

There is no random "pick N questions automatically" selector and no bulk CSV/JSON question import. Questions are added deliberately, one at a time.

Question Distribution

Create balanced exams by ensuring:

• Topic Coverage: All relevant topics are included
• Difficulty Mix: a spread of easy, medium, and hard questions
• Point Distribution: Appropriate weightage for each section
• Time Allocation: Questions fit within duration

Step 5: Review and Publish

A new exam is saved as a draft. Drafts cannot be joined by students.

Before publishing:

1. Preview Questions: Review all selected questions
2. Verify Settings: Confirm all configurations are correct
3. Test Duration: Ensure time limit is appropriate
4. Check Schedule: Verify start and end times
5. Proofread: Look for typos or formatting issues

Click Publish. You'll be shown the exam's exam code and a direct link, along with a share message you can copy. Students need that code to join.

Managing Exams

Exam Statuses

The exam list can be filtered by status.

Monitoring Exams

Open an exam to see:

• The exam code, direct link, and share options
• The schedule and all settings
• A table of every attempt with each student's score and status
• Export Results as CSV
• Delete individual attempts or several at once

For offline LAN exams there is a dedicated live monitoring dashboard at /exam-dashboard. See Self-Hosting.

Extending the End Time

If something goes wrong during an exam, open Edit on the exam and push the end time back. There is no separate "extend", "pause", or "cancel" action.

Editing Exams

• Edit changes the basic details and settings: name, description, duration, schedule, negative marking, early submission, fullscreen, ranking, and visibility
• Questions is a separate page for adding and removing questions

Be careful editing an exam that is already live — changing questions or duration mid-exam affects students who are already attempting. Prefer only extending the end time.

Question Management

Adding New Questions to the Pool

1. Navigate to content/companies/<company>/<folder>/
2. Edit questions.md
3. Add questions using the format the parser expects
4. Save — questions become available in the pool

The exact markdown format, including the **Problem**, **Solution**, and **Answer** markers, is documented in the Contributing Guide.

How Question Types Are Determined

Pool questions do not declare their type. It is inferred:

Custom and AI-generated questions can additionally be MSQ (multiple correct answers). There is no true/false question type.

Difficulty, topic tags, and per-question marks are not read from the markdown. Marks are set in the exam builder; topics come from ## Topic Name headings in the file.

Coding Question Evaluation Flow

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Submission → Was code actually written? → Yes: manual/AI evaluation queue
                                       → No: scored 0, no review needed

What counts as "not attempted": roughly 30 characters or fewer of code once comments and whitespace are stripped out. This catches empty editors and untouched starter templates.

If an attempt has no attempted coding questions, it is marked evaluated immediately with a final score. If it has at least one, it becomes partially evaluated and the score is withheld until an admin finishes evaluating.

AI-Assisted Coding Evaluation

The platform supports AI-powered evaluation of coding questions using Groq (Llama) or Google Gemini:

How AI Evaluation Works

1. Admin navigates to the evaluation queue
2. For individual questions: Click "AI Evaluate" button next to a pending submission
3. For bulk processing: Click "AI Evaluate All" on the main evaluation page
4. AI analyzes the student's code against the expected solution
5. AI provides:
   • Marks awarded (with optional partial credit)
   • Detailed feedback on code quality
   • Suggestions for improvement

AI Evaluation Features

• Auto-Fallback: If the preferred provider has no key or the call fails, the other provider is tried automatically
• Sequential Processing: Bulk evaluation runs one question at a time with a short delay between calls
• Partial Marks: AI can award partial credit in 0.25, 0.5, or 1.0 increments
• Feedback Generation: Students see the AI's feedback on their review page

AI Evaluation Settings

Configure AI behavior in Admin Panel → AI Settings:

• Preferred Provider: Groq or Gemini
• API Keys: save your own Groq/Gemini keys, or rely on the platform's environment keys
• Auto-Fallback: on or off
• Allow Partial Marks and Mark Increment

When to Use AI Evaluation

Recommended for:

• Large volume of coding submissions
• Initial evaluation pass before manual review
• Consistent grading criteria
• Time-sensitive evaluations

Consider manual evaluation when:

• Complex algorithmic questions requiring nuanced judgment
• Questions with multiple valid approaches
• Students have requested review of AI evaluation

AI Evaluation Indicators

Questions evaluated by AI are flagged in the evaluation UI, so you can tell AI-assisted grading apart from manual grading. You can always override the AI's marks manually.

Reusing an Exam

There is no clone or template feature. To run a similar exam again, create a new one and add the questions you want. Since exams are joined by code rather than listed publicly, running a fresh exam per batch is the intended workflow.

Deleting Exams

Considerations

Before Deletion:

• Export the results as CSV
• Verify no students are currently attempting
• Confirm this is the correct exam

Deletion is irreversible and removes the exam along with its attempts. If you only want it out of the way, set its status to closed or archived instead.

Safe Deletion Process

1. Ensure the exam has ended
2. Export the results
3. Delete the exam from the exam list
4. Confirm deletion

Individual attempts can also be deleted from the exam detail page, either one at a time or in bulk.

Best Practices

Timing

• Buffer Time: Add 5-10% extra time for reading instructions
• Per Question: Allocate appropriate time based on difficulty
• Avoid Rush: Don't make exams too time-pressured
• Consider All: Account for different student speeds

Question Selection

• Variety: Mix different types and difficulties
• Relevance: Ensure all questions align with objectives
• Fair Distribution: Balance across topics
• Quality Over Quantity: Better to have fewer good questions

Settings Configuration

• Match Purpose: Settings should align with exam goals
• Be Consistent: Use similar settings for similar exam types
• Document Reasons: Note why specific settings were chosen
• Test First: Verify settings work as expected

Communication

• Announce Early: Inform students well in advance
• Share the exam code: students cannot join without it
• Clear Instructions: Put anything students need to know in the exam description
• Be Available: Provide support during the exam window

Quality Assurance

• Peer Review: Have another admin review the exam
• Test Run: Join the exam yourself with the code before sharing it
• Verify Answers: Double-check all correct answers
• Check Formatting: Ensure code blocks and math render properly

Reviewing Results

After the exam ends, open it from the admin panel to see the attempts table with each student's score and status, and export the results as CSV for deeper analysis.

See the Dashboard Overview for what students see on their side.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Questions Not Appearing:

• Verify markdown syntax is correct
• Check file paths in content directory
• Ensure files are saved properly
• Review console for parsing errors

Students Cannot Access Exam:

• Confirm the exam status is "published", not "draft"
• Check the current time is between the start and end times
• Confirm students have the correct exam code
• If visibility is set to "college", confirm their college codes are in the allowed list

Timer Issues:

• Verify duration is set correctly
• Check server time synchronization
• Ensure client browsers have correct time
• Remember the effective time is whichever is shorter: the remaining duration or the time left until the exam's end time

Fullscreen Not Working:

• Check browser permissions
• Confirm "Enforce Fullscreen" is enabled on the exam
• Test in supported desktop browsers — enforcement is skipped where the Fullscreen API is unavailable, such as Safari on iPhone

Getting Support

For unresolved issues:

1. Check the Troubleshooting guide
2. Review system logs and error messages
3. Consult the Admin Guide
4. Contact technical support with details:
   • Exam ID
   • Error messages
   • Steps to reproduce
   • Browser and OS information