T14 Schools and ExamSoft Forum

[de5igual]

Has anyone used it with an open book exam? How does that work?

We use exam soft. For open book you have to print your outlines and bring them with you.

That sounds awful. Ctrl+F is a godsend during exams for me.

start learning to tab/highlight

[ilovesf]

Has anyone used it with an open book exam? How does that work?

We use exam soft. For open book you have to print your outlines and bring them with you.

That sounds awful. Ctrl+F is a godsend during exams for me.

That sounds so amazing. I just made a table of contents for the first page of my outline. I've only had one completely open book exam though so it hasn't really been an issue.

[Dany]

Has anyone used it with an open book exam? How does that work?

We use exam soft. For open book you have to print your outlines and bring them with you.

That sounds awful. Ctrl+F is a godsend during exams for me.

start learning to tab/highlight

Too lazy.

[facetious]

i'll chime in for nyu. we use examsoft. i have never had any problems for 1L or 2L year exams, but it has been known to crash on people running lion and keeping the word count/document statistics tool open during the exam. on my mac running snow leopard, i have never had any problems.

all of my examsoft exams have been open book but "closed" mode, meaning all access to my computer's hard drive and any other application is closed. never knew the software is designed to prevent cheating or that there was a way around it - i always just thought it was a standardized way to administer in class exams. just a bit naive i suppose.

the functions you are used to in word don't really exist in examsoft and, at least on my mac, i haven't found a way to maximize the available area for typing. also, no hard drive means no ctrl+f for exams - need to print out the outline, tab it, and highlight. this likely means putting more work in the front end on the studying front as its a bit cumbersome to be flipping through a paper outline on the thin desks we have at nyu.

if i had the choice between examsoft or just using word, i would DEFINITELY prefer word.

we use a different software for take homes where we just use word and then upload the exam within the available time frame.

hth

[presidentk1]

it is possible to get around ANY of these programs
its called a virtual machine
you run a computer inside your computer

these companies just scam deans who know nothing about technology into giving them $25k+ a month for the service

it doesn't stop cheating

EBB detects when running inside a virtual machine. It won't even start on a native windows partition if VMware is also setup to run that partition virtual.

EBB detects a virtual machine by scanning your system memory for a particular process that is used by SOME VM clients, VMware being one of them

there are however, other VM clients that dont have that process running, therefore EBB won't detect them

bottom line is this, its software and it can be compromised

the iphone has been out since 2007, and every single time Apple patches it so it cant be jailbroken, someone finds a hole
same applies to EBB/Exam4, where theres a will theres a way

[JJDancer]

Not T-14 but USC uses SoftTest (which sounds just like exam soft) basically it restricts access while running to all other programs. For open book exams we can only use printed materials. It automatically uploads the exam at the end. It runs better on Macs; PCs take a minute or two to reboot with SoftTest while Macs don't need to reboot.
It allows MC and essay exams to be in "one go" so no need to restart the system or stop the test in the middle, you can take it straight through (but you can also have 2 different files for MC and essay incase one is closed book or the Prof wants them timed separately).

[law_monkey]

HLS uses Exam4. I don't know what similarities there are to ExamSoft, but I can tell you the different settings anyway in case they're the same. Exam4 has open (which then splits into open-network and open-laptop, closed, and take home. Take home lets us access everything, including the Internet. I think open network allows access to the Internet too, but in my experience we weren't allowed to use the Internet on open exams anyway so we had to use open-laptop. This allows everything on your computer except Internet to work (so the beautiful ctrl-F was still an option in Word ). I've only had one closed exam, but it literally took away my home screen so I couldn't access anything at all except Exam4.

My biggest complaint about the exam software is the formatting options. People who just use paragraphs or whatever to format their answers wouldn't mind, but I usually try to make my answers at least look organized (more for my own sake so I know where to go back and find things if I want to change/add something). Exam4 does allow underlining, italics, and bold, but that's it. The screen itself is also really old school, so it looks like you're using Word 94 or something. I think if I had to choose I would prefer to use Word just because that's what I'm used to, but not for any huge reason that I think affects my exam. The only thing is that it can malfunction (this happened to someone in my section where it just completely stopped working mid-exam), but the proctors are instructed how to deal with this. The guy in my section had to go to the library to use a computer there and had the time that he lost added back on.

[Dany]

Can you change fonts? If not, Baird would have a stroke.

