# Online quiz settings explained: Practice, Standard quiz and Exam

**What settings should I use for an online quiz or test?** Online quiz settings should follow what the score decides. For practice, set no time limit, allow retakes and show the answers at hand-in. For a weekly quiz that counts a little, add a generous time limit, shuffling and one attempt. For a test, add full screen and hold the answers and scores back until everyone has finished.

Published 2026-10-09 by EdProcto. https://edprocto.com/guides/quiz-settings-explained-practice-standard-and-exam-presets

Online quiz settings decide how long a student has, whether an answer can be changed, what the result screen shows, and who sees a score first. The right choice for each depends on one thing: what the score will be used for.

This guide is written for a teacher, lecturer or trainer about to publish a quiz. It says what each setting does, and which choices have studies behind them and which are only a working rule.

EdProcto, which publishes this guide, puts these choices on one settings page for each quiz, with three presets (Practice, Standard quiz and Exam) as starting points. Its [integrity page](https://edprocto.com/integrity) describes the security switches.

## What settings should you use for an online quiz or test?

Use the settings that fit what the score decides: open and forgiving for practice, timed and shuffled for a quiz that counts a little, closed and held back for a test. The table is our recommendation: parts rest on studies, the rest is a working rule.

| Setting | Practice: nothing rides on it | Weekly quiz: a few per cent | End-of-unit test |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Time limit | None | About double what a prepared student needs | The same, handed in automatically at zero |
| Going back | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed; off only for a final |
| Retakes | No limit | None | None |
| Shuffling | Off, so a class can discuss question 4 | On | On, unless questions build on one another |
| Answers and explanations | At hand-in | At hand-in, or held back if the quiz stays open for days | Held back |
| The score | At hand-in | At hand-in | Given by you after reading the results |
| Security | None | Leaving the tab logged | Add full screen, copy and paste off; no camera |
| Preset in [EdProcto](https://edprocto.com/) | Practice | Standard quiz, full screen off | Standard quiz, tightened; Exam is for finals |

### Which of these choices rest on research

Five do: how generous the time limit is, when feedback arrives, whether answers can be changed, the order of questions, and retakes.

The rest are working rules of ours: one question a page, which security measures suit which stakes, and the 60% at which the pass mark starts. No study chose them.

## What do online quiz settings actually do?

Each setting changes one thing on the student's screen or in the marking. These matter most, under EdProcto's labels.

### Time and movement

- **Time limit** at "Set", with **Minutes overall** (it starts at 45), puts a clock on the student's screen. **Submit by itself when time runs out** hands the quiz in at zero; with it off, a late hand-in is accepted and recorded as late.
- **Allow going back to change an answer**, when off, disables the Previous button, and the start screen says each answer is final. It bites only with **Layout** at "One question a page".
- **Allow skipping a question**, when off, keeps Next closed until the question is answered.

### Attempts, order and feedback

- **Whole-quiz retakes** takes None, 1, 3 or No limit. Every attempt is marked and listed in the results.
- **Shuffle the questions for each student** and **Shuffle the options** give each student an order of their own. Some [templates](https://edprocto.com/templates) rule shuffling out and the page greys the switch: in a case study the order is the structure.
- **Show the correct answer** and **Show the explanation** take "At once", "After submitting" or "Never". In an ordinary quiz, handed in once, the first two both mean the result screen at hand-in. Only a study quiz checks each answer as it is given ([study mode](https://edprocto.com/guides/study-mode-a-quiz-that-explains-each-answer-as-you-go)).
- **Show the score** adds "When released": nothing of the score, the marks or the answers reaches a student until you press "Release the scores" on the results page, and a student then sees them by opening the quiz's link again on the same device. With "Never" no score is shown at all.
- **Pass mark** (it starts at 60%) puts "passed" or "not passed" beside a score that is shown.

### Security

Under **Security and proctoring** every measure is off until switched on, and each carries the consequence you pick: log it, warn the student, reduce the score, end the quiz or flag for review. While a student works, the browser acts on six as they happen and records each with its time: leaving the tab, leaving full screen, copying or pasting, opening the right-click menu, pressing the print shortcut and using a keyboard shortcut. Before the first question the student reads every measure that is on, with its consequence, and has to agree. The camera and microphone measures sit in the same group, and "A photo at the start" and "An ID card at the start" under "Identity"; they lift a quiz to Strict and Maximum.

## What do the Practice, Standard quiz and Exam presets change?

Each preset sets the main switches in one click and leaves the rest alone, the minutes and the pass mark among them.

| Setting | Practice | Standard quiz | Exam |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Time limit | None | Set | Set |
| Allow going back to change an answer; Allow skipping a question | On | On | Off |
| Whole-quiz retakes | No limit | None | None |
| Shuffle the questions for each student; Shuffle the options | Off | On | On |
| Show the correct answer; Show the explanation | At once | After submitting | Never |
| Show the score | At once | After submitting | When released |
| Security, in the preset's words | No security | Leaving the tab noticed, full screen | Every browser measure on |
| Integrity level reached | None | Medium | Medium |

The level in the last row is worked out from the switches, and the settings page names it. A plan saves a quiz only up to its own level: Light on Free, Medium on Tutor and Strict on Educator; Maximum comes with the Institution licence, arranged by a call ([for schools](https://edprocto.com/schools)).

