Exam Module

SAR knows which DP students take which subject, at which level, in which teaching group. Once SAR is connected, the app reads those batches each night, and a DP paper’s Who sits this gets “Add a subject batch”, with the batches matching the paper’s subject and level first. A batch is a live list: a student who joins it in SAR is on the sitting after the next read, and one who moves from HL to SL moves off an HL paper. A batch taught HL and SL together sits as two lists, so an HL paper takes only its HL students. Groups → SAR batches shows the last read, a Refresh batches button for the exam office and coordinators, any SAR subject name to match to ours once, and any SAR student ID not on our roster (listed, never guessed). If a read fails or comes back partial, nothing changes. Batches are kept in SAR, so they cannot be edited or deleted here. Until SAR is connected, both places say “SAR batches are not connected yet”, and saved groups work as before.

On the marking page, select words in a student’s typed answer. A small bar appears: pick a highlight colour, a quick mark (✓, ✗ or ?), or Comment… to write a note about those words. A comment can name one of the paper’s criteria (A to D) from a short list, or none. Comments are numbered beside the answer; click a highlight or Edit to change or remove it. Highlights save with the part when you press Save, like the points and the feedback note. Students see the highlights and comments on their released result, and they print on the Download PDF when marks are included. Typed answers only, on MYP and DP papers: a drawing, a graph or a table keeps the feedback note for the whole part.

A sitting’s window (Opens at / Last start) works with Safe Exam Browser. Save Safe Exam Browser before the opening time; the settings lock when the sitting opens, by button or by window. Do not save an opening time that has already passed — it opens at once. So on the sitting’s Setup page: choose Safe Exam Browser under Device lockdown and press Save, download the .seb file once and send that file to each laptop, then set the opening time last. When you create a Safe Exam Browser sitting, leave Opens at empty in the wizard and add it on Setup afterwards. The Window panel warns you if a sitting with an opening time is still set to Open — any browser.

On a Safe Exam Browser sitting’s live page, a student’s Actions menu has “Ask for SEB log” (whoever can log an incident can ask). The student’s card then says “SEB log asked”, and their hand-in screen asks them to send it. After quitting Safe Exam Browser, the student opens the Device check page (/check) in an ordinary browser, signs in, picks the exam and sends the files from SEB’s Logs folder; the page says where that folder is on Windows and on a Mac. Any student can send one for their own Safe Exam Browser exams of the last 14 days, asked or not. The sitting’s report lists who was asked and who sent files, and exam officers, coordinators and admins can download each file. A log can hold the laptop’s name and Windows user, so invigilators see only whether it came in. Logs are deleted 60 days after they were sent (a Settings value); Keep holds one longer for an open case. A log helps work out a laptop problem; it cannot prove SEB was not changed.

A DP paper (Grade 11 or 12) is now sat on a screen shaped like IB’s DP platform, so practice and mocks feel like the real exam. The sections are buttons along the bottom, filled in as you answer them: empty, half or full, with a flag mark when you have flagged a question in that section. The timer has a menu to count down, count up or hide it. The Accessibility panel has four text sizes, Invert / Dark / Light, IB’s ten background colours, the dyslexia font, line height 1.5x / 1.75x / 2.0x and text spacing, and the zoom is still there. View summary opens IB’s Question summary, and you hand in from there with Submit the examination. MYP papers are unchanged.

Papers → Find “DP Showcase” → Try opens a short practice paper that shows everything on the DP exam screen: two essays with the text beside each, the instructions box, the section buttons, the timer menu, the Accessibility panel, a word count on the essay that sets 400–800 words and none on the one that does not, and View summary before you hand in. Nothing in it counts.

Students now have a Practice section on Sit an exam, to learn the exam screen before a real exam, like IB’s familiarisation package. It lists the papers marked “Practice for” their programme: the Capability Showcase for MYP to start with, and a DP one to come. A student can start, hand in, see their own answers (with the points for questions the computer checks, and the answer key where the paper shows model answers) and try again as often as they like. Nothing in practice is marked, released or counted. The section is hidden while one of the student’s real exams is open, and on a laptop let in with a join code. The exam office or a coordinator switches a paper on under Set-up → Paper office → Practice for students. To rehearse with a class, make an ordinary sitting of the practice paper; it runs like any sitting but is never marked either.

When a teacher presses Try as student, the app makes them a practice “(preview)” row. Those rows used to appear on Admin → Students under MYP, DP and both, and most of them showed as needing a look. They are no longer listed, counted, flagged or included in the CSV; one line under the list says how many there are. Trying a paper as a student works as before.

On a DP paper marked on marks, each written answer has a “Marked on” box under it on the Guided tab: One mark, or DP criteria from an IB preset. English A Paper 1 is A to D, each out of 5 (20); English A Paper 2 is A and B out of 10 and C and D out of 5 (30). You can change any “Out of”, for example to match a school paper out of 25, and the part becomes out of the criteria’s total. HL Paper 1’s two essays each get their own. When marking, the Points box is replaced by one dropdown per criterion, and the app adds the levels up; the total cannot be typed. Feedback, stamps, anonymous marking and releasing results work as before.

Admin → Students and a sitting’s Who sits list now show each student’s school photo beside their name, for MYP and DP. Students with no photo on record show their initials. Only a coordinator, exam officer or admin who holds that student’s campus sees a photo. Marking, approvals and results stay without photos, so anonymous marking is unchanged, and no screen a student sees shows one.

Papers, Sittings, Students and Analytics now open on your own programme: MYP (Grades 6–10) if you hold an MYP role, DP (Grades 11–12) if you hold a DP role, and both if you hold both. A Programme switch beside the other filters shows the other programme or both. On the Students page, both programmes show under an MYP heading and a DP heading. A New sitting only offers the students of the paper’s programme. Results are released or withdrawn only by a coordinator or the exam office of that paper’s programme, so a DP coordinator never sees an MYP result on Approvals, and an MYP coordinator never a DP one. Each What’s new entry here now says whether it is for MYP, DP or both.

Admin → Users now shows two roles for each person: an MYP role (the role they always had) and a DP role, which starts as None. A DP role is Teacher, Team leader or Coordinator; an exam officer or admin holds both programmes. MYP papers (Grades 6–10) are approved exactly as before. A DP paper (Grades 11–12) needs two approvals: the first from a DP team leader, and the final one from a DP coordinator or the exam office. Two team leaders cannot clear a DP paper on their own. A DP team leader can never approve an MYP paper, and an MYP coordinator with no DP role cannot approve a DP paper. When you ask someone to review, the list greys out anyone who cannot review that paper’s programme.

For Grade 11 or 12, the New paper details offer only DP subjects and add two boxes after the subject: Level (SL or HL) and Paper (1, 2 or 3). Both go in the name, for example “FSK · Grade 12 · English A: Language and Literature · HL · Paper 1 · Term 1”, so SL and HL, and Paper 1 and Paper 2, are separate papers. A DP formative or summative has a title of its own instead of an MYP unit and criteria, and Paper is optional there. There is no final e-assessment for DP. Marking starts on marks for a DP paper; you can still choose criterion levels. Grades 6 to 10 are exactly as before.

On the live page, a student given extra time during the sitting now shows a tag such as “+15 min added” on their card and in the table, with the total of every grant whether it was given as a percentage or in minutes. Everyone looking at the page sees it, and it stays after the student hands in. An approved access arrangement keeps its own tag. Beside Pause all there is now “Add time for everyone…”: choose everyone writing or one room of the seating plan (your own room comes first), then +10%, +25% or +50% of the paper or a number of minutes. The time is added on top of what each student already has. Students who have handed in or not started are skipped, and the page says how many were given the time. It is there for whoever can add time to one student, and a lead invigilator gives a reason, as for one student. Pressing it twice by mistake adds the time once.

On a script’s marking page, Download PDF opens the script as a sheet: what the student read, their answer to each part, and a line to write the mark and the feedback on. Two ticks above it choose whether the answer keys, mark schemes and the paper’s TSC are included, and whether the marks and feedback already saved are printed (both off gives a blind copy for a second checker). Press Download PDF and choose Save as PDF in the print window. On the marking grid, “Download all scripts (PDF)” prints every script handed in, each on its own page, in candidate order. Whoever may open the script may print it; anonymous marking stays anonymous on the sheet; each download is recorded in Activity. Marks written on paper reach the system only when typed on the marking page.

