Proctoring  a
 www.mathclass.org 
Placement Exam

Placement Tests are administered in “Sessions”.

• Each session has:

a. A name which appears on the “Session Name” menu at
www.mathclass.org -> Placement Exams

b. A start and an end  time

i. Sessions will not appear on the Placement Exams menu before the start time

c. A session password

d. A set of restrictions on IP addresses from which the test can be accessed

i. This is currently uncommon

e. An associated  version of  the underlying  test

i. Determines whether everyone gets the same test or whether there are individual versions for each person taking the test.

• Proctors must be provided a-d and should at least be aware of the nature of e.

Session Proctors

• Are analogous to proctors of conventional tests

• Have control of the test environment

• Verify student identity

• Make sure students are taking the correct test

• Do not need any special technical skills or knowledge of the test content

• Do not need any special accounts or privileges

• Must have certain information about the session (see above)

Alternative Model

• If the session password is unique (i.e. not that of any other session),  the exam site is secure, students cannot leave until the test is over, and  students cannot email, phone, or text message before the session end time, then the proctor might give the session name and password to the student

• The proctor would still have the responsibility of verifying the student’s identity.

Session Times

• The exam does not appear on the Placement Exam menu until the session  “start” time. For this reason one hour exams are generally designed to be done in 50 minutes”. A typical model is for exams to start and end on the hour with 10 minutes assumed sufficient for students to get started and the exam ending precisely on the hour.

• Proctors generally have no control over start and stop times so there is no provision for stopping a restarting a session (e.g. if a fire alarm goes off). However if a session is not terminated then exams started during the session may be completed and submitted even after the session is expired. The system will check and save the results but they would not be included in “official” results and would have to be treated separately by advisors who have full information on the circumstances.

End of the Session

• Immediate Student Results

– Upon submission, students get a report back in the form of a raw score and table of entries corresponding to problems. A green entry indicates that the correct answer to the problem  was submitted

– Proctors in general do not have access to the overall results of the session unless they are a member of the placement class with report reading privileges.

• There is no technical “cleanup” once the session has expired although, in the interest of  privacy,  students should close their browser sessions as they leave. 

Paul Eakin, March 14, 2007