Dynamic exams

Generate exams dynamically from banks of questions. Use tags and AND OR operators to pick between Tags, EMQs or Specific questions to create different variations from multiple quizzes

Dynamic exams allow you to generate unique exam attempts automatically using rules and filters. Instead of manually building multiple versions of an exam, Synap selects questions from one or more quizzes based on the configuration you define.

Dynamic exams are commonly used to:

• Reduce collusion by giving candidates different questions

• Randomise exam content

• Build large exams from question banks

• Maintain consistent exam structure while varying content

You can also configure a dynamic exam to generate just one variation, ensuring every candidate receives the same questions while still benefiting from automated question selection.

Anti-Cheat features

Considerations

Before you create dynamic exams we'd recommending having the following

• ✅ Tag your questions Tags make it easier to pull balanced sets of questions into each attempt.

• ✅ Use external question IDs If selecting specific questions, external IDs help you identify them quickly.

• ✅ Name EMQ groups clearly Use consistent naming or external IDs so they are easy to locate when building filters.

• ✅ Plan your sections carefully Sections in Synap are strict — once a candidate submits a section, they cannot return to it.

Creating a dynamic exam

Head over to the exams page and create an exam, once you've filled in the details go to the Type selection and select Dynamic as the type of exam you're creating.

Selecting Dynamic exam with sections

Once selected you'll also be asked if this is exam is going to have sections, select the appropriate option, and progress to the source step

From the Source part of the exam set up you'll be able to add one or more quizzes to pool your questions from. It's really important that all the questions you want to use are tagged other wise they won't be included in the exams.

Selecting quizzes for Dynamic Exams

Once the source quizzes have been selected you'll be shown a preview of the available number of questions, tags and quizzes. Once you're happy you can finalise the step or go back to the previous step to add additional quizzes

🧠 Remember once you've finalised the Source step you will not be able to go back and add or change your tests, and changes to the source test/s will not be reflected in the exams generated after this point.

Filters

Filters control how questions are selected for each attempt, you can combine multiple filter types across filters.

There are three filter types available:

Filter Type	Action	Description
Tag Filter	Select questions based on the tags assigned to them.	Blueprinted exams Topic coverage Difficulty balancing
EMQ Group Filter	Select from Extended Matching Question (EMQ) groups.	All questions within that group appear together Questions inside the group are not shuffled The group is treated as a single item during attempt generation
Question Filter	Choose specific questions directly. (We strongly recommend using external question IDs to make selection easier, especially in large banks.)	High-stakes exams Fixed question sets Regulatory requirements

Operators and complexity

Use the AND , OR operators separately or together to add more complexity to your filter rules.

AND Operator

Use the AND operator to select questions that must contain 2 or more of the selected tags. Be careful to pick the right number of questions otherwise selection will fail validation. Below shows the filter rule which will pick any 2 questions which both have mid-20th century and 'Easy' tags

OR Operator

Use the OR operator to select questions with tags that have one tag OR another. Below shows a filter rule that will pick any 2 questions that are tagged with Master Peices or mid-20th century. (Note this means it could be 2 questions both tagged with Master Peices as well as one question with one tag and one with another)

Build complexity

Use the AND OR operators together to build more complex filters. The below example is going to select 2 questions that have have either the Master Pieces or mid-20th century tag but also have to had the Hard tag.

EMQ group filter

The EMQ Group Filter allows you to generate exam variations based on entire EMQ sets rather than individual tagged questions.

• When using tags, you can specify rules like “2 Biology questions” or “3 Chemistry questions,” and Synap will select questions that match.

• When using the EMQ filter, you select a full EMQ group (e.g. The Great Wave off Kanagawa), and all questions within that set are included together, displayed in their original order.

• This means different exam variations can include EMQ groups of different lengths, since one set might contain 2 questions while another contains 4.

Example of exam questions that can be generated using EMQ filters

This filter is particularly useful when you want to preserve the integrity and flow of multi-part question sets, such as extended matching questions or case studies, without breaking them apart.

