The questions leaked after the first session: how to run an exam over several sessions without the paper getting out

A company runs its annual skills assessment for 400 staff over two days, in four sessions, because the lab only has 100 PCs. Everyone sits the same paper, shuffled. By the second afternoon, people come in already knowing that "question about the refund policy" and "the one with the pie chart". The last session's average is 14 points higher than the first one's. Nobody can prove anything, but everyone in the first session feels cheated, and the results are hard to defend.

When an exam runs in several sessions, a leak is not a possibility. It is what you should expect. Candidates talk at lunch, take photos and post in group chats. This article explains how questions get out, why shuffling does not help across sessions, and what does.

How questions get out

• Memory. Candidates remember five or ten questions and share them. You cannot stop this, only make it worth less.
• Photos. A phone under the desk, or a photo of a printed paper taken in the corridor.
• The results screen. If candidates see the paper with the correct answers as soon as they submit, the morning session hands the answer key to the afternoon.
• Files passed around beforehand. A test emailed between staff, a printout left on the copier, a shared drive with too many people on it.

1. Shuffling protects against the neighbour, not the next session

The mistake. "We made 20 versions, so it is safe." Shuffled versions contain the same questions in a different order. That stops a candidate copying from the screen next to them. It does nothing against someone who was told in the morning that "there is a question about the refund policy, the answer is 30 days".

What fixes it. Give each session different questions, of the same difficulty.

With ExamQR online exams you build a test from your question bank with a structure: so many questions per topic and per difficulty level. Create one test per session from the same structure. When you create several tests at once, ExamQR keeps their questions apart as long as the bank has enough, and it takes the questions used least often first. Then give each time slot its own test. Every session gets the same mix of topics and levels, but not the same questions.

The bank has to be big enough for that. For four sessions with no overlap, you need four times the questions in every topic-and-level cell. If a cell is too small, ExamQR tells you how many questions it needs and how many there are, and you know where to write more. A guide to building one: question banks.

Inside each session, still shuffle into versions, up to 1,000, so that neighbours do not see the same order either. How to write questions that survive shuffling is in fair test shuffling.

2. Do not hand out the answers at the end

The problem. A results screen that shows every question with the correct answer is a good learning tool and an excellent leak.

What fixes it. In ExamQR you choose, per session, what candidates see after submitting: nothing, the total score, the score with which questions were right or wrong, or the whole paper with the answers. For an exam that runs over several sessions, show the total score only. If you want candidates to review their answers, change the setting after the last session has finished. The new setting applies the next time candidates open their results.

3. Nobody sees the questions before the start

The problem. A test that can be opened early, even for a minute, can be copied.

What fixes it. In an ExamQR online exam, candidates get the questions only after a supervisor starts the session for their room. Before that, there is nothing to open. You can also set a password for each room, which the invigilator gives out at the start, so a candidate sitting at home cannot join an exam meant for the lab.

For lab exams on ExamQR Exam, the exam travels to the room as an exam package that you can protect with a password, and it is opened on the server PC in the room. Candidates wait on a waiting screen until the session starts. Images and other media on candidate PCs are stored encrypted until the exam opens, and the app removes them when it closes.

4. Make photos and screenshots less useful

• On the web, right-click and copy are blocked on the exam page.
• In the ExamQR Exam app, the exam window is left out of screenshots and screen recordings, and recording tools are closed. More in how candidates cheat in computer exams.
• A phone camera is a job for the invigilator: phones in bags, invigilators walking the room.

The best defence against photos is still the one in section 1. A photo of a question that the next session will not get is worth nothing.

5. Keep the paper inside a small circle

• Share the test only with the people who build and check it. In ExamQR, a test is visible to its owner and to the people it is shared with.
• When you move an exam package, protect it with a password and send the password separately, as late as you can.
• For paper exams, print as late as possible, count copies out and in, and collect every paper, drafts included. Use the version code on each paper to match it to the answer key and the attendance sheet.

6. Check whether it leaked anyway

Leaks leave a trace in the numbers. After the exam, compare sessions:

• A session average that climbs steadily from the first session to the last.
• A question that 40% got right in the morning and 85% got right in the afternoon.

ExamQR's statistics show how hard each question was and how well it separated stronger and weaker candidates. A question whose results jump between sessions should be dropped from scoring for this exam and retired from the bank. More on reading those numbers: item analysis.

Checklist

• A question bank large enough for one fresh set of questions per session.
• One test per session, built from the same structure, and shuffled versions inside each session.
• Candidates see only their score until the last session has finished.
• Questions released only when the supervisor starts the session; a room password for lab sessions.
• Exam packages password-protected; the password shared late and separately.
• Phones in bags, invigilators walking.
• Session averages and question statistics compared after the exam.

You cannot stop candidates talking. You can make what they say useless to the next session. More about online exams and test shuffling.