[blurbz]

Yeah, professors can choose what they want to be available on SofTest: Some make everything closed but the exam software, others make it so you can access your laptop but not the internet, etc. Most seem to make it totally closed but allow hard-copies of outlines in the exam room.

[law_monkey]

Can you change fonts? If not, Baird would have a stroke.

Not in Exam4. It has a choice of large, medium, and small, and it can be on a white, black, or gray background. And it all prints out in Times New Roman 12 point. (Don't know if ExamSoft is different though).

[hawkeye22]

Iowa uses examsoft and its always worked fine for me. The copy/paste function is a godsend.

[JJDancer]

SoftTest allows different sizes and fonts + bold/italics/underline but our school changes it all to one font before they print it for the professor (but they keep bold/italics/underlining.

[sambeber]

Georgetown uses Word for everything (the only MC I've had was Scantron).

[NC1]

Wait so you guys have been pressing control F for in class exams? We've never had such an option unless it's a take home. Our examsoft has always blocked out everything. It's just you and your outline.

[Dany]

Wait so you guys have been pressing control F for in class exams? We've never had such an option unless it's a take home. Our examsoft has always blocked out everything. It's just you and your outline.

Yep, and it's awesome.

[NC1]

Wait so you guys have been pressing control F for in class exams? We've never had such an option unless it's a take home. Our examsoft has always blocked out everything. It's just you and your outline.

Yep, and it's awesome.

I wonder how that effects test-taking strategies. Do you still have a generic 3 or 4 hour time limit? Why wouldn't people just type out rules and copy and paste them?

[Dany]

Wait so you guys have been pressing control F for in class exams? We've never had such an option unless it's a take home. Our examsoft has always blocked out everything. It's just you and your outline.

Yep, and it's awesome.

I wonder how that effects test-taking strategies. Do you still have a generic 3 or 4 hour time limit? Why wouldn't people just type out rules and copy and paste them?

It's still three hours, and you're not allowed to copy and paste from your notes/outline.

[ben4847]

I have a good idea. Just don't care.

[Dany]

I have a good idea. Just don't care.

What

[de5igual]

Non-T14 - we use Exam4. it can be buggy on a mac—had it crash on me in the first five minutes of an exam.

[NC1]

Wait so you guys have been pressing control F for in class exams? We've never had such an option unless it's a take home. Our examsoft has always blocked out everything. It's just you and your outline.

Yep, and it's awesome.

I wonder how that effects test-taking strategies. Do you still have a generic 3 or 4 hour time limit? Why wouldn't people just type out rules and copy and paste them?

It's still three hours, and you're not allowed to copy and paste from your notes/outline.

How would they know? Not saying that I would, but that seems shoddy.

[Dany]

How would they know? Not saying that I would, but that seems shoddy.

They wouldn't know, just like they wouldn't know if people access the internet or find an examsoft work-around. Any rule/system at any school is going to have cheaters, but I'm fairly positive the vast majority of my classmates take the exam rules/honor code seriously.

[NC1]

How would they know? Not saying that I would, but that seems shoddy.

They wouldn't know, just like they wouldn't know if people access the internet or find an examsoft work-around. Any rule/system at any school is going to have cheaters, but I'm fairly positive the vast majority of my classmates take the exam rules/honor code seriously.

I hear that, but getting around examsoft is really not something most people would risk. No one wants their computer to die on them because if you do, then you have to finish the rest of the exam by hand. You just pick up right where you left off. Second, everyone's screen looks the same. It would be very obvious if you were not on the ExamSoft stuff.

[presidentk1]

How would they know? Not saying that I would, but that seems shoddy.

They wouldn't know, just like they wouldn't know if people access the internet or find an examsoft work-around. Any rule/system at any school is going to have cheaters, but I'm fairly positive the vast majority of my classmates take the exam rules/honor code seriously.

I hear that, but getting around examsoft is really not something most people would risk. No one wants their computer to die on them because if you do, then you have to finish the rest of the exam by hand. You just pick up right where you left off. Second, everyone's screen looks the same. It would be very obvious if you were not on the ExamSoft stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/3M-Privacy-Filter ... B00006B8A9

now no one but you can see what is on the screen
i dont cheat, but i have that on there to stop others from cheating off me

[The Duck]

It's still three hours, and you're not allowed to copy and paste from your notes/outline.

How would they know? Not saying that I would, but that seems shoddy.

For EBB at least, they override copy/ paste so it's not possible. (even by shortcut)