Practical computer exams: five things that go wrong in the lab, and how to fix them

A training centre has to certify 60 people on Word and Excel. The tasks are written: format a report, build a budget with formulas and a chart. Two computer labs are booked for the morning. On paper it looks simple. In practice, the hard part of a practical exam is not the tasks. It is everything that happens to the files: where candidates save them, what happens when a PC freezes, how you stop someone from opening a chat window, and who marks 60 folders of work by Friday.

This guide goes through the five problems organisers run into most often, why they happen, and what fixes them. The advice works with any setup; where ExamQR helps, it says how.

1. The files end up everywhere

The problem. You ask candidates to save their work "on the desktop" or "in the exam folder". At the end you find Book1.xlsx, Document3.docx, a file saved in Downloads, another one on a USB stick, and two candidates who saved over each other's work on a shared drive. Collecting and renaming 60 sets of files takes longer than the exam.

What fixes it. Give every candidate, and every task, its own place to save, and collect it automatically instead of walking around with a USB stick.

In ExamQR Exam, the version that runs in your lab, a practical task is a question answered by submitting files. On each candidate's PC the app creates a work folder for that question, with a button that opens it. Candidates save their Word, Excel or code files there, using the programs they normally use. Whenever a file in the folder is created or changed, the app sends it to the exam server on the teacher's PC, and it also re-checks the folders every minute.

Some files are skipped on purpose: Office's temporary lock files (the ones starting with ~$), programs and scripts (.exe, .bat, .ps1), and build folders such as bin, obj or node_modules. Each file can be up to 50 MB.

After the session, Export practical work (ZIP) gives you one archive: one folder per candidate, named with their seat number and name, and inside it one folder per question. Nobody has to rename anything.

Tip: still tell candidates the file name you expect, for example Task2-Budget.xlsx. Markers find their way around a folder much faster when every candidate's files are named the same.

2. A frozen PC wipes out 40 minutes of work

The problem. Lab PCs are rarely the newest machines. Excel hangs on a large file, Windows decides to restart, someone trips over a power cable. If the only copy of the work is on that PC, the candidate starts again from zero, usually in tears, and you have to decide whether to give extra time.

What fixes it. Two habits and one safety net.

• Teach "save early, save often". No exam software can send work that only exists in Word's memory. Ask candidates to save the file in their work folder in the first minute and then press Ctrl+S after every step. Turn on AutoSave or AutoRecover in Office on the lab image.
• Keep a copy off the machine. With ExamQR Exam, every saved version is already on the exam server, so a dead PC loses at most the changes since the last save.
• Make sure nothing is lost in transit. If a file cannot be sent, for example because of a network glitch, the app does not mark it as sent and tries again at the next check. If the PC restarts, the app scans the work folders again when the candidate is back and sends whatever is missing.

Decide your rule for lost time before the exam, not during it. A common one: the invigilator notes the time the PC failed and the time the candidate was working again, and the candidate gets that difference added at the end.

3. The network goes down and the whole room stops

The problem. If the exam runs on a website, the lab's internet connection becomes the weakest point of the day. When it drops, 30 candidates stop at once, and if they are in the middle of uploading a file, they do not know whether it arrived.

What fixes it. Do not depend on the internet for a lab exam. ExamQR Exam runs its server on a teacher's PC in the lab, and candidates connect to it over the local network. The exam, the questions and the submitted files never leave the room during the session. How this works and what to prepare is in offline exams on a local network.

Before the day, test the real thing: start the server, connect two or three lab PCs, save a large file in a work folder and check that it appears on the server.

4. You cannot lock the PC, because they need Office

The problem. For a multiple-choice test you can lock the screen so candidates see nothing but the exam. A practical exam is the opposite: candidates must open Word, Excel or a code editor and switch between windows all the time. A full lock-down would stop the exam itself. But leaving everything open invites a browser, a chat app, or an AI assistant.

What fixes it. Block the tools that help cheating, allow the tools the task needs.

In practical mode, ExamQR Exam does not lock the screen the way it does for a normal test. It lets candidates use Office and code editors, and closes the programs that have no place in the exam:

• web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox and others);
• chat and meeting apps (Teams, Zoom, Slack, Discord, Telegram, Skype and others);
• remote-control tools (Remote Desktop, TeamViewer, AnyDesk and others), so nobody outside the room can work on the candidate's PC;
• AI assistant apps (ChatGPT, Copilot and local model runners);
• screen recorders.

Software cannot stop everything. Three things still need the room itself:

• Neighbours. Two people working on the same budget task can copy each other's numbers. Prepare two versions of each task with different data, and use a seating plan so that neighbours never get the same version.
• USB sticks and shared drives. Block removable storage and network shares on the lab PCs, or check bags and desks. Put any starting files candidates need on the lab PCs before the session.
• Someone walking around. One invigilator per room, moving, not sitting at the front.

5. Marking 60 folders takes days, and markers disagree

The problem. Every candidate's work has to be opened, checked step by step and scored. One marker gives 8 out of 10 for a chart with a missing title, another gives 6. Results that were promised for Monday come out on Thursday, and two candidates complain.

What fixes it. Mark less by hand, and mark the rest against the same written guide.

• Let the computer check the results. After a task, add a short question that is scored automatically: "What total did you get in cell F20?" or "How many pages does your formatted report have?". A correct answer shows the formulas and settings are right, and these points are scored the moment the candidate submits.
• Write a marking guide per task. Break each task into steps with points: correct formula 2, absolute reference 1, chart type 1, chart title and axis labels 1. Markers then score steps, not impressions, and two markers end up much closer.
• Mark inside the exam software. In ExamQR Exam, the manual scoring window lists each candidate's questions with their maximum points. For a file question you open the candidate's work from there, then type the score.
• Use two markers when the stakes are high. In ExamQR's online version, an answer can be assigned to two markers and a reviewer. The final score is the reviewer's if there is one, otherwise the average of the two markers.

Be clear about what is automatic. ExamQR does not open an Excel file and grade it on its own; a person still looks at the work. The automatic part is everything around it: collecting, naming, the auto-scored check questions and the score sheet. Once everything is scored, you can print the score sheet by room or export it to Excel.

Running it online instead

If candidates take the exam from home or from their own laptops, the same idea works in the browser with ExamQR's online exams. An essay question can ask for files instead of text, and you choose what to accept: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, images, C++ files or compressed archives. Answers are saved automatically while the candidate works, and after the session you download the submitted files as one ZIP, with a folder per candidate. You cannot close other programs on a candidate's own laptop, so give more weight to the auto-scored check questions and to task versions.

Checklist for the day

• Two versions of each task, with different data, and a seating plan.
• Starting files copied to every lab PC; USB storage blocked.
• Office AutoSave or AutoRecover turned on; candidates told to save in the work folder and press Ctrl+S often.
• The expected file name written in each task.
• The exam server tested with real lab PCs and a large file.
• A written rule for lost time, and extra time set in advance for candidates who are entitled to it.
• A marking guide per task, with points per step, shared with every marker.
• Auto-scored check questions after each task.

A practical exam measures what people can actually do, which is why employers and certification bodies trust it. Most of the work is in the logistics around it. Get the files, the network and the marking right, and the exam itself is the easy part.