How to prepare for a proctored exam: the room, device and rules

Next week's exam is online, at home, and the notice says it is proctored. To prepare for a proctored exam, put three things in order before the day: the rules, the device and the room. Most of what fails on the day could have been found a week earlier.

This guide is written to you, the student, with a checklist from the week before to the hour after. EdProcto, a quiz tool, publishes it; its page for students is about testing yourself on your own notes.

Nothing here is a way round a rule. The aim is a sitting whose record shows only you, working. Every source was read on 10 October 2026.

What does "proctored" mean, and which kind is yours?

"Proctored" means that something besides your answers is kept about the sitting. It comes in four kinds, so the first job is to find out which is yours.

ETS (n.d.) describes the live kind for its home English test; Kolski and Weible (2018) studied recordings reviewed afterwards; Ali et al. (2025) report a locked browser with a phone camera; a quiz on EdProcto is the fourth kind.

If the notice does not say, ask. Our guides for instructors cover webcam proctoring and what students should be told.

What goes wrong in remote exams, and how often?

Connections, software, devices and interruptions go wrong. How often depends on preparation: connection trouble for more than half of students in one first rehearsal, about three faults per hundred candidates in one well-briefed sitting.

• A first rehearsal in Lahore. In 2020 a medical and dental college in Pakistan held two mock exams before two online exams that counted (Ali et al., 2025). In the first mock, 33 of 864 students (3.8%) could not sit at all: their device or software did not fit. Connection trouble was reported by 470, a power cut by 197 and too little time by 614: students' own reports, at one college where power cuts are common.
• A briefed admission test in Flanders. Our webcam guide uses Andreou et al. (2021) for its flags; here is a different count. Among 472 candidates sitting an admission test for general practice training at home under live proctoring, staff logged 15 technical faults: eight in software, four in hardware, two internet failures and one camera crash. Two candidates' exams were affected. All had been shown beforehand how to install and test the software.

The software also logged a noise event for every candidate, and proctors warned two to stop talking to themselves: a quiet room is part of the preparation.

What raises anxiety under monitoring

Mostly the fear of a technical failure and of being misread. Before their first remote exam, 317 medical students in Munich answered a survey: 95.9% agreed that a platform fault could affect the exam, and 88.3% feared a poor connection would hurt their result (Ziehfreund et al., 2022). Those exams were unwatched, so the worry was about technology, not cameras.

Being watched adds to it. In Lahore, 313 of 402 students (77.9%) agreed that the anti-cheating measures added to their stress (Ali et al., 2025). In a preprint, Kwapisz et al. (2025) interviewed 16 students with disability accommodations who had sat proctored online exams: they feared that harmless movements would be flagged, and lost exam time to technical faults.

Kolski and Weible (2018) watched exam recordings of 37 online psychology students at two American colleges: eyes shifting to one side and lips moving while reading were among the commonest behaviours, and the authors read both as thinking. For the nerves themselves, see test anxiety techniques that the studies support.

What a practice run changes

It finds the faults while nothing depends on them, and students who had one felt better about the exam. No study we read tested its effect on marks.

In Lahore, 18.9% of students were satisfied after the first mock, and 61.7% after small-group training and a short second mock (Ali et al., 2025). In Munich, 31 of the 34 students who evaluated a pilot exam had sat its untimed mock, and 80.6% of them called it useful (Ziehfreund et al., 2022). Neither study had a comparison group.

What do a university and an examining body ask students to do?

Much the same before the exam and different things once it has begun: one forbids rejoining, the other reconnects you. Only your own rules count.

• A university. Hong Kong Baptist University (2021) asks students to install what the instructor requires, check that the computer meets the requirements, have enough battery, a stable connection and a quiet place, and close every other program. They join at least ten minutes early with the camera on, and report at once any problem opening the paper or handing in. A student who leaves the exam platform may not rejoin.
• An examining body. For the TOEFL iBT Home Edition, ETS (n.d.) tells candidates to clear the room, close the doors, plug the computer in, close unneeded programs and stop other household devices using the connection. Talking aloud to yourself, looking away from the screen, leaving the camera's view and taking a break are listed as behaviours that can cancel a score. After a momentary lost connection the candidate is reconnected to the proctor.

