Teachers
How do I assign a Practice bank and follow students’ attempts?
Written by the TestFLE team.
In short
To assign an active bank, open it in “Practice”, click “Assign”, choose a class or a student, then set the attempts, the mode and the feedback. The “Assignments” page then shows who has finished, the marks out of 20 and the attempts to unblock.
Who this is for, and what you need first
- Who this is for
- Teachers and school administrators who give Practice exercises to a class or to a student.
- What you need first
- The Practice option, chosen by your school. Without it, the “Practice” entry does not appear in the sidebar.
- An active bank, that is, a bank of at least 10 questions on which you have clicked “Activate”.
- A class of which you are the teacher, or a student in one of your classes.
Assign a bank
- In the sidebar, click “Practice”, then the bank to assign. Its badge must say “Active”.
- Click “Assign”. The “Assignments” page opens.
- Click “Assign”, at the top of the page. The “New assignment” form opens.
- Under “Target”, choose “A class” or “A student”, then the class or the student in the list.
- Set “Attempts”, “Mode”, “Feedback”, “Proctoring” and “Shuffle the questions”, then, if you wish, the “Window (optional)”.
- Click “Assign”. The assignment appears in the list.
For a single student, there is another way. In “My students”, click the three dots on their row, then “What is open to them”. In the “Practice” section of the window, click “Open a bank…”, choose the bank, then click “Open the bank”. The settings are then fixed: “Unlimited attempts, free mode, instant feedback, no proctoring, no dates.” You can change them afterwards from the “Assignments” page of the bank, as long as the student has not started.
The settings to choose
- The target. “A class” is offered by default. The assignment applies to all the students in the class, including those who join it later. “A student” reserves it for a single student from your classes.
- The attempts. “Unlimited” is the default choice: the student retakes the test as many times as they like, as long as the assignment is open. With “One attempt”, they take it only once.
- The mode. “Untimed” is the default choice, with no time limit. With “Timed”, you set a “Total duration” in minutes, 30 by default. When the time is up, the test ends on its own and the unanswered questions score zero.
- The feedback. “Instant” is the default choice: the screen says straight away whether the answer is right. With “Deferred”, it only saves the answer.
- Proctoring. It is off by default. When on, it only applies with a single attempt: a student who leaves the page has their attempt frozen until you unblock it. With unlimited attempts, the screen specifies: “No effect with unlimited attempts.”
- Shuffle the questions. The box is unticked by default. When ticked, it draws the order of the questions at random for each attempt.
- The window. “Opens” and “Closes” are optional. Without a date, the assignment is open straight away and has no end. If you fill in both, the closing must come after the opening.
Going further
Understanding the settings and special cases
What does the “Assignments” page show?
Each assignment forms a card. It gives the target, with the word “Class” or “Student” followed by the name, then a badge: “Upcoming” before the opening date, “Open” during the window, “Closed” after the closing date. Under the badge, a summary recalls the settings and, if there is one, the window (“From” a date “to” another, “From” a date, or “Until” a date).
A line counts the students who have finished: “3/12 students finished”, followed by “(2 in progress)” when students have started without finishing. As long as nobody has finished, it says “No student has finished (of 12)”. For a class, the total follows the current make-up of the class.
You only see the assignments you created. A school administrator sees all those of the school.
How do I read “Results”?
The “Results” panel first gives “Average:” followed by a mark out of 20, then the number of participants, for example “8/12 participants”. The average covers the last finished attempt of each student who has finished. Each row then gives the state of the student:
- “Finished”, with the mark out of 20 of their last finished attempt;
- “In progress”, when they have started without finishing;
- “Suspended”, when their attempt is frozen (see below);
- “Not started”, when they have not started anything.
A student who has left the class keeps their row and their results, with the note “(left the class)”.
How do I read “Attempts”?
The “Attempts” panel lists each attempt of the assignment: the name of the student and, if it is finished, their mark out of 20; otherwise the note “In progress”. As long as no student has started, the screen says “No attempt yet.” A student who retakes an unlimited test appears for each attempt.
How do I unblock a frozen attempt?
With proctoring, a student who leaves the page