Exam Best Practices - What to do before your next upcoming exams

Exam Best Practices - What to do before your next upcoming exams




Is your computer in good working order?

Make sure your computer meets the minimum computer specifications for taking exams on your Mac or Windows.
 
Examsoft has stated that it provides 24/7 support ( U.S. and Canada: (866) 429-8889 ext. 3) for Examplify. Please note that Examsoft Support may take up to 48-72 hours to get back to you. SCU Law students seem to have better luck using their online Exam Support Chat to get a hold of a live person. 

If your computer is having hardware issues and still under warranty, then contact your computer vendor (or your local authorized repair shop) asap and have it repaired. Law Technology does support Examplify to a certain extent, but the vendor, Examsoft, is ultimately responsible for providing primary support for their product, Examplify.

Does your operating system have the latest updates?

At a minimum, your operating system needs the latest security updates. If you receive a warning from Santa Clara University IT, Law Technology, and/or the Office of Assessment about any issues with OS upgrades, then please avoid any OS upgrades until it is safe to do so.

Why do updates and not OS upgrades?

Updates are application-specific or patch any security issues with your operating system. Major operating system (OS) upgrades, on the other hand, will change the entire operating system. For most users, major  OS upgrades will not be a problem, but avoid doing any major OS upgrades during SCU Law exam periods. 

Are you registered with Examsoft portal and do you know your current login credentials?

You will be sent an email from SCU Law's Office of Assessment that includes your Examsoft portal registration credentials. Make sure your 11-digit student ID and password will allow you to access the online portal registration page. You will be prompted for these credentials later when you complete your local installation of Examplify or when you need to upload any take-home exams to SCU Law's exam portal.

WARNING: As of June 2024, Examsoft no longer provides local Examsoft Administrators, i.e. SCU Law Office of Assessment and SCU Law Technology, with the authority to reset and/or retrieve exam portal passwords. All exam takers will need to memorize their password and/or learn how to use the Examsoft portal password recovery process. We highly recommend that exam takers know and have tested their Examsoft portal registration credentials before starting their next SCU Law exams. Proctors and exam support staff will not provide exam takers any extra time if the exam-taking software is not functional and/or locally registered on the exam taker's computer. Blue books will be provided to complete the exam.

Do you have the latest and approved version of Examsoft's exam-taking software on your computer?

If you don't have the latest exam-taking software for SCU Law exams, then go to SCU Law's exam portal, enter your credentials, and download the latest version.

Do you know how to contact of the vendor of the exam-taking software called Examplify?

During exams, the SCU Law exam team will assist you as much as possible with any exam questions and/or technical issues. However, the vendor, Examsoft (an Turn it In company) does have 24/7 support line.

Examsoft Support
866-429-8889 Extension 3

NOTE: When seeking help about your take home performance test, DO NOT contact your professor for any exam assistance. 

Do you know how to install and/or upgrade your exam-taking software?

Please review Examsoft Examplify installation instructions here. SCU Law Technology also has provided you with a video on how to install Examplify on:


Other items to know:

Run all mock exams

After installing Examplify for the first time or after an upgrade. If you encounter issues while you are running mock exams, then seek help with Examsoft support or contact Law Technology Help Desk at lawtechhelpdesk@scu.edu or visit our site, LawTechHelpDesk.scu.edu.


During any mock exams, if for any reason that your question box or answer area text is cut off or does not fit even after resizing, then exit the mock exam and adjust your resolution and test again with all three mock exam types. Resolution of 1280 x 768 or higher, but 1920 x 1080 is recommended. See Examsoft FAQ on this topic. If your resolution is higher that what is posted here and you still have issues, then contact Examsoft support at 866-429-8889 to seek consultation and/or remote assistance.
While having two or even three monitors connected to your notebook computer is helpful for online hybrid classes, you will have issues with Examplify in an exam scenario, especially with a remote exam. Exampify requires a dedicated output to a single video display so it is recommend that only one external monitor is needed for your exams. You can test your multiple monitor setup by running all three types of mock exams to best determine your optimum setup. However, once the exam has started, it will be hard to revert changes if the multiple monitor setup has issues. We highly recommend only using one external monitor for remote and/or take-home exams.
Check your settings so that is doesn't condense information at the top of the screen.  If your timer is displaying correctly in your mock exam, then no need to make any changes to your display settings. Again, always run the mock exams to uncover and address those anomalies before your taking your real exams. How to check and fix the missing "Time Remaining" issue in Examplify.
Learn the power of clearing your web browser cache. You might not know it, but clearing the cache on your web browser will help to resolve those upload/download issues with take-home exams when submitting your exam answers to the Examsoft web portal. Check out our video here to learn how.  If clearing your cache doesn't work, then open a new tab in INCOGNITO mode and uploading your assessment again
For those who are submitting exams via the Examsoft portal, then reveiw this video to learn how to submit an exam via the Examsoft "dropbox method." If clearing your cache doesn't work, then open a new tab in INCOGNITO mode and uploading your assessment again.
Check to make sure your RTF files are read properly. When you get an RTF copy of your exam with comments and/or feedback, you may run into an issue of missing information. For Mac OS users, review our tech tip to see how to resolve this issue
Application Service Unavailable error - Examplify sometimes will have this error come up on both Mac and Windows versions. Click on the link that matches your OS, Mac - Application Service unavailable or Windows - Application Service unavailable, to find out how to troubleshoot and resolve this issue.
Examplify & Core Isolation Memory Isolation issue. For some Windows 10 and 11 users, you may run into this issue when you are trying to update and/or install Examplify. See this video to learn how to deal with this issue.
Learn how to resolve the VM error/alert. See this video to learn how to deal with this issue.
You can help Examplify perform and launch better by doing the following:
TIP #1:
For in-class as well as remote exams, Examsoft Examplify in secure mode will need a large portion of available memory to run. Always run the secure mock exam ( password: bronco5 ) to check if your computer will run normally. Do this test run of the secure mock exam before your real exam. Also, make sure your software application is the latest revision. To update Examplify, click on the icon to run the application and then Examplify will check if you have the latest update. You then follow the prompts to update your current version to the latest Examplify release version.


TIP #2: 
Disable or close as many applications so that Examplify can get a clean start. Failing to do so may introduce unknown technical anomalies during your exam. You can re-enable those applications later after you have finished with all your exams.

  1. Any cloud services to local sync app (e.g. Microsoft One Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, etc.)
  2. Any web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Tor, etc.)
  3. Spotify (or any streaming music service)
  4. Utorrent ( or any torrent app)
  5. Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc.)
  6. Steam client (or any gaming app)
  7. Any OS tools (sticky pad, etc.)
NOTE: After you have closed all of your applications and Examplify still does not launch, disable your Anti-virus program, and then attempt to start Examplify again.At the end of the exam, you will need to successfully close out of Examplify. If the upload process is taking some time or seems to be "timing out," then restart your laptop computer, and Examplify will attempt to upload your exam again after it has found an valid Internet connection on campus, public, or your home WiFi network.