Every paper now shows one status, the same on Papers, the Questions tab, Set-up and New sitting. Draft: nobody has been asked to check it. In review: a checker is asked or has approved, with how many approvals it has of what its kind needs (“In review · 1 of 2”); “changes asked” shows here too. Approved: it has enough approvals, is read-only, and is ready for a sitting. Sat: its first sitting has opened, with the date; it is frozen for good. There is no Publish button any more: a paper is ready once its checkers approve it. To pull a paper back before it is sat, the exam office removes an approval in Review & approval, and it drops back to In review. The office’s Lock and Unlock are gone too, because an approved paper is already read-only and a sitting freezes it. The Paper box on the Questions tab says what happens next and who is asked; on an approved paper, people who can set up sittings see “Set up a sitting”. New sitting lists approved papers; turn on “Show papers still in review” to see the rest. A term exam still needs two approvals before its sitting is set up, and a formative can still be booked before its approvals are in, but cannot open until then. The Recent tab’s Status filter uses the same four words.

Papers now has three tabs. Recent, which it opens on, lists every paper with the one worked on most recently first: edited, given a new version, approved or reviewed, or used for a sitting, by anyone. Each row says who did it and when. Filter by Status (Draft, In review, Approved, Sat), by Worked on by (Anyone or Me) and by When (last 7 or 30 days); the search, grade, subject and campus filters work here too. It shows 25 at a time; press Show more for the next 25. By grade is the old view, grade by grade. Templates holds the starter templates. Opening a paper to look at it does not count as working on it.

On Papers, “+ New paper” now sits at the top right, under the counts. It opens a side panel with the same form as before: campus first, then the paper’s details, its structure and marking, and “Create and fill from a document” for coordinators and the exam office. Esc or Cancel closes it. “Start a new paper from this” on a card opens the same panel, already filled from that paper, and now has its own line under Open, Preview and Try, so it is never cut off.

Admin → Students lists every student with the school address they sign in with, their school id and when they last signed in. A Check column flags a student with no email (cannot sign in), an email on two rows (opens nothing), two rows with the same name, a row with no school id, and an email that does not match the name. Filter by grade and section, pick Needs a look, and download it as a spreadsheet. To fix a row, correct the email in Nucleus, or mark a stray copy as left on Leavers & retention.

Each campus now keeps a list of its exam rooms, with how many students each seats (Admin → Rooms). An exam round picks the rooms it uses on its own page, so Term 1 and a mock can use different rooms. Under “Rooms and seating” on the round page, each grade gets a seating plan; tick “Seat these grades together” to put grades in one plan. Put the rooms in the order to fill them, set how many to seat in each (or press Spread evenly), choose an order (A–Z by first name, A–Z by last name, by school ID, or random) and press Seat everyone. Move or swap a student, seat a student who joined later with Seat them, and download the seating as a spreadsheet. Once a sitting of the round for those grades opens, the plan is fixed: moves still work, Seat everyone again does not. A student who leaves keeps a “left” seat, which counts as free. A sitting outside any round has no rooms.

On a sitting in an exam round with a seating plan, the live page has a chip per room with how many students sit there, and opens on the room you invigilate. Each student shows their room and seat, and so do the alerts and the station’s “Needs you now”. An incident about a student records the room they sit in; Log incident without a student asks which room it was, or Whole sitting. “Pause a room…” stops only that room’s clocks, and Resume gives its students the time back; the other rooms keep writing. Pause all, which stops every room, is for coordinators and exam officers, and only they can resume it; while it is on, no room can be paused or resumed on its own. End now names the rooms with students still writing. A closed sitting’s report has the same room chips, and its spreadsheet now has Room and Seat columns.

Each sitting has one lead invigilator and the rest support, as before the rooms change. The lead can close the sitting, force-submit a student, see the join code and add time in the room; time the lead adds needs a reason, which is kept with the student’s attempt (Activity records that one was given). Support invigilators can use every other control on the live page, and do not see those four at all; a line on the page names the lead. Approved access arrangements stay with coordinators. On a sitting in an exam round with a seating plan, the Setup page puts each invigilator in a room and shows a suggested number per room: the sitting’s students seated there divided by “Students per invigilator” (Settings, 20 by default), rounded up. It is a hint only. There is one lead for the whole sitting, whichever room they are in; Make lead hands it over. A trainee is added as support. A sitting set up while there was no lead got its lead back from its own record, or else the colleague added first.

A paper’s details now start with its campus, FSK or FWGS, and the campus is part of its name, straight after the month: “Oct-2026 · FWGS · Grade 10 · Integrated Sciences · Term 1”. So FSK’s paper and FWGS’s paper for the same grade, subject and term are two papers, each with its own makers, checkers and versions. A new paper starts on your campus when you work at one. Papers and the paper list in New sitting open on your campus too; choose All to see both. Students see no campus: their sitting reads “23-Oct-2026 · Grade 10 · …” as before. The campus is a label, not a lock: who can open or edit a paper has not changed. Starter templates and the capability showcases have no campus.

On the Questions tab and in Set-up, what you type is saved a moment after you stop, or when you move to another box: the Save buttons are gone, and the line where they were says “Saving…”, then “Saved · 2s ago”. If something stops a save, the line says so (a required box left empty, or the reason in the box at the top). Leaving the page before a change has saved asks first. Still one editor at a time: the paper is held for whoever is editing it, as before. A question deleted by mistake can be put back: Deleted questions, at the foot of the outline, lists the last few with who deleted them and when, and Restore puts one back in its place with its parts, pictures and answers. The paper details keep their Save button (they rename the paper), and so do the admin settings and the Full editor.

A coordinator or the exam office can now fill a new paper from the teacher’s final document instead of typing it in. On Papers, fill in the New paper details and press “Create and fill from a document” (an empty paper’s Questions tab also offers “Fill from a document”). Upload the .docx — from Google Docs, File → Download → Microsoft Word. The app reads the sections, questions, parts, marks or level lines, answers and pictures, and shows what it found. Then it walks you through one question at a time: the doc’s own text beside how it was read, where you can change a part’s type, words, marks or answer, describe each picture in one line, or press “Leave for the editor”. When every question is confirmed, Build the paper. Anything the import could not place — a simulation, a video, something left for the editor — becomes an amber “To add after import” box on that question, and the paper lists them at the top; it cannot be approved or published until each is done and removed with “Done — remove”. The finished paper is an ordinary draft: edit, review and approve it as usual. Coordinators can now also start, copy and edit papers they make, like a teacher; marking stays with teachers.

Once a paper has its first approval it can no longer be edited, by anyone: to change it, make a new version in Set-up → Paper office. The new version starts as a copy, and its checker’s Review & approval box opens with “Changed since v1”: each changed question with its words before and after (wording, answer key, mark scheme, marks, pictures), the added and removed questions, and the unchanged ones folded, so a one-word fix is re-approved in a minute. When the checker approves, the box also lists the sittings still scheduled on the earlier version that nobody has started: they are ticked to move onto the new version (a term exam, mock or final moves once it has its second approval), and a draft version is published so the sitting can open. Set-up → Approval & versions says how much each version has changed since v1, for example “changed about 25% since v1”, with a note above 60% suggesting “Start a new paper from this” instead. Papers shows one card per paper, its newest version, with the earlier versions folded under it, and papers from earlier academic years folded one row per year. In New sitting, picking a paper with details sets its assessment kind.

A new paper no longer asks for a title. You choose its grade, assessment (term, mock, final, FA or SA, with the term or mock number), subject and language, and for an FA or SA its unit and criteria, and the paper is named from them, for example “Grade 10 · Integrated Sciences · Term 1”. Once it is first sat, the month is added and never changes: “Oct-2026 · Grade 10 · Integrated Sciences · Term 1”. Students see the sitting’s own day first: “23-Oct-2026 · Grade 10 · …”. Only one paper can hold a set of details: to use a paper again, open it and make a new version (Set-up → Paper office), saying why. The new version keeps the paper’s makers and markers and asks its checkers again. Its makers, coordinators and the exam office can make one. Set-up → Approval & versions lists every version: when it was opened and by whom, when it was used, and who approved it. Copy is now “Start a new paper from this”, on a paper that has been sat: use it when a paper has changed too much to be the same paper. Changing a paper’s details renames it and never undoes an approval. Papers made before today keep their names until the exam office tidies them.

Opening a paper to edit now shows three tabs, in the order a paper is made. Set-up holds everything that is not a question, as folded sections that each say in one line where they stand: Paper (title and the language its labels print in), How it is marked (criterion levels or marks; on a criterion paper, which questions assess each criterion and whether its TSC is written; on a marks paper, the marks by section and the total), Sections (add, rename and time each section; a section with no questions can be deleted), TSC (criterion papers only), Paper office, SEB rehearsal, and Review & approval. Questions is where questions are written, as before; the TSC, Review & approval, SEB rehearsal and Paper office that used to sit under it have moved to Set-up. Student view shows the whole paper as students see it, one question after another, with “Edit this question” on each. On Questions, each section is a heading in the outline with its suggested minutes and “✎ Set-up” to change it; new sections are added in Set-up. A paper with no sections yet opens on Set-up. The old Full editor is still at the end of the tabs, unchanged.

