Sitting a Synoptic Proctored Exam

Candidate requirements and experience sitting a Synoptic proctored exam

📐 Requirements

In order to sit a Synoptic proctored exam your candidates will need:

• To be on Google Chrome - this will not work with other browsers

• To be able to download and install a plugin

• To be on a laptop or desktop - this will not work with a tablet or mobile device

• A minimum internet connection of 40kBs upload/download

In order to start the exam candidates must meet and maintain the proctoring conditions that have been set through out the exam. We recommend that before the exam opens your candidates install the Synoptic Google Chrome plugin. They will be shown a proctoring guide on their exam-hall page which is the last page before their exam.

📌 Installing and Pinning Synoptic

Candidates will need to install Synoptic to Chrome to sit the exam, if they have sat a Synoptic exam before they won't need to install it again.

installing and pinning Synoptic

It's a good idea to recommend to your candidates to pin the Synoptic plugin to their chrome extension bar. This will let them see the status and reasons behind any breaches.

When pinned students can view the state of their attempt at any time

🏎 Starting the exam

Once installed and the exam window has opened candidates will need to be following all of the set conditions to start.

Exam hall page

One the exam hall page (this is where the proctoring guide is) once any issues are resolved this will be indicated to the candidates and they can scroll to the start button and begin the exam.

🖥 Screen sharing / recording

Depending on your and your candidates system configuration you may need to make sure Google Chrome has permissions granted to screen record. Some school or business devices have this disabled by default.

Enable Google Chrome screen recording on MacOS

Step by step guide

Enable Google Chrome screen recording on Windows

Step by step guide

✍️ In the exam

Once a candidate is in the exam, they will be continuously monitored by Synoptic. Breaching the exam conditions will be recorded and flagged to admins along with a timestamp and the question they were on. When Replay is enabled admins and educators can review the screen recreation footage.

With the freeze penalty enabled candidates must resolve any issues as quickly as possible and are advised by the platform and plugin on how to do so. On timed exam attempts upon a breach and freeze the timer will continue to tick down for a candidate

Breach detected - additional tabs, exam frozen, candidate resolved

Check out our video walkthrough below for a student sitting their first Synoptic exam

🏁 Finishing the exam

Once the candidate has finished the exam, the page will auto refresh and disable Synoptic, candidates will be able to see the plugin is no longer active and if they are sitting no more exams can delete it if they wish. Results will not be released even on exams with questions that can be auto marked as the proctoring must be reviewed and approved or rejected before the results can be released.

When inactive Synoptic is not recording a users browser

Check out our doc below on reviewing Synoptic sessions

Reviewing Synoptic Sessions