What should you do in the week before and the day before?

Settle whatever needs another person's answer in the week before, and whatever needs only you the day before.

The week before

1. Read the rules twice.
   The kind of monitoring, what may be on the desk, whether you can go back, whether breaks are allowed, what follows a lost connection.
2. Run the system check or the practice quiz.
   On the device, browser, connection and room you will use.
3. Ask about any arrangement you need.
   Extra time, a reader, a break, another room: ask early, in writing, and ask how it is set up in the software. Rules differ by country; this is not legal advice.
4. Write down whom to contact.
   On paper: the screen may be what fails.
5. Practise answering on a screen.
   A self-test from your own notes on EdProcto's home page does it; revising in two weeks builds the plan.

The day before

• Charge the device and find its mains lead.
• Install waiting updates and restart, so nothing updates itself tomorrow.
• Set the date and time to automatic: a countdown is only as right as your device's clock.
• Close what you do not need, and stop programs that open by themselves.
• Tell the household the exact hours, and put a note on the door.
• Lay out what the rules allow, and any ID asked for.

What should you do in the hour before and during the exam?

Make the room and the desk match the rules, then give the exam page your whole attention.

The hour before

• The room. Door shut, light in front of you, phone silent and out of reach unless the rules need it.
• The desk. Only what is allowed. A glass of water if the rules allow one.
• The device. Plugged in, notifications off, one browser in one ordinary window.
• You. Use the toilet, join early, and read every line of the first screen.

During the exam

Keep to the exam page, and to your rule on looking away, speaking aloud and breaks. Watch the clock, not the camera.

If the page freezes, the connection drops or someone walks in, do four things in order. Do not panic. Write down the time, or fix it in your head if paper is not allowed. Carry on if you can. Tell the instructor at once afterwards.

What do you do when something goes wrong?

Note the time, follow your exam's own rule, and report it yourself. The table is our own working rule.

What does one student's evening before and exam look like?

Like this. The student is invented for illustration and has no name.

The exam is 60 minutes of statistics at 10:00, recorded by webcam, in a browser that runs in full screen. The evening before, the student reads the rules again: one blank sheet, no headphones, student card ready. The system check asks for a browser update, which is done, with a restart. The practice quiz shows a chat program opening by itself; it is switched off. The laptop goes on charge, the housemates are told the hours, and the support address goes on a card left by the door.

At 10:22 the page stops responding. The student writes "10:22" and reconnects as the rules describe; the page is back at 10:24. At 10:40 a housemate opens the door and leaves at once; that time is written down too. The exam is handed in at 10:58, and at 11:05 a two-line message with both times goes to the instructor. Nothing else follows.

What does an EdProcto quiz show you and do when something fails?

An EdProcto quiz shows its rules on a start screen before the clock starts. EdProcto is the best place to sit a monitored quiz if you want to know the rules first, because that screen is written from the quiz's own settings and the questions reach your device only when you begin.

You cannot see a quiz's settings: the start screen is what you are told, and the rest is your instructor's to say.

Before you begin

Its link or code opens the start screen, which shows:

• Four facts: "Questions", "Time", "Attempts" and "Integrity".
• A box headed "Monitoring", when any measure is on: "During this quiz your activity in the browser is logged. What is recorded is kept with your attempt for your instructor to review."
• "House rules": what is allowed, the time ("Time limit: 45 minutes, submitted by itself when it runs out."), whether you can go back, and each measure with its consequence ("Leaving the tab: noticed and logged.").
• A sentence to tick, which repeats the box in the first person.
• The button "I’m ready, begin the quiz", and under it: "Your answers are saved as you go. If your connection drops, open the same link in this browser and you continue where you were."

The server starts your clock when you press the button, so read slowly; where there is a time limit, the time left counts down at the top of the page.

What an EdProcto quiz records depends on what its instructor switched on. Six measures act in the browser: "Leaving the tab", "Full screen", "Copy and paste off", "Right-click off", "Keyboard shortcuts off" and "Printing off". The camera, the microphone, a shared screen, a phone watching the room and a photo with your ID at the start come only at the Strict and Maximum levels, and the start screen names every one that is on. Beside each measure the start screen gives its consequence: "noticed and logged", "you are warned", "your score is reduced", "the quiz ends" or "the attempt is flagged for review".