On a paper marked in marks, a part no longer needs a criterion tag before the paper can be sent for approval or approved. The part’s Criteria boxes now say “(optional)”, and the question’s checklist reads “Criterion tags (optional on a marks paper)” instead of showing a gap. A tag that is there must still be one of the paper’s own criteria. On a criterion paper nothing changes: every part still needs its criterion, because that is what the marker gives a level for.

Set-up has a new Timing fold, after Sections, with a duration and a reading time for the paper. They are a suggestion: when someone makes a new sitting of the paper, its Duration and Reading time start from them instead of 120 and 5 minutes, and can still be changed there. The sitting’s own figures are the ones that count, and changing the paper’s never changes a sitting already made. When the sections have suggested minutes, the fold says how many of the duration they add up to. Blank means no suggestion. A copy or a new version keeps the figures.

Set-up → Links & media now starts with “Videos for students”. Exam’s own controls gives a YouTube clip the exam’s Play, Pause, position and time, with no captions, no full screen and no YouTube shortcuts, so a listening clip is heard, not read, and a student cannot leave the page. YouTube’s own controls gives YouTube’s bar, with captions, speed and full screen. Until now this followed a rule (the exam’s controls on French, Spanish, German and Hindi papers, YouTube’s on everything else); every existing paper keeps what the rule gave it until someone changes it, and a new paper starts on the exam’s own controls. A copy or a new version keeps its paper’s choice. It can be changed on an approved or locked paper too, never undoes an approval, and is recorded in Activity. Vimeo clips always show their own bar, and a student already writing keeps what their page opened with until it reloads.

The “Full editor (old)” tab is gone. Opening a paper, or any old link or bookmark to it, now opens the editor with its Set-up, Questions and Student view tabs. Links & media, the list of every link on the paper with its “Run link check” button, is now a fold in Set-up, between SEB rehearsal and Review & approval, and the “Links & media →” line beside each question goes there. Everything else the Full editor had was already on these tabs.

A table question with four or more columns now shows its table full width, below the question, in the exam and in Student view, instead of in the right half of the row, where students had to scroll sideways to reach the answer cells. Empty answer cells start one line tall and grow as the student types. In Student view beside the editor, column headings wrap, and “⤢ Show at full width” shows the question at the width a student sees it; press it again to go back beside the editor.

On the Questions tab, a Multiple choice or Select all that apply part shows its choices as rows instead of a box of lines with a * on the right one. Type a choice and press Enter for the next. Click the circle beside the right one (or tick each right one on Select all). × removes a choice. A line under the list says what is still missing, such as a second choice or the right answer. Select all also has its Marking setting there: marks only when every choice is right, or part marks for each right one. The part letter, the type, the picture, maths entry and the explanation are folded under Settings, under the answer.

The ⋮ button beside a question number now also has Move up and Move down, and Move to section…, which sends the question to the end of another section of the same paper. A moved question keeps its number, so renumber it if the new order needs it: the Question number box is at the top of Marks & criteria, on the right. A question that holds its section’s instructions box cannot move until the box is removed. In Set-up, each section has ▲ and ▼ to change the order the sections come in.

At the end of each section, beside “+ Question N”, there are now buttons for the three types this paper used last (on a new paper: Multiple choice, Written answer and Select all that apply). One click adds the question and opens its first part’s form at that type, with the cursor in the question box.

The Questions tab now shows the whole paper on one page, section by section. The question you are working on is open, with everything you can change in it; every other question is a short card with its number, its parts and their types, its marks and its first words. Click a card to open it: the page scrolls to where it sits, so you can fix a paper by scrolling down it. “+ Question N” at the end of each section adds the next question there and opens it. The outline and the Student view switch work as before.

A paper is now edited by one person at a time. Opening its Set-up or Questions tab takes it for you, if nobody else has it; while you have it open, everyone else sees it read-only, with your name, since when, and when you were last active. They can still read it and use Student view, and it opens for them when you leave (closing the tab is enough) or after 10 minutes with no typing or clicks; their page then offers “Edit now”. If you open the same paper in a second tab, that tab says so and offers “Edit here instead”. An exam officer or an admin can take over a paper someone left open, with a reason that is recorded in Activity; the person who had it sees who took it, and anything they had typed and not saved, to copy. A save from anyone who does not have the paper is refused, and Approve stays greyed while someone is editing, so a paper is never approved halfway through a change.

Each question now has a ⋮ button beside its number. Duplicate this question copies it, with its stimulus and parts, to the end of its section with the next number, and opens the copy. Delete… asks once more, naming what goes with the question (its parts and stimulus), before Delete question N takes it out. There is no undo yet, so copy anything you may want back first. Until now both were only in the Full editor.

The “What kind of answer?” tiles now show the eight types papers use most: Multiple choice, Select all that apply, Written answer, Dropdowns in context, Drag to order, Drag label to zone, Draw a graph and Table completion. Each also gives the name you may know it by from GoFormative, such as “also called: match the following” or “also called: fill in the blank”. The other six (Number, Sort into bins, Draw or annotate, Click on the image, True/False with a reason and Poster canvas) are under “Less used”.

The SEB rehearsal card on every paper now has a “Get Safe Exam Browser (Windows / Mac)” button beside the rehearsal file. It opens the Safe Exam Browser download page in a new tab. Install it first (or update it if it is old), then open the rehearsal file and sign in with your staff account.

In a part’s level descriptors and in the TSC for the whole paper, level 0’s task-specific clarification is now a cell you can edit, filled with “Does not reach a standard described by any of the task-specific clarifications below.” Change it for your paper if you like. On a TSC saved before today the line appears with “Save to keep it”: nothing is stored until you press Save.

Every picture in a question’s stimulus now has an “⤢ Enlarge” label in its corner. Tapping the picture (or the label) shows it as large as the screen allows, over the paper, with − and + to zoom further and 100% to fit it back to the screen; once it is bigger than the screen, scroll to see the rest. Close, Esc or a tap on the dark space around it goes straight back to the question, with the answer and the timer untouched. It works in Safe Exam Browser, because it is part of the exam page and not a new window. Small pictures are grown to fill the screen, so a scanned page can be read, but a poem or a passage is still best typed in as text: text follows the student’s Display size and can be highlighted, and a picture of text cannot.

A video in the reading pane, beside the questions, now has a “⤢ Watch wide” button under it. It widens the reading pane across the screen and the video grows with it, still playing from where it was, with the exam’s own play, position and volume controls. The answers are hidden while watching wide but nothing is lost. “Back to the question” or Esc brings them back. On a narrow screen the video is already the full width, so the button does not show.

While a student sits a paper, the list of questions down the left side of the screen has been removed, so the source and the answer box are wider (pictures in the reading pane came out too small in the rehearsal). The row of questions and parts under the section tabs, which stays on screen as the student scrolls, now ends with “2 answered” and “5 left” (or “All answered”). Answered parts are filled in, and any part can be clicked to go to it, as before. The Questions button at the top still opens the whole paper as a list, with the section names and flags.

For a match-the-following question, choose the “Drag label to zone” type: one zone per item, auto-marked. Its tile now says so.

Try as student now has a “← Back to editor” button above the paper. It returns to the question you were editing in the Guided editor, or to the print preview if you opened it from there. Students never see it, and an SEB rehearsal keeps its own checklist as the way out.

A blank in a Dropdowns in context sentence can now be typed instead of chosen. In the answer key, write the slot with no list and its accepted answers after the =, separated by “ / ”, for example “s1: = photosynthesis / photo-synthesis”. The student gets a short box in the sentence and any accepted answer is right; capitals and extra spaces are ignored. Typed and listed blanks can sit in one sentence.

A Table completion part now has a tick, “Marked by the teacher (no answer key)”. Tick it for a given table whose cells the students fill in their own words: the paper can publish without an answer key, the marker reads the cells, and the key checklist says “No key needed (teacher-marked)”. Students see the same table as before.

Importing a TSC from a .docx with more than one table shaped like a level grid (a column of 0, 1–2, 3–4 …) and none titled with the criterion you are filling now asks which one it is. Each table is shown by its first row and its number of bands; choose one and press Read this table. Your grid is not touched until a table is read.

An answer box keeps text, tables and maths, never pictures. Until now a picture pasted or dragged into one (for example the question’s own diagram) showed in the box but was never saved, so it was gone when the page reloaded. Now it is left out straight away, and a line under the box says “Pictures can’t go in the answer box, so the picture was left out. Your text is kept.” Any text pasted with the picture still goes in. The line goes once the student types again.

A new sitting now gives every student 5 minutes of reading time when they press Start, before their writing time begins. During it they can read the whole paper, move between questions, and play its videos, audio and simulations, but they cannot answer anything, use the calculator or notepad, flag a question or hand in; the header shows “Reading 4:32” and a line tells them when they can answer. Set it from 0 (none) to 15 minutes when you schedule a sitting, or on the sitting’s Setup page until it opens. Sittings scheduled before this have none unless the office adds it. Extra time is added to the writing time only, never to the reading time. On the live page, a Reading card counts who is still reading, and each of them shows “reading · 3 min left”. Pausing the room or a rest break stops the reading time too.