Question filter

Question filters are useful when certain questions must appear in a fixed position, such as always placing a required question at the start or end of an exam. This allows you to maintain structural control while generating the remaining questions dynamically.

We'd recommend creating unique question external IDs to make this process easier

Validating filters

When you've set up the tag generation rules use the validate button in the top right to check your rules make sense. When something does fail validation you'll get an error message with guidance on how to resolve.

Once validated you can move onto the remaining steps for setting up your exam

Sections in Dynamic Exams

If the exam has sections in it you will need to create tag filters, and set timers and titles for each section. You can optionally add instructions. Remember if you're enable shuffling of sections then you may not want to name your sections numerically as this may not be the order that they appear in for candidates

🧠 Sections contain questions, users navigate freely between questions in that section. But they cannot go back to a section once it has been submitted. If soft sections are enabled they can go back to view only answers but they can't change them.

Enable sections on a dynamic exam to create strict sections in your exam with different tag rules. Each candidate will get the sections in the same order, but different questions based on the rules in each section

Once enabled the section builder will appear, where you can create the section specific tag rules using the same AND OR operators.

You can also add in section specific instructions and timers from here.

Once you've created and validated the sections you can carry on and set the rest of the exam and schedule

🧠 If you have the same tag in different sections, the same question will not be used twice.

Restrict dynamic variations

Restricting the number of variations generated lets you set the maximum number of possible unique question sets generated for a user groups exams. Note this doesn't remove shuffling options that have been enabled. Setting a maximum variation of 1, means that all users will get the same set of questions, though they may appear in a different order.

Shuffling options

Shuffle settings control the order in which filters and questions appear in each generated attempt. They introduce an additional layer of unpredictability without changing which questions are selected.

Shuffling is particularly effective for reducing collusion, as candidates are less likely to receive questions in the same sequence.

Important

Shuffling changes order — not selection. Candidates may still receive the same questions, but presented differently.

If your dynamic exam is configured to generate multiple variations, the system will naturally produce different combinations of questions. When the question bank is large enough, the order of questions will typically differ between attempts.

However, if you restrict the exam to 1 variation, every candidate will receive the same questions in the same order unless shuffle settings are enabled.

Shuffle settings allow you to maintain consistent exam content while still randomising how it is delivered.

Available dynamic shuffling settings

Dynamic exams support two types of shuffling:

1. Shuffle filter order per attempt

2. Shuffle items within a filter

Dynamic exam shuffling options

These settings can be used independently or combined for greater randomisation.

Example filters to illustrate shuffling

1. Shuffle filter order per attempt

This setting randomises the order in which filters appear for each candidate. For example, a filter shown first in one attempt may appear later in another.

Best used when:

• The order of topics is not important

• You want stronger anti-collusion protection

• Your exam does not rely on a strict progression

Avoid using this when:

• Certain questions must always appear first or last

• Your exam follows a structured flow

• Sections must remain in a specific order

2.Shuffle items within a filter

This setting randomises the order of the items selected by a filter for each attempt.

Depending on the filter type, this means:

• Question filters: questions are shuffled

• Tag filters: selected questions are shuffled

• EMQ filters: EMQ groups are shuffled

Questions within an EMQ group are never shuffled. They will always appear in their defined order to preserve the intended structure of the EMQ.

Combining shuffling options

When both settings are enabled:

• Filters appear in a different order

• Questions (or EMQ groups) appear in a different sequence

• The overall exam blueprint remains unchanged

This is one of the most effective ways to deliver consistent exams while minimising answer sharing.

👉 Refer to the example below showing how both filter order and items within filters can vary across attempts.

Preview

Setting up dynamic exams can get complex, Synap has a preview exam feature to help you know you've got the rules set up correctly.

Once you've set up your Dynamic filters and saved / passed validation. Go to the publish page and you'll be able to preview a generated attempt that uses the filter rules you've created.

Preview as many times as you need, it won't impact any sort of statistics for the exam

Try for yourself

If you'd like to try the dynamic exam above please use the link below to join our universe portal and try it out!

Try Dynamic Exam: https://universe.synap.ac/join/Yldio8IwMHm