Certification exams that hold up when a result is challenged
Candidates sign in with a one-time code, not a course enrollment. Each attempt draws from your question pools under the proctoring you chose, and each certificate can be verified online.
At a glance
- Candidate portal with OTP access
- Question bank with pools
- 13 question types
- A proctoring profile per exam
- Evidence and issue reports
Running a credential is a different job from running training. Your candidates registered for an exam, not a course. Your item bank is an asset that loses value every time a question leaks. And sooner or later someone will appeal a result, so you need more than a score to answer them.
LMS Advisor’s Exams module, which we call the Test Center, is built for that job. It runs independently of courses, with its own candidate portal, email or phone one-time passcodes, access rules and exam windows. Proctoring is set per exam, from a simple honesty pledge to webcam, face monitoring and full lockdown. It suits certification bodies, assessment teams and providers that sell exam seats.
The hard parts of running a credential
Candidates who are not learners
They signed up to sit an exam. A course enrollment and a password reset create support work before the exam even starts.
Item exposure
A fixed sixty-question form taken by hundreds of candidates leaks within a cycle, and rebuilding the bank is slow.
Appeals with nothing behind them
A candidate disputes a fail and blames a technical problem. If all you hold is a score, the conversation goes nowhere.
Certificates anyone can fake
An employer receives a PDF. Without a way to check it against your records, the credential is only as good as the PDF editor.
An exam engine built for external candidates
Build exams from a pooled question bank, invite candidates who sign in with a one-time code, apply the proctoring the exam deserves, and issue certificates anyone can verify online.
Candidate portal with OTP access
Invite candidates by email. They sign in with a one-time passcode sent by email or phone, with no course enrollment needed.
Question bank with pools
Import and export items as CSV or XLSX, tag them by topic and difficulty, and draw a random subset for each candidate.
13 question types
Multiple choice, matching, ordering, hotspot, essay, file upload, audio and video answers, and coding questions run against test cases.
A proctoring profile per exam
Webcam snapshots, AI face monitoring, fullscreen lockdown, ID photo, device lock and virtual-machine detection, switched on exam by exam.
Evidence and issue reports
Snapshots, violation logs and consented audio clips stay with each attempt. Candidates can report problems mid-exam and you reply in a thread.
Certificates with verification
A certificate is issued automatically at the score you set, designed in the certificate designer and checkable on a public page.
Running an exam window, from item bank to appeal
Build the bank before the form
Start in the question bank, not the exam. Import existing items from CSV or XLSX, tag them by topic, and set a difficulty level on each. The AI tools can draft new questions and audit the bank for duplicates or weak wording, but they only propose changes. Nothing is written until someone applies it. When you build the exam, attach questions from the bank and set how many each candidate sees. With questions and options shuffled, two candidates sitting side by side get different papers. Negative marking can be set once for the whole exam.
Decide who may sit, and when
An exam is either open to anyone with the link or conditional. Conditional access can require a completed course, a minimum score in a qualifying exam, membership of a group, or a date inside the exam window. Set available-from and available-until dates, a time limit and a maximum number of attempts. Invitations go out by email, and a reminder can nudge candidates who started but did not finish. If you sell seats, the exam can require a purchase made through your WooCommerce store.
Match proctoring to the stakes
A practice exam might only need an honesty pledge and logged tab switches. A licensing exam might add webcam snapshots, AI face monitoring for a missing or second face, ID photo capture, fullscreen lockdown, single-session and device lock, external monitor checks and virtual-machine detection. Microphone monitoring is optional and only runs with the candidate’s consent. Each extra control adds another thing that can fail on a candidate’s laptop, so send yourself a test invitation and sit the exam first. Set a violation limit that ends the attempt automatically, or set it to zero and let reviewers decide from the log.
Marking and results
Objective items score automatically. Coding answers run against test drivers through Judge0 or Piston. Essays and other open responses can be marked with AI-assisted grading, and recorded audio answers can be transcribed with Whisper. Choose what candidates see afterwards: nothing, the score, pass or fail, or the full breakdown. Results export for your records.
When a candidate appeals
Open the attempt and everything is there: snapshots, each logged violation with its time, audio flags with transcripts, and any issue the candidate reported during the exam with your replies. If the problem was genuinely technical, reset that candidate’s attempt for a re-sit.
Certificates and renewal
Exam certificates are issued once a candidate reaches the score you set, and their verification link stays valid. Expiry dates are set on course certificates, so programs with a renewal cycle usually run continuing education as a course with a validity period.
One exam cycle, start to finish
Stock the question bank
Import items, tag them by topic and difficulty, and review any AI-suggested additions.
Configure the exam
Set the pool size, time limit, attempts, pass mark, access rules, window dates and proctoring profile.
Invite and deliver
Send invitations. Candidates sign in with a one-time code and sit the exam in the candidate portal.
Review and decide
Mark open responses, check flagged attempts against their evidence and answer issue reports.
Issue and verify
Certificates go out at the score you set, each with a public verification page for employers.
Credentialing programs that fit
Professional bodies
Associations run member certification exams in set windows, with eligibility tied to completed prerequisite courses.
Software vendor certifications
Technical exams mix scenario questions with coding tasks that run against real test cases.
Training providers selling exam seats
Seats are sold through WooCommerce, and only candidates who bought one can start the exam.
Internal licensing exams
Employers require staff to pass a proctored exam before they are authorized for regulated or high-risk work.
What your exam team gets
- External candidates sit exams without a course account
- Each candidate gets a different draw from the item bank
- Appeals are answered with evidence, not memory
- Proctoring runs in the platform, without a separate vendor
- Employers check a credential in seconds on a public page
Exam features in detail
Questions from certification bodies
Do candidates need an account or a course enrollment?
Can we sell exam seats?
How do you reduce answer sharing?
What evidence do we get for disputes?
Is microphone recording required?
Can candidates retake an exam?
How do employers verify a certificate?
Is LMS Advisor accredited or certified?
Run a pilot exam with us
Share your exam blueprint and how candidates register today. We will set up a test exam with your proctoring profile for your team to sit first.
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- Deployment and security answers
- Reply within one business day