How to Run an Online Exam for Your Class (Lobby, Live Monitoring, Anti-Cheating)

Online homework is easy. A graded test is a different story. Who's looking up answers in another tab? Who joined late? What happens when someone's Wi-Fi drops halfway through? Once you know how to run an online exam for your class, most of those worries get handled before they happen. This post walks through the two ways to run an exam in rayQuiz, plus a checklist for before, during and after test day.

Quick answer: To run an online exam for your class, create a proctored exam from your class page, set a start time, and turn on anti-cheating and shuffling. On exam day, open the lobby so students can join early. The exam starts for everyone at once, and you watch each student's progress on one screen. Scores and answers open only when you allow it.

Pick the right setup

rayQuiz gives you two ways to run an exam:

• Proctored class exam: for a class you teach. Students are already enrolled, results go to the class, and you get a lobby and a live monitoring page. Great for quizzes, midterms and finals.
• Exam room by code: a standalone exam with no class needed. You share a code and candidates join with it. Great for mock exams, placement tests, or tutoring centers mixing students from several groups.

If you're unsure: proctored exams for your regular classes, code-based rooms for one-off events.

Option 1: Run a proctored exam for your class

Step 1: Create the exam from the class page

Open the class and create a new exam. Pick the quiz, give the exam a name (or keep the quiz title), and set the start time. The end time is optional; if you leave it blank, the quiz duration is used.

Step 2: Decide what students see after submitting

Two settings matter here:

• When scores appear: right after submitting, or when the exam ends.
• Whether answers and explanations open after the exam ends.

For proctored exams both are closed by default, and answers never open while anyone is still taking the exam. So an early finisher can't screenshot the key and pass it on.

Step 3: Set the exam rules

The useful switches:

• Anti-cheating: on by default; logs when students leave the tab or exit fullscreen.
• Shuffle question order and shuffle answer order: a different order for every student.
• Allow going back to earlier questions: turn off if you want students to work in sequence.
• Allow switching devices mid-exam: off by default.
• End automatically when everyone has submitted.
• Allow late joining: you approve each latecomer.
• Room password: optional, and helpful if the exam code leaks.

Step 4: Open the lobby

A few minutes before the exam, open the monitoring page and open the lobby. Students join with the link or code you share. At the start time, the exam opens for the whole class at once, so nobody gets a head start.

Step 5: Monitor live

With anti-cheating on, students must enter fullscreen to take the exam, and copy, paste and right-click are blocked. On the monitoring page you see:

• Who hasn't joined, who's working and who has finished.
• Warnings such as tab switches or leaving fullscreen.
• An activity log for each student.

If a student switches tabs or leaves fullscreen, their attempt locks and it shows up on your monitoring page right away. Ask what happened (sometimes it's just a stray key), then unlock it so they can continue. Every violation stays in the log for later.

When time's up, end the exam yourself, or let it close automatically once everyone has submitted.

Option 2: Open an exam room by code

Go to Exam sessions and create a new exam. Choose the quiz, the start time and end time, and turn on anti-cheating mode. rayQuiz creates a unique code, and the room opens automatically at the start time. Share the code; candidates enter it to join.

In an organization workspace, only the organization's students can join, so a leaked code doesn't let outsiders in.

Exam day checklist

Before

• Run a practice exam with three questions so students get used to the lobby, fullscreen mode and submitting.
• Spell out the rules: no tab switching, stay in fullscreen, charge your device.
• Check the quiz: one correct answer per question, and no "both A and B" options if answers are shuffled.
• Plan for problems: decide in advance whether a dropped connection means an unlock, a makeup test, or grading what was submitted.

During

• Keep the monitoring page open on a laptop and watch for warnings.
• Handle violations calmly and consistently: same issue, same response.

After

• Open class statistics: average, score spread, most-missed questions.
• Export to Excel for your gradebook.
• Reteach the most-missed questions in the next lesson.

What online exams can't do

Honestly, no software fully stops cheating when a student is at home with a second phone. Live monitoring removes the easiest shortcuts, but an in-class exam with you in the room is still the safest choice for high-stakes tests. A quiz with more application questions and a realistic time limit also makes looking things up far less useful.

FAQ

Can students take the exam on a phone? Yes, in the browser. For long exams, a laptop or tablet is easier to read.

Does it cost anything? Students take exams for free. Classes, proctored exams and exam rooms are part of the Premium plan for teachers. See rayQuiz for teachers.

Can students who finish early see the answers? Not while anyone is still taking the exam. You decide when scores and answers open.

Don't have a class yet? Read the guide to classes and assignments, and see how to shuffle quiz questions and answers so every student gets a different order.