If something goes wrong

• A save does not get through. Each change goes to the server as you make it. If one fails, the page shows no message: it keeps the change and sends it with your next one, or with the hand-in. If the hand-in fails you read "Handing in did not go through: the server could not be reached. Try again."
• The page closes or the connection drops. Open the same link in the same browser. The attempt returns with its saved answers, its clock counted from your first start, which the server holds. Use an ordinary window: the browser you began in holds the key to your attempt.
• Full screen. Where it is on, after a reload the page reads "You are back in your attempt." and the questions wait behind "Back to full screen". The record gains "Reloaded the page". Leaving full screen in mid-quiz is recorded as "Left full screen".
• Another device. Where the start screen asks for your email and "Attempts" is not "No limit", a start elsewhere is refused: "This quiz is already open under that email address. Carry on in the browser you began in, or ask your instructor to let you back in." Once your instructor presses "Let back in", your next start opens the same attempt, answers and clock as they stood.
• Time. Where the rule says the quiz is submitted by itself, answers arriving more than two minutes after the time ran out change nothing: you are marked on what was saved in time.

An event is a line for your instructor to read, never proof; no setting makes cheating impossible, and the score is your instructor's to release (why EdProcto is built this way).

What should you do after the exam?

Report anything that happened, in writing, within the hour, even if nobody asks: what happened, when, for how long, and what you did.

Your instructor's half is the remote exam checklist for instructors, whose rule for lost connections your report will be read against.

If you later hear that your attempt was flagged, a flag is a question, not a finding: see your attempt was flagged: what happens next and, for the process, appeals when a student is flagged.

Quick questions

What should I do if my internet drops during a proctored exam?

Note the time, reconnect the way your rules say, carry on, and tell the instructor straight afterwards. On EdProcto the same link in the same browser reopens your attempt, answers saved.

Is looking away from the screen a problem?

That depends on your rules. ETS (n.d.) lists it among behaviours that can cancel a score, while Kolski and Weible (2018) saw it often on recordings and read it as thinking.

Does a practice run before an online exam help?

Students who had one called it useful (Ziehfreund et al., 2022), and it finds device faults while nothing counts.

Where can I practise answering questions on screen?

EdProcto's page for students turns your own notes into a self-test with the answer after each question. Run your exam's own practice quiz as well, since only that tests its system.

References

• Ali, S., Ali, S. M. H., Saeed, H., Chaudhry, M. F., Khalil, J., & Ahsen, N. F. (2025). Navigating the transition to remote online examinations in undergraduate medical education in a resource-limited setting: A student satisfaction and perception analysis. Cureus, 17(5), Article e84480. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.84480
• Andreou, V., Peters, S., Eggermont, J., Wens, J., & Schoenmakers, B. (2021). Remote versus on-site proctored exam: Comparing student results in a cross-sectional study. BMC Medical Education, 21, Article 624. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-03068-x
• ETS. (n.d.). TOEFL iBT home test day: What to expect. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://www.ets.org/toefl/test-takers/ibt/test-day/at-home-test-day.html
• Hong Kong Baptist University Academic Registry. (2021, April). Guidelines for online proctored examinations. https://ar.hkbu.edu.hk/student-services/examinations/guidelines-for-online-proctored-examinations
• Kolski, T., & Weible, J. (2018). Examining the relationship between student test anxiety and webcam based exam proctoring. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 21(3). https://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall213/kolski_weible213.html
• Kwapisz, M. B., Ackerman, Y., Nguyen, J., & Rajivan, P. (2025). Surveillance and disability in online proctored exams: Student perspectives and design implications. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.10826
• Ziehfreund, S., Reifenrath, J., Wijnen-Meijer, M., Welzel, J., Sauter, F., Wecker, H., Biedermann, T., & Zink, A. (2022). Considering medical students' perception, concerns and needs for e-exam during COVID-19: A promising approach to improve subject specific e-exams. Medical Education Online, 27(1), Article 2114131. https://doi.org/10.1080/10872981.2022.2114131