So Practice works on every plan. Standard quiz reaches Medium because "Full screen" is on; switch it off and the quiz sits at Light. Exam reaches Medium too: it switches on all six browser measures and no camera. Treat it as a ceiling and switch off what the stakes do not call for.

## What does the research say about each choice?

It supports generous time limits, feedback that is not withheld, letting students change answers, and no free retakes on a quiz that counts. On shuffling and lockdown measures it is thinner than most advice suggests.

### Time limits

Gernsbacher et al. (2020) give four reasons against time-limited tests in education: pace is not knowledge, so they are less valid; their reliability figures are inflated by students' steady rate of work; and they are less inclusive and less equitable, not least for students entitled to extra time. Their ideal is a limit so generous that everyone finishes.

In one online introductory psychology course in two-year and three-year programmes, Kennette and McGuckin (2025) found students used 39 seconds a multiple-choice question on average, and significantly more on unit tests taken once than on quizzes with unlimited attempts. Our working rule: time the quiz yourself, then give at least double.

### When to show answers and scores

Butler et al. (2007) had people read passages and sit a multiple-choice test, with feedback at once for some items and after a delay for others; delayed feedback led to better recall later. Mullet et al. (2014) found the same in an engineering course: homework feedback a week late beat feedback straight after the deadline on new exam problems, although students believed the immediate kind helped most. Against that, Kulik and Kulik (1988) pooled 53 studies and found that applied studies with real classroom quizzes usually favoured immediate feedback.

None of the three argues for withholding feedback. Answers at hand-in or days later are both defensible; "Never" is a security choice that costs the learning.

Chen et al. (2018) followed 425 students in a course where an exam could be sat on different days. Those identified as tipped off by earlier sitters scored 13 percentage points higher when the whole class got an identical problem. A result screen that shows answers while a quiz is still open is one way such information travels: our inference, not their finding.

### Going back to change an answer

Bauer et al. (2007) asked 79 third-year medical students to mark every change on a 78-question exam. Of a student's changes, on average 48% went from wrong to right, 22% from right to wrong and 30% from one wrong answer to another. Changing helped more than it hurt, and switching going back off removes that. The case for switching it off in a final is ours, not a study's: a paper seen one question at a time, with no return, is harder to pass along.

### Shuffling and question order

Shuffling is not free. Haasnoot et al. (2026) analysed 16,127 answers from 12 microeconomics exams at one Dutch university: a student was more likely to get a question right when it followed one on the same lecture or the lecture before. That is no reason to leave shuffling off when a score counts, but it is one to keep the order when questions build on one another. That shuffling makes a neighbour's screen useless is our reasoning, not a measured result.

### Retakes

Rhodes and Sarbaum (2015) compared single and multiple attempts at online homework in a quasi-experiment: extra attempts led to guessing and to higher grades without better learning. A meta-analysis of 108 evaluations of mastery learning, by contrast, found positive effects on exam performance, stronger for weaker students (Kulik et al., 1990). Our reading of the pair: a retake helps when something is learned between attempts, so retakes without limit belong to practice, as in our guide to [retrieval practice](https://edprocto.com/guides/retrieval-practice-low-stakes-quizzing-that-teaches).

### Lockdown measures

The evidence comes bundled. Alessio et al. (2017) compared 147 students across sections of one online course: where proctoring software was required, scores were 17 points lower on average and students used significantly less time. Going by its abstract, the study compares proctored with unproctored as a whole, and we did not find one that tests full screen, a blocked clipboard or a lockdown browser by itself. A lower watched score is not proof of cheating either; our guide to [how much proctoring a quiz needs](https://edprocto.com/guides/how-much-proctoring-does-a-quiz-need) goes through that evidence.

## How do you set up a weekly quiz and an end-of-unit test?

Start each from a preset and change the few switches the stakes call for. Both examples are multiple choice, and the steps use EdProcto's labels.

### A weekly quiz: ten questions, a few per cent of the grade

1. In [EdProcto](https://edprocto.com/), open the quiz's Settings and click **Standard quiz**: a time limit, shuffling, one attempt, feedback after submitting.
2. Set **Minutes overall** to 15. At 39 seconds a question, ten take about six and a half minutes on average, so 15 leaves room for the careful reader.
3. Switch **Full screen** off. The quiz then sits at Light, which the Free plan carries. Leave **Leaving the tab** at "Log it".
4. If the class sits together, leave **Show the correct answer** at "After submitting". If the quiz stays open for days, set it and **Show the explanation** to "Never" and go through the answers in class.
5. Click "Preview as student" and take it yourself, then "Publish & share". When the last student has finished, click "Close the quiz".

