Setting up practice digital exams
It is strongly recommended to conduct a practice digital exam with your students prior to the exam period to familiarise students with the process.
If you have digital exams in your subjects, you will have selected an assessment tool that will be used to deliver the exam. It is important to schedule a practice exam for students using the chosen assessment tool. You can do so by using the assessment tool for a formative assessment during the semester to allow students to become more familiar with it.
Practice exams do not need to match the actual exam, but should include all the question types and steps that students will be expected to complete in the actual exam.
It is recommended that practice exams are run before SWOT Vac and close before the actual exam. The technical set up of your practice exam should also match that of the actual exam.
Why practice exams?
It is important to provide students at least one practice opportunity with the assessment tool that will be used for a high-stakes end of semester exam so that they can approach it with increased confidence, and without the extra cognitive load of having to navigate an unfamiliar process.
Practice exams can also:
- Help alleviate students’ concerns about the exam format and technology
- Decrease the number of special consideration requests, as students will be better prepared for the real exam conditions
- Provide a practice exam for the academic department in the set up and marking of digital exams as well as allow for sufficient time to make appropriate adjustments to the actual exam, where necessary.
On-campus digital exams
Students sitting on-campus digital exams are also required to install and use a Lockdown Browser during the exam. Installing and understanding how Lockdown Browsers work prior to a digital exam will help students arrive at the exam venue more prepared.
There are different versions of Lockdown Browsers depending on the subject and type of exam that students are sitting for, as well as existing LMS Communities where students can take practice exams. These communities are ideal for providing students with the opportunity to practice quiz-taking through Lockdown Browsers and to ensure the latest version of the software has been downloaded.
Taking a practice Canvas LMS Classic Quiz exam
If students are completing a Classic Quiz exam, they will need to download and install the appropriate Lockdown Browser.
Schoolyear Lockdown Browser
Respondus Lockdown Browser (Classic Quiz)
Taking a practice Cadmus exam
If students are completing a Cadmus exam, they will need to download and install the appropriate version of Respondus Lockdown Browser.
Repondus Lockdown Browser OEM (Cadmus)
Open-book exams
If this is the first time students are doing an open book exam in the subject, familiarise students with the type of questions they may see on the exam by offering a practice exam with similar questions and formatting.
For advice on writing questions for open-book exams, see assessment considerations in moving from closed-book to open-book exams (PDF 146.7 KB).
Support and resources
This guide was last updated 01 Oct 2026.
Submit an LMS support request for further assistance or to report any errors or omissions in this guide.