Every sitting now has a join code. Its lead invigilator and coordinators see it on the live page, top right, beside the SEB quit password. When a student’s school Google account will not sign in, they press “Use a join code” on the sign-in page, type the code, pick their name (shortened, from the room’s list) and wait. Their name appears at the top of the live page with a request number. Check it is them at that laptop, then press Let in, or Refuse. Let in, they sit the paper as if they had signed in: same paper, same timer, same Safe Exam Browser check, answers saved to their own record. Their card says “joined with code”, and its Actions menu has “Sign out of the join code” if the wrong person was let in. “New code…” stops the old code at once if it gets out of the room. Every step is on the sitting’s timeline and in Activity.

A sitting’s second time is now called Last start. After it nobody new can start, but everyone already writing keeps going to their own end — the paper’s time, plus any approved extra time, plus time added in the room, plus any paused time — and the sitting closes itself when the last student finishes. On the live page, Stop new starts does the same at once, and the line under the title says when the last student finishes. End now for everyone hands everybody in straight away and asks first, saying how many are still writing. In the room you can also add extra time in minutes, on top of what a student already has.

Every video and audio clip in a paper now has a volume bar under it: a mute button, a slider and the level in words, always on screen. The level is the student’s for the whole paper: change it under one clip and every other clip plays at it too. Before a paper with a video or audio clip, Sit an exam shows “Check your sound before you start”: play a short chime, set the slider, and tick “I can hear it clearly, and it is not too loud”. Start on that paper stays greyed out until the tick; Resume never waits. The slider can only turn sound down from the laptop’s own level, which Safe Exam Browser locks, so students should set a medium volume before they open Safe Exam Browser. A student who hears nothing even at 100% puts their hand up before starting. On an iPad the slider has no effect; only the iPad’s own buttons change the volume.

Every paper’s page (Full editor and Guided tab) now has an SEB rehearsal card. Download the rehearsal file on a Windows laptop with Safe Exam Browser, open it and sign in: the paper opens exactly as a student sees it, locked down the same way, with a yellow “SEB rehearsal” button in the bottom-left corner. Open it for the checklist — the start screen, each simulation, video and audio clip, drawing and dragging answers, typing (on a language paper), the calculator and handing in — try each line and mark it Works or Problem (a problem needs a note on what went wrong), then Finish. Do the same on a Mac. Anyone on the staff can rehearse. The card shows each platform as passed, a problem, being rehearsed or not rehearsed, with who tried it, when, and on which SEB version. Changing a simulation, video, audio clip or answer tool means rehearsing again; editing text or pictures does not. For now a paper that has not passed on both only shows a warning on its sittings; a coordinator can make it block opening the sitting (an exam officer or admin can let one sitting open anyway, with a reason) or block approving the paper, in Settings (“SEB rehearsal — what a missing one holds back”).

A TSC document with a cover box, the command terms and one table per criterion (each titled “Criterion A: …”) now imports as it is: on criterion A’s tab, Import a TSC reads the table titled Criterion A; on B’s tab, the one titled Criterion B, and so on — upload the same file on each tab and press Save for each criterion. A table with no criterion title is found by its level rows (0, 1–2 …). The notes under the button say which table was read.

A criterion paper is levelled once per criterion for the whole paper, so its task-specific clarification is now written once per criterion too, never per question. On the Guided tab, “TSC for the whole paper” sits under the three columns: a tab for each criterion (the ones the paper assesses first), each the familiar table — levels 0 · 1–2 · 3–4 · 5–6 · 7–8, the MYP guide descriptor beside your task-specific clarification. Type it, press “Start from the MYP subject guide” for the first column, or use Import a TSC to read the Google Doc (.docx) or a pasted table, then press Save for that criterion; it lists the empty cells and never blocks publishing. Questions no longer carry a TSC of their own; a part that already has one keeps it and says so. Students read the paper’s tables before they begin and, in every grade, can open them again at any time with the Criteria button at the top of the paper. Markers see each criterion’s table under the criterion level grid. Like any change, saving it lapses a current approval, and a copy or a new version keeps it. Text only for now: pictures and equations in the document are not read.

A new Simulation library menu item, under Papers. A coordinator, exam officer or admin adds a simulation: on its page at phet.colorado.edu press Download, which saves one .html file, and upload that file to the library; its name, version and PhET’s credit line are read from the file, so there is nothing to type. Anyone on staff can press Try it to see it play exactly as students will. Then a paper maker, on a paper’s Guided tab, can add or edit a Simulation and choose it from the library list. It plays inside the paper, in Safe Exam Browser too, with no change to any .seb file, and PhET’s credit line shows under it. A browser “Save page” copy, or a file that loads anything from another website, is refused with a sentence saying why. A newer version of a simulation is a new entry, so a paper that is already approved never changes behind its checker; choosing a simulation is a change to the paper like any other. Retire takes a simulation out of the list; papers that already use it keep playing it. Websites that cannot be downloaded, such as Polypad or GeoGebra, are not added here: ask the exam office, because each needs testing in Safe Exam Browser first.

A part made before criterion parts lost their Top level box may still have level descriptors that stop at level 1 or 2 — its descriptor card says “stops below level 8”. Press “Use the full 0–8 ladder” on that card (or, when the paper has several such parts, “All N such parts on this paper”, also in the Paper card on the right, which stays open and counts them while any part stops short). The table then runs 0 · 1–2 · 3–4 · 5–6 · 7–8: every band keeps the text you wrote (a level 1 line moves into 1–2), and each new band’s MYP guide column is filled with the guide wording for the paper’s subject and the part’s first criterion — the task column is left for you, and both stay editable. It works on the saved descriptors, so save the grid first if you have typed in it. Like any change it lapses a current approval. A part with a band table written in code (the school’s Grade 9 papers) is never changed: its band tops are the printed paper’s own. Papers that are already scheduled or sat are moved by the exam office in one run, previewed first, on a day with no sitting — and each of those papers then needs approving again.

Every question on the school’s Grade 9 papers that prints a level now shows it in its Level line, under the question’s number, in the paper’s own words. Where the level was printed inside the question, students now read it once, in the line. The four Hindi papers print no level, and the Maths and Extended Maths Criterion B and D questions print only a strand, so those questions have no line — no level is ever made up. Paper makers: the review list on each paper’s page asks you to check the lines against the printed paper. A new practice paper, “Criterion Showcase — levels, not marks (demo)”, shows a criterion paper from end to end — the Level line, the instructions box, and marking with one level from 0 to 8 per criterion for the whole paper; find it under Papers and press Try. Papers already in use, including ones already sat, get the lines when the exam office runs the content update — never a paper with a sitting open at that moment — and each paper it touches needs approving again.

On the Guided tab every part card now has “+ Stimulus for this part”: the same form as the question’s own stimulus — text, a table, a citation, a picture, a PDF, a video, audio, a simulation or a link — already ticked for that part. Every stimulus row has “Show with…”: the whole question, or any of its parts (several allowed), and the row says “Shown with part (c)”. Students see it directly above that part; shown with several parts, it is drawn once, above the first of them, and each later part says “See the stimulus above part (b)”. In a Split-pane reader each item has its own setting: “Above the part” (the default) or “In the reading pane” — on the left, under the passage, while that part is on screen, changing as the student moves to the next part; on a phone or a narrow tablet it shows above the part. Marking and Results now show the question’s stimulus and each part’s stimulus beside the answers, as the student read them. A click-on-the-image or drawing part gets “Picture for this part” to upload its picture, and every picture has “What the picture shows”, which a screen reader reads aloud; the checklist reminds you of a picture without one, and publishing is never blocked by it. Papers already in the library are not changed: their “For part (b):” texts stay above the question, and the row offers to put one beside its part.

Open a task’s first question on the Guided tab (or click “+ Instructions box” on the task in the outline) and use “+ Add instructions box”. Type what students should read first — “Answer all the questions in this task. Show your working.” — with **bold**, *italic*, lists or a table, as in a text block, and press Add. Students see it at the top of the task, above the first question, in a box labelled Instructions. It has no number and nothing to answer, so it never counts as a question: question numbers, the question map, “x of y answered”, marking and results are unchanged. Change the words with “Edit the text”, or take it out with Remove; there is one per task. The Student view shows it as you type, Preview and print show it once, and a copy or a new version of the paper keeps it. Editing it, like any other change, lapses a current approval. Deleting the question it is stored on moves it to the task’s first remaining question; the task’s only question cannot be deleted while the box is on it (remove the box first, or delete the task). The Full editor shows it but leaves its editing to the Guided tab.