### An end-of-unit test: thirty questions, a fifth of the grade

1. Start from **Standard quiz** again. Its Medium level is on the Tutor plan.
2. Keep **Minutes overall** at 45, which is 90 seconds a question.
3. Add **Copy and paste off** and **Right-click off**. Set the consequence for **Leaving the tab** to "Warn the student".
4. Set **Show the correct answer** and **Show the explanation** to "Never", and **Show the score** to "When released".
5. Leave **Allow going back to change an answer** on: the evidence on answer changing favours it.
6. Set **Pass mark** by a method you can explain; see [setting a pass mark you can defend](https://edprocto.com/guides/setting-a-pass-mark-you-can-defend).
7. Read the results question by question before you press "Release the scores". A question the strongest students missed may have a wrong key ([when to throw a question out](https://edprocto.com/guides/when-to-throw-a-question-out-after-the-exam)).

## Why choose your quiz settings in EdProcto?

EdProcto is the best tool for fitting a quiz's settings to its stakes, because every choice in this guide is a switch of its own and three presets set the common combinations in one click. The research above is why that matters: the right time limit, feedback and retake rule differ between practice and a test.

The answer key never reaches the student's device and the marks are made on the server ([why it is built this way](https://edprocto.com/why)).

Practice and any quiz at Light are on the Free plan, the Standard quiz and Exam presets as they stand on Tutor, and certificates with the full analysis on Educator; [pricing](https://edprocto.com/pricing) has the figures. No setting makes cheating impossible, a flag is a record to read and not proof, and every score is yours to release.

## Quick questions

### What is a good time limit for an online quiz?

About double what a prepared student needs. Kennette and McGuckin (2025) measured 39 seconds a multiple-choice question on average, so 90 seconds each is generous for short items.

### Should students see the correct answers after an online quiz?

For learning, yes, at hand-in or within days: the studies disagree on which is better, and none favours silence. Hold answers back while the quiz is still open to others.

### Should I shuffle the questions and the options?

Yes, when the score counts and the questions stand alone. Keep the order when questions build on one another: Haasnoot et al. (2026) found students did better on questions that followed related ones.

### How many retakes should an online quiz allow?

No limit for practice, none for a test. Rhodes and Sarbaum (2015) found extra attempts at scored homework raised grades through guessing, without better learning.

### Do I need a lockdown browser for an online test?

Not for a unit test. EdProcto's full screen and blocked copy and paste run in the student's ordinary browser, and the [integrity page](https://edprocto.com/integrity) lists every measure.

## References

- Alessio, H. M., Malay, N., Maurer, K., Bailer, A. J., & Rubin, B. (2017). Examining the effect of proctoring on online test scores. *Online Learning, 21*(1), 146–161. [https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v21i1.885](https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v21i1.885)
- Bauer, D., Kopp, V., & Fischer, M. R. (2007). Answer changing in multiple choice assessment change that answer when in doubt – and spread the word! *BMC Medical Education, 7*, Article 28. [https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-7-28](https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-7-28)
- Butler, A. C., Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L., III. (2007). The effect of type and timing of feedback on learning from multiple-choice tests. *Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 13*(4), 273–281. [https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-898X.13.4.273](https://doi.org/10.1037/1076-898X.13.4.273)
- Chen, B., West, M., & Zilles, C. (2018). How much randomization is needed to deter collaborative cheating on asynchronous exams? In *Proceedings of the Fifth Annual ACM Conference on Learning at Scale* (pp. 1–10). Association for Computing Machinery. [https://doi.org/10.1145/3231644.3231664](https://doi.org/10.1145/3231644.3231664)
- Gernsbacher, M. A., Soicher, R. N., & Becker-Blease, K. A. (2020). Four empirically based reasons not to administer time-limited tests. *Translational Issues in Psychological Science, 6*(2), 175–190. [https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000232](https://doi.org/10.1037/tps0000232)
- Haasnoot, C. W., van Krevel, C., & de Vaal, A. (2026). Ordered or scrambled: How the forward sequencing of multiple choice questions affects test item scores. *Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 51*(2), 247–262. [https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2025.2568187](https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2025.2568187)
- Kennette, L. N., & McGuckin, D. (2025). Best practice for online tests: How long do students actually need? *Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 13*. [https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.35](https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.13.35)
- Kulik, C.-L. C., Kulik, J. A., & Bangert-Drowns, R. L. (1990). Effectiveness of mastery learning programs: A meta-analysis. *Review of Educational Research, 60*(2), 265–299. [https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543060002265](https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543060002265)
- Kulik, J. A., & Kulik, C.-L. C. (1988). Timing of feedback and verbal learning. *Review of Educational Research, 58*(1), 79–97. [https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543058001079](https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543058001079)
- Mullet, H. G., Butler, A. C., Verdin, B., von Borries, R., & Marsh, E. J. (2014). Delaying feedback promotes transfer of knowledge despite student preferences to receive feedback immediately. *Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3*(3), 222–229. [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2014.05.001](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2014.05.001)
- Rhodes, M. T., & Sarbaum, J. K. (2015). Online homework management systems: Should we allow multiple attempts? *The American Economist, 60*(2), 120–131. [https://doi.org/10.1177/056943451506000203](https://doi.org/10.1177/056943451506000203)