A criterion paper no longer asks for a number anywhere. There is no Task marks or Question marks box, no “+ Question” marks, no “parts add to …” or “Set to N”, no “Marks set” on the checklist, and the publish checks never complain that totals do not add up — on the Guided tab, the Full editor, Preview, the student’s paper, marking and results. No part asks for a number either: the part form, a scenario’s sub-question form and the table builder have no Top level or Marks box, and nothing per part reads “up to level …” — not the student’s paper, the Student view, Preview, the outline or the marking page. Each part keeps its criteria, and its level descriptors (the TSC students can open) run the full 0–8 ladder for a new part; a part made earlier keeps the ladder it was made with until you press “Use the full 0–8 ladder” on its descriptor card (a part with no descriptors yet: remove it and add it again). The levels the printed paper shows go on the question instead: type them in the optional Level box under the question on the Guided tab — “Criterion A, strand i, level 1–2” — and students read them under the question’s head, as you type in the Student view, in the player, in Preview and print, and the marker sees them beside the question. Empty the box and save to remove the line; editing it, like any other change, lapses a current approval, and a copy or a new version keeps it. The Full editor shows it but leaves its editing to the Guided tab. A marks paper has no Level box — its parts keep their marks. Marking is one best-fit level 0–8 per criterion for the whole paper: the marking page shows each part’s answer, the answer key and, for a machine-checked part, whether it matched — with feedback and the tick, contradiction, seen and ECF stamps — but no points box and no award stamp, and progress reads “2 of 4 criteria levelled”. A question with no parts still blocks publishing, and so does a task with no questions or a paper with none — there would be nothing for a student to answer and no criterion to level. A presence cap on a part’s band table shows on the marking page as a note to weigh in the criterion level, never as a cap. A paper started from a structure keeps that structure’s marks stored, out of sight; switch it to Raw marks and they are shown and checked again.

While the invigilator has paused the room, or a student is on a rest break, the clock on the student’s paper stands still, and it carries on from the same figure when the pause or the break ends. It used to keep counting down on the screen and jump back up afterwards, although no time was ever lost. The “elapsed” view of the clock stands still too, and so does Time left on the live page for each student whose clock is stopped. A student’s paper learns of a pause, and of the Resume, at its next save — within 30 seconds on a sitting that saves every 30 seconds — so a screen can take that long to lock or unlock, and its clock can step by that much: until the paper hears of a pause its clock keeps counting, then steps back up to the figure the pause began at; after the Resume it steps down by the wait. A paper opened again during a pause starts paused, on the right figure. If a laptop loses its connection during a pause, its paper unlocks as before and its clock counts down from what it showed until it reconnects. On the live page, Time left says “stopped” when the page could not tell when the pause began.

Insert math now takes as many lines as the working needs. Press Shift + Enter, or the New line button beside Aa, to start the next line; Enter puts the whole working into the answer as one expression, laid out one line under another and lined up on the left, exactly as the marker will see it. To change it later, put the cursor next to it (or click it) and press Edit math: every line comes back. Lines you have typed and not yet inserted stay in the editor if you open the calculator or press Escape; Cancel throws them away. On a laptop, the on-screen maths keyboard opens from the keyboard button inside the maths box; on a tablet it opens by itself. Every written answer on a Mathematics, Mathematics Extended or Integrated Sciences paper now has the Insert math button. Number boxes, table cells, the note under a True/False and auto-marked answers do not, because an answer written as maths would not match its key and would score 0. Language and humanities answers do not either, so “$5bn to $8bn” stays money. A coordinator can choose which subjects in Settings (“Insert math on written answers — subjects”); a change there takes effect at once on every paper, also for answers already written, and the card says which sittings it reaches — so unticking a subject turns the maths already written in that subject’s answers back into its source (LaTeX) on screen. Inside any maths field, Ctrl + minus zooms the page out again; before, it typed a subscript.

A written part on the Questions tab now has a “Maths in the answer” choice: Subject default (Insert math on the subjects ticked in Settings), Text with Insert math, Working pad (one line per step), or Plain text — for example where the answer has money in it: the eight parts of the school’s Maths and Sciences papers whose question quotes dollars (“$75 to $200 a session”) are set to Plain text, so a student’s “$75” stays money. Leave it on Subject default unless the part needs something else. An auto-marked part (one with an answer key) stays plain, and the form will not give it a maths tool: an answer written as maths would not match the key. The school’s Grade 9 and 10 Maths and Sciences papers moved their “show your working” parts from the line-per-step working pad to the answer box with Insert math — question 14a of the Term 1 2024–25 Grade 10 Standard paper among them — and the two investigations that had no maths tool now have Insert math. A paper students have already sat keeps the working pad and their answers as they are; the change reaches its next version, through the exam office. Seven auto-marked working-pad parts stay as they are for now. Working written on the pad still shows as maths for the marker and the student.

In a task set as a Split-pane reader — the Language Acquisition reading sections, for example — the passage is stored once, on the first question that carries it (Q9 on the Grade 10 Hindi paper). It used to sit beside that question only, so a student scrolled back to Q9 for Q10 to Q19. Now every later question with no stimulus of its own shows the same passage in its reading pane, under “Same source as Question 9”, and a phrase a student highlights in it is highlighted in every copy. A question with its own picture (Q17 on that paper) keeps just its picture, and the questions after it read the passage again; a question with a passage of its own takes over from there. On a phone or a narrow tablet the copy starts folded: tap Show source to read it beside that question. Videos, audio clips, simulations and links stay on the question that has them. Change the passage once, on Q9: on the Guided tab, Q10 to Q19 say “No stimulus of its own. Students read Question 9’s source beside this question”, the Student view shows it beside the parts, and Preview — which prints every block once — says it under each of those questions. Nothing is copied or stored again.

Every picture, video, audio, document, simulation and link on the Guided tab now has “Edit…”: change a caption, a web address or file name, a transcript or a tab name, or replace the picture with a new upload, and press Save. Only those fields change; everything else about the block stays as it was. A source line stored as a Link — like the srujanee.in line on the Grade 10 Hindi paper — has “Keep as a citation (no link)”: one click keeps its words, makes every web address plain words, and shows it to students as a small source citation, so it no longer stops the approval. To add a new one, pick Citation in “More: stimulus” and type it like this: Adapted from: Author, Title, Publisher, year. URL. Two more changes: if an exam officer or admin edits a paper they do not make, they are recorded as one of its makers (the Paper office says “maker by editing it”), so somebody else approves it; and Publish on a paper that no longer passes its checks now says why instead of doing nothing.

An approval is for the paper exactly as it was approved, so saving any change — a word, a mark, a picture — undoes it, and the paper needs approving again. While a paper has an approval that still counts, every Save on the Guided tab now says so beside it: “This paper has 1 current approval: saving any change lapses it.” Nothing extra to click. When the paper has no approval yet, or the last one has already lapsed, the line is not shown. Ticking “Show model answers” in the Paper office does not undo an approval, so it carries no such line.

The Paper card on the Guided tab (right column) used to say “ready to publish” as soon as the checks passed, even when nobody had approved the paper yet or a link would stop the approval. It now names the first thing still in the way: the number of errors, then “a link blocks approval”, then “needs 1 approval” — and says “ready to publish” only when Publish will work. The approval count is on the card’s top line. Every error is listed, and each one is a link to the question (or the task in the outline) where you fix it; a link that stops approval is listed too, with a link to its question. In Review & approval, Approve is greyed out — with the reason — while the paper fails its checks or a link would stop the approval, on both tabs; Request changes still works. And a red “not done” message at the top of the Guided tab now goes away once your next save works, or when you reload the page — it used to stay after you had fixed the problem.

On a marks paper, the outline on the Guided tab now says where the marks do not add up: “parts add to 3, not 4” on a question, and “questions add to 9, not 8” on a task. Each task has a Task marks box with Save, and when its questions do not add up, a “Set to 9 (the questions’ sum)” button. Nothing is ever re-totalled for you: the marks you type are the paper’s printed totals, so you choose which number is right.

Preview on the Guided tab (top right, and in the Paper card) now opens the paper at the question you are on, ringed, and its “← Editor” brings you back to that question on the Guided tab. On Preview, a stimulus block that students see as a tab is labelled with its tab name, because Preview shows every tab one under the other (it is also the page you print). “Try as student →” is now on the Guided tab too: it opens the real student player on a practice copy, from question 1.

A link that cannot work in a locked sitting — a web page, a Google Drive file, a picture from another website — stops the paper from being approved. On the Guided tab its stimulus row now says “Blocks approval”, and under it why and the web address; the question carries “link blocks approval” in the outline. The names match everywhere: the row says Link, so Review & approval says “Q9 link” (it used to say “Q9 reference”), and on the Guided tab that name takes you to the question. The paper’s makers now see that sentence too, not only the reviewer. A YouTube, Vimeo or SoundCloud video is checked when the paper is approved, so it carries no mark here.

Each stimulus block on the Guided tab now has ▲ and ▼ under it to move it up or down within the question, so a block you add again no longer has to stay last. Remove asks first: “Remove…” lists what the block holds — its words in full, the file name or web address, the tab name — and only “Remove this block” takes it out. There is no undo, so copy the words first if you may want them back. An uploaded picture’s file stays with the paper: a new Picture block with the same file name brings it back.

On the Guided tab, press Student view (above the question) to see the question exactly as students will — the tabs, the reading pane beside the questions, the pictures, the marks and each part with its answer box — beside the editor. It changes as you type, before you save: a word in the passage, a part’s question, an option in its answer key, its marks. The line at its top says “as saved” or names what you have typed but not saved; Save each one to keep it. On a phone or tablet it is a switch: Edit or Student view. The page remembers your choice on this device. Every text block of the stimulus now has “Edit the text”: change the words and press Save text — the tab name and the text style stay as they are. A picture, a link or a video has its own “Edit…” (see the entry on editing in place, above).

On the Guided tab, every stimulus row now opens when you click it (Show). It draws the block exactly as the student’s paper does — the whole passage with its paragraphs, the picture with its caption, the video or audio, a link’s “Open reference” card — and lists beside it what the drawing cannot say: the tab name, the text style, the file name or web address, and the full words of a block whose words students never see on screen, such as a Link. Show only reads: it works on a locked paper too.

A student’s paper now says when it last saved to the school — “saved 10 s ago”, counted on the laptop itself in steps of 5 seconds, then minutes — and, offline, “offline — saved locally, will sync · last synced 4 min ago”. Beside it is the laptop’s battery, “Battery 54%”; below 20% and not charging it asks the student to plug in their charger. On the live page each student’s card shows the same battery (“Battery 9%”, red when it is low; “when last heard from” when the reading is old), there is a Low battery filter, and the red banner names anyone below 10% who is not charging, so you can bring a charger; Live monitoring counts them in “Need you”. Safe Exam Browser on Windows and Chromebooks report the battery; Safe Exam Browser on a Mac cannot, so a Mac shows no battery — that is not a fault. The battery is shown only while the paper is open: it is cleared when the paper is handed in — and overnight from a paper nobody closed, such as a laptop that died before it could hand in — and is never kept or shown in a report. It is the laptop’s state, not the student’s behaviour. A coordinator can change the 10% in Settings (“Red alert for a low battery”), or show battery on the student’s own screen only (“Battery on the live page”) — then the laptop does not send it to the school at all.

Once the school’s Desmos key is set, the calculator has an “Insert into answer” button. A student clicks in a written maths answer (one with Insert math, or a working pad), works the sum out on Desmos, and presses the button: the line they see, for example 15 × 12 = 180, goes into that answer as maths, where the marker reads it like any other working. The result is read off Desmos’s own screen, so it is exactly what the student sees; a line Desmos shows as an error is not inserted (fix it first), and a line with sin, cos or tan says whether it was worked in degrees or radians. Each calculation goes on its own line. No picture of the calculator is kept. The button stays off on number answers, tables and answers that are marked automatically, because a line of maths there would score nothing.

Settings now has a Connections card for the Desmos calculator. While it says “Not configured”, students get the Desmos calculator exactly as before. Once the school’s Desmos key is set it says “Configured (trial)”, and the calculator is drawn by Desmos itself, in a sealed-off frame that cannot reach the paper: Desmos’s scientific calculator set up like the IB MYP one on MYP papers, with graphing on DP papers. If it does not load, draw or calculate, that calculator switches to the old one, and a student can switch themselves with “Calculator not working?”. The key changes every sitting at once, so set it between sittings and check it on a Safe Exam Browser laptop and a Chromebook before the first real sitting.

Four things the first Safe Exam Browser trial fixed in place are now choices a coordinator can change in Settings. Each starts where it was, so nothing changes until someone changes it. “Quick reload on a locked paper”: how long a paper can go without talking to the school before opening it again means waiting for an invigilator — 1 minute (30 seconds, 2 or 5 minutes). “Quit password — teachers running a formative or summative”: whether a teacher who may run a formative or summative paper sees its quit password without being one of its invigilators — no, unless switched on; switched on, that is every such teacher at the sitting’s campuses, as the app does not know whose paper it is. “Recording tries outside Safe Exam Browser”: one student’s tries are recorded at most once in 30 seconds (15 seconds, 1 or 2 minutes); the paper is turned away every time either way. “Red alert for a student with no contact”: 5 minutes (2, 3 or 10). Every change is recorded in the change trail.

Staff can now put the Exam Module on a phone or tablet home screen, where it opens straight on Live monitoring — the roster, the red alerts, Show the quit password and Let back in. How to install it is under “Install on your phone” below. Students change nothing: they still sit papers in Safe Exam Browser or on the school Chromebook.

The control for a laptop that cannot run Safe Exam Browser is now called “Let in without SEB…”, with a line under it: “For a laptop that can’t run SEB. The student opens the paper in a normal browser.” “Re-lock” is now “Require SEB again”. It never reached or locked a student’s computer — the new words say what it does. Earlier records read with the new words.

On a sitting’s live roster (cards and table) and on Leavers & retention, each student’s school email now sits in small text under their name, so you can match a name to the address the student signs in with. Markers on an anonymous sitting still see candidate numbers only.

The live roster now says why a student needs attention: “No contact · 4 min” (the paper has not saved for 2 minutes or more — this used to say “stuck”), “Outside SEB · 3 min” (the paper was tried outside Safe Exam Browser and refused) and “Waiting to come back”. A bright red banner at the top of the live page lists everyone outside Safe Exam Browser or waiting, and anyone with no contact for 5 minutes or more (a coordinator can change how long in Settings: “Red alert for a student with no contact”); it flashes unless your device is set to reduce motion. Station tiles count them as “Need you”. A student’s trail (the Students tab, then their name) now says in plain words each time they lost contact and came back — “away 3 min, 10:14–10:17 · answers saved up to 10:14” — each time the paper was tried outside Safe Exam Browser, each time it was open in two places and the first was closed, and when their answers were last saved.

On a Safe Exam Browser or kiosk sitting, a student who comes back to the paper after leaving it — quitting, a crash, or opening it on another laptop — now waits on a “Waiting for your invigilator to let you back in” screen, and nothing is written to their paper while they wait. Their card on the live page says “waiting to come back”, with a Let back in button for the lead and support invigilators and coordinators (and a teacher on their own formative or summative); each let-in is recorded with who did it, and a second click does nothing. Once let in, the paper opens where the server last saved it. Answers typed while the wifi was down, and still only on the laptop, are not lost: the waiting screen passes them to the school, and they are added to the paper when the student is let back in — or when the paper is handed in for them (Force-submit, or closing the sitting) — even if their time ran out while they waited. The red banner says “time is up” beside a waiting student whose time has run out, and how long is left once it is 5 minutes or less. A quick reload — within a minute of the paper last saving, longer on a sitting that syncs less often (a coordinator can change the minute in Settings: “Quick reload on a locked paper”) — carries on without waiting, and so does a wifi drop that recovers on the same open page. The exam clock keeps running while a student is away or waiting: leaving never stops it. A coordinator can change this in Settings (“Coming back after leaving a locked paper”): the student then carries on by themselves and the gap is recorded. Open (practice) sittings and “Try as student” never wait.

Safe Exam Browser’s own Quit button now asks for a password, so a student can no longer leave the paper with one click. Each sitting has its own. Its invigilators — lead and support — and coordinators see it on the sitting’s live page under “Show the quit password”, and every time it is shown is recorded. A coordinator can also let teachers who may run a formative or summative paper see it without being invigilators, in Settings (“Quit password — teachers running a formative or summative”); it is off unless switched on. It hides itself after 45 seconds, or when you leave the tab, so it does not stay on a screen the room can see. On Windows the same password also unlocks Safe Exam Browser’s lock screen. The .seb file changed on 16-Oct-2026: download it again for every sitting that is not yet live. A sitting already live keeps the file it started with, without a quit password — its Setup page says so.

On DP papers, the Graphing calculator in the tools panel is now Desmos’s test-mode graphing build, not the public desmos.com site. It works the same way, but it has no Log In, Sign Up, Save or Share, so nobody can sign in to a personal account during a sitting. MYP papers keep the IB scientific calculator and still have no graphing calculator.

Students now have My results in the menu. It lists every exam you have handed in, newest first, including exams whose sitting has closed, with the paper, subject, sitting and the date you handed in. Each one says whether the result is released (with a View result button), not released yet, or being corrected. A submitted exam on Sit an exam also has a View result link.

In Settings, the per-section Criteria button is now a checkbox for each of Grade 6 to Grade 10 instead of a single “up to grade” choice: tick as many or as few as you want, for example Grades 7 and 9 only. A paper of a ticked grade gets the button on each section; with none ticked, students see the criteria once at the start of the paper only. A choice saved under the old setting carries over as it was.

The Guided tab now shows Review & approval and the Paper office below the outline, the question and the checklist — the same panels as the Full editor, with the same rights. You can ask someone to review, approve or request changes, assign makers and markers, lock or unlock the paper and start a new version without leaving the tab, and a decision or a refusal brings you back to the question you were on. If you were asked to review the paper, the top of the tab says so and takes you to the panel. The header says whether the paper is unlocked, locked on a date, or locked by its first real sitting. “Ask someone to review” and “Assign a colleague” now search the school’s staff list as you type, on both tabs, instead of taking a typed email address; somebody who cannot be picked — no work address, not a coordinator, exam officer or admin, one of the paper’s own makers, or not yet set up on Users — is shown greyed with the reason.

In Import a TSC, a pasted table now fills the right bands whether its rows are copied from Google Docs, Sheets, Excel or Word (tab-separated), or typed as 1-2 | descriptor | clarification with or without the pipes at each end, with or without a header row and a | --- | line. Before, rows without the outer pipes put the whole line into band 0. A descriptor that starts with a quote mark keeps it and no longer swallows the rows after it. A paste with no columns is not read at all: you get a message saying why, and your text stays in the box to fix.

Times now show as 11-Oct-2026 16:49 (IST) on Marking, the hand-in message, Approvals and the live monitor, instead of the raw 2026-10-11 16:49:51. On the Guided tab, stimulus blocks say Text, Picture, Video, Link and so on rather than STIMULUS_TEXT or REFERENCE, and the “More: stimulus” form’s boxes say what to type in plain words. The table builder fits its card, so the Answer column is never cut off, and a long link in a scenario wraps instead of running under Remove. Bold and maths in a dropdown sentence now show as bold and maths in the player, and on Activity the Target column names the paper, sitting or person instead of an internal id.

On Live monitoring, the timeline rows for a sitting put into or taken out of an exam round now show the round’s name only to a viewer whose own campus grant covers that round — the same rule as the Exam rounds page, the Sittings list, the Setup panel and Admin → Activity. An invigilator from another campus, in the room by their seat, still sees that the round changed, and who changed it, without the name. A round for every campus is named to everyone. Nothing anyone can do has changed.

The Sittings page now starts with the sittings themselves, grouped Open now, Due soon (a window opening in the next 24 hours, or one that came due and did not open), Scheduled and Closed; Closed folds away once it passes ten. The numbers at the top are filters: press Open now, Due soon, Scheduled or Closed to show only those, and the address keeps it, so a filtered list can be sent to somebody. “New sitting” at the top opens its own page in three steps — Paper (the kind, then the paper with its approvals), Who sits (a grade, a section or named students) and Window & cadence (the title, prefilled from the paper, the duration, the open and close times and the sync cadence) — with Back keeping everything entered. What gets created, who may create it and the approval checks are exactly as before.

Students sitting the school’s own Capability Showcase still read its assessment criteria before they begin and on each section. A copy of the showcase, or a new version of it, is an ordinary marks paper: its students see no criteria, the same as every other marks paper. Criterion papers are unchanged.

The picture and audio boxes on the Guided tab — the question’s stimulus and a scenario’s “+ Image” — now say “up to 10 MB” instead of the old 2 MB, offer AVIF pictures, and refuse a file over the size limit or of a type the server does not take before the form is sent, with the sentence saying why — the same box the Full editor has. The Level descriptors entry below now says what students actually read: the bands and their wording once, at the start of the paper, with a Criteria button on each section for Grades 6–8, never a model answer.

Every release of the exam module now refreshes the Capability Showcase to the latest version of every capability, by itself. Each refresh makes it a new paper and a new sitting, so open it from Papers → Find “Capability Showcase” → Try rather than from a saved link. A refresh waits while someone is part-way through the showcase, and happens on the next release instead.

Admin → Activity now keeps a round’s rows — made, renamed, archived, restored, deleted, and a sitting put into or taken out of it — to the people who hold that round’s campus, the same way the Exam rounds page, the Sittings list and the Setup panel already do. A round for every campus still shows to everyone, and the register’s own line says which rows a campus grant leaves out.

Staff screens now say “paper” wherever they mean one question paper, matching the Papers menu: the library (“New blank paper”, “Create paper”), the Paper editor, the Paper column on Sittings and Marking, and this page. The address stays /exams. Students are unchanged: they still “Sit an exam”, and the exam office, Safe Exam Browser and term exams keep their names.

On the Guided tab a Table completion part is built on a grid, never typed as key text: write the column headings, turn any cell into an Answer cell or back, type the given text or the correct answer with a line beside it saying how that cell will be checked (as a number, within a tolerance, as words), tick “Student’s own value — not checked” where the paper wants the student’s own reading, add and remove rows and columns, and pick how the table is marked — one mark per checked cell, shared marks, or all or nothing. A live “Student sees” box shows the exact table the student gets, and a screen reader names each box from its headings (“Distance (m), Time (s): 2”), never from a code. A key that names a cell the table does not have now stops publishing.

From the outline, “+ Scenario with sub-questions” makes a question whose scenario — text, a picture, a link or video, a table — stays on screen beside the sub-questions while students answer, in any subject and any task. Sub-questions are lettered by the paper, (a) (b) (c) and so on, up to ten; remove one and the rest re-letter, unless the paper prints its own numbering such as c(i). Add, edit or remove a sub-question and the question’s marks add up from its sub-questions by themselves, and the task’s from its questions; a table sub-question is built on the same grid as any other table. “Make this a scenario” turns an ordinary question with a stimulus into one, and the switch at the top turns it back.

A new Exam rounds menu item, above Sittings. A round groups the sittings run together — Term 1 2026, the March mocks — and its page shows the whole round: how many sittings are scheduled, open and closed, how many students started and submitted, and how many results are released, proposed or not yet proposed, with each sitting’s marking grid one click away. A round belongs to one campus or to every campus; a coordinator, exam officer or admin makes, renames, archives and deletes rounds on the campuses they hold (an every-campus round needs every campus). Put a sitting into a round on its Setup page, or several at once from the round’s page; the Sittings list has a Round column and a round filter.

The calculator, notepad, periodic table, formula booklet and the Insert-math editor open in a side panel to the right of the paper, which narrows beside them — nothing covers the question any more; the calculator can expand to the full width and come back, Escape closes any of them, and on a phone the panel takes the screen with a “Back to the question” button. In Language & Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals & Societies and IDU papers every question with a source reads side by side, the divider between 30 and 60%, with a Show/Hide source button on a narrow screen. On a paper that carries a task-specific clarification, every student reads it once before beginning — the levels and what each looks like, never the model answer — and Grades 6–8 keep a Criteria button on each section (the cut-off is a master setting). The Display panel — font size, accessible font, the background tints, zoom, and now line spacing and Light / Dark / High contrast — is offered to students with an access arrangement, opening by itself the first time, and to every student on DP papers; both audiences are master settings. The top-bar light/dark toggle is hidden while a paper is sat.

The library is now “Papers”: School papers by grade, then Your work — the papers you make or mark, and the ones waiting on your review, marked “to review” — then Drafts & copies, with the starter templates at the foot. Every paper shows its version and “approvals n of 2” (one is enough for a formative or summative sitting; a term exam or mock needs two), and a copy says which paper it was copied from; Find matches that too. A paper’s makers or the exam office choose whether released results show model answers — the answer key and the explanations — even on a locked paper; it is on unless they untick it, and changing it never undoes an approval. Approving a paper now checks every link in it: a Google Drive or Docs link, a link that opens a new tab (which a locked sitting blocks), an image from another website, a removed or private video, an age-restricted one, or a link the check could not get an answer about all stop the approval, named, until it is replaced or removed — or, for one that could not be checked, until a later check gets an answer. A paper with links also needs the approver to tick “I opened every link in this paper and its content is suitable for the students who will sit it”. Since 10-Oct-2026 a video can also be caught AFTER approval: when a sitting opens, the paper’s videos are checked again in the background if the last check is more than a day old, and the sitting’s paper strip warns — naming the video and when it was checked — if one has since been removed, made private or age-restricted, or could not be checked. Nothing is blocked by it: open the link yourself, tell the paper’s makers, and “Check again” on the paper’s Links & media clears the warning once the video is back.

Every paper now has a Guided tab beside the Full editor. Guided shows an outline of the questions grouped by task on the left (Move up / Move down reorders them, and the printed numbers and letters follow), one question at a time in the middle — its stimulus, its parts as cards, and “+ Add part” as big tiles for the six common answer types with the other eight behind “More types” — and on the right the question’s marks (on a marks paper) or levels and criteria with a checklist: question written, marks set (on a marks paper), criterion tagged, answer key added or not needed, and on a criterion paper level descriptors. A Paper panel below it carries the status, approvals, validation counts and Publish; Review & approval and the Paper office sit in a band under the three columns, the same panels as on the Full editor. The full editor stays as it is, one click away; a refused save comes back to whichever tab you were on. New papers, copies and new versions open on Guided.

On a criterion paper, every part card on the Guided tab carries a Level descriptors (TSC) table: one row per band (0 · 1–2 · 3–4 · 5–6 · 7–8, from the part’s top level), the MYP guide descriptor in the first column and your task-specific clarification in the second — the shape the team described. Band 0 is prefilled; “Start from the MYP subject guide” fills the empty general cells with the guide wording for the paper’s subject and the part’s criterion; “Copy from another paper” brings over a table written on the same criterion elsewhere. Empty cells are counted and listed, never a publish error. Markers see it as Band | MYP guide descriptor | Task-specific clarification. Students read the band ranges and the wording in every cell once, at the start of the paper, and Grades 6–8 keep a Criteria button on each section to read them again; model answers (the exemplar and marker notes) are never shown — so write in each band only what a student may read. A band table written in code on an existing Grade 9 or 10 paper is shown as it is, with an explicit Replace; on a marks paper the table does not appear.

Inside the Level descriptors table, “Import a TSC” takes the document exported from Google Docs as .docx, or the table pasted as text (copy it out of Docs or Sheets; pipe rows work too). It reads the first table — one row per band, the band in the first column, the general descriptor next, the task-specific clarification last — fills the grid, lists what it could not place, and saves nothing until you press Save, so you align the wording on screen first. Equations, pictures and nested tables are not read. Built to the room’s description: send one real TSC export so the header wording can be pinned before the team tries it.

The answer box’s toolbar is icons only, with each name on hover. Bold, italic, underline, superscript, subscript and both lists light up while they are on, so pressing a list button again for a second bullet no longer switches the list off. Ctrl/Cmd + , raises and Ctrl/Cmd + . lowers, the same keys as the maths field, and turning either off really returns to the line. The table button opens a size picker from 1 × 1 to 8 × 8; with the caret in a table, buttons add and remove rows and columns (up to 12 × 8) and Tab moves between cells. Text in a table cell wraps at word breaks, and a long answer in a table-completion cell wraps onto more lines instead of scrolling out of sight.

Multiple-choice options sit in two columns as boxes with A–D letters (one column on a narrow screen); a paper that types its own letters shows them once. Every plot question is on graph paper — a light line every small square, a strong line every fifth, numbered axes — and an author can turn it off for one question. The drawing canvas is framed inside the answer box with icon tools, and every tool is kept. While the header pen or eraser is on, an “Annotating · Stop” bar tops each question, because the answer boxes cannot be clicked until you stop.

A Live monitoring menu item, under Sittings. Its station (/monitoring) shows a tile per open sitting you can see — roster, in progress, submitted, absent, no contact (it said “stuck” until 16-Oct-2026), need you and time to close — with the totals on top, filters for campus, grade and “My sittings”, and a click through to that sitting’s live page (/monitoring/<sitting>: the roster, the timeline, Open, Pause, Close and force-submit). The timeline has two tabs: “Staff and system” — every colleague’s act and the window’s, the default — and “Students”, each student’s own start, opening the paper on a device and hand-in, with filters for section, grade and part of a name; click a student’s name for their whole trail on that sitting. A marker on an anonymously marked sitting is told the Students tab is not listed for them, and why. Each sitting’s Setup stays under Sittings, and a running sitting opened from either menu lands live. Above the tiles a system-health light — OK, slow, failing or unknown, with the one number that set it — and below it the sync figures with their last 30 minutes, and the students not syncing on request. When the light is slow or failing, a banner tops the station and every open sitting’s live page. At the very top, “Needs you now” names every student the tiles count under “Need you”, across all the sittings shown — the sitting, why (“Waiting to come back · 6 min”, “Outside SEB · 3 min”, “No contact · 7 min”) and Open, which takes you to that student’s card on the sitting’s live page, marked, with their Actions open. With sittings open and nobody in trouble it says “Nobody needs you right now”. When every student on a sitting has handed in or been marked absent, its live page says so in green with Close sitting now; left alone, it closes by itself 15 minutes after the last hand-in (a module setting). A closed sitting’s page is its report: the counts, the incidents, Staff and Students side by side, and a line per student of how they handed in, what they answered, extra time, let-backs and incidents — no time left, no Actions, no quit password, and the full audit log folded at the bottom. Coordinators and exam officers can download it as a PDF or a spreadsheet, and the same for a whole day (Today’s report on Live monitoring) or an exam round (Round report on the round); every download is recorded in Activity. Only a coordinator or exam officer can reopen a closed sitting, under More, on the day it closed, with a reason; it then takes new starts for 30 minutes, and papers already handed in stay handed in.

A coordinator, exam officer or admin assigns invigilators on a sitting’s Setup page, picked from the school’s staff list — one lead, the rest support — and, on a sitting in an exam round with a seating plan, puts each in a room. The first one assigned leads; making someone else the lead hands it over; removing the lead hands it to the support assigned earliest, and the page names who before you press Remove. The live page names them, lead first, with their staff photo, and every change is on the sitting’s timeline. “My sittings” on the station shows the open sittings you invigilate. Being assigned opens THAT sitting’s live page to you on any campus — every student in the room, their faces, and its room controls, whatever kind of paper it is: the LEAD may open the sitting, pause and resume it, close it, mark a student absent or present, start and end a student’s rest break within their approved allowance (a break you start puts back on their clock no more than the approved time they had left, however late you end it, and ends by itself when that runs out), let a student in without SEB, or require SEB again (with a reason), force-submit a student, see the join code and add time in the room with a reason; a SUPPORT invigilator may do all of those except close the sitting, force-submit, the join code and adding time. Re-opening a closed sitting is a coordinator’s or exam officer’s. Approved access arrangements are already on the student’s clock, you see them on their row, and only a coordinator changes them — or allows a rest break beyond the allowance. The app does not know where anyone is standing: being assigned is what gives you the controls, and being taken off takes them away. Your own role still gives what it always did (a teacher runs their own formative or summative in full) — and nothing more on that campus: not its Setup page, not another sitting, not marking or results. A sitting on another campus is not on your Sittings list and appears on the station only while it is open, so until then it is opened by a coordinator or its window — or by you, from its live page, through a link to it. Taking you off the sitting closes it again at once.

The live monitor shows the school photograph beside each name so the invigilator can confirm who is sitting the paper. Nowhere else: marking and moderation stay anonymous, the student’s own screen never loads a photo, and a face is served only to staff who may monitor that sitting. Initials until the roster photos are switched on.

The generated .seb now allows the Google sign-in hop and the hosts YouTube, Vimeo and SoundCloud actually stream from, quits only on a dedicated URL nothing links to, and pins the address bar off. A student who opens it signed out is sent to sign in and straight back to Sit. Re-download the file for any sitting not yet live.

The sittings screen let a coordinator fill in a mock, term exam or final and then refused them at the door — only teachers and admins got through, the reverse of the 19-Aug rule. The door is now any staff role; the sitting’s own kind and campus decide, and a refusal comes back as a sentence on the page instead of “Something went wrong”.

The crash-recovery sync interval is bounded to 15–120 seconds (default 30) and a coordinator can change it on the sitting’s Setup page until the sitting opens; a section can be the first rule on a sitting, and a group-only sitting shows its rule.

Task tabs and the progress strip pin under the header, the strip ends with the answered / left count (since 24-Oct-2026 there is no question rail down the side: the paper and its reading pane have the width), and the app sidebar steps out of the way while you sit a paper.

Equations render where you type them, × for multiply, Cmd+, and Cmd+. for super/subscript, and Enter no longer strands you inside an exponent.

A paper is approved by someone other than its author before it can be published — and a term exam, mock or final needs two. Editing after sign-off voids it.

Teachers schedule and run their own formative and summative work; term exams, mocks and the final e-assessment are a coordinator’s.

Target a sitting at a whole cohort, a section, named individuals, or a saved group that spans sections — built once and reused, for sets like Maths Extended.

The braking-distance sim runs and reports each reading without keeping the table for you: recording and averaging the results is the marked skill. Averages are per condition and speed, and now say so on every row.

KaTeX rendering across authoring, player, marking and results.

Uploaded assets plus original SVG diagrams inside questions.

Drag-and-drop, a graph-plot canvas, and draw / annotate.

MathLive keyboard for typed mathematics in the player.

Question palette and reference tools, mirroring the IB software.

Self-hosted interactive simulations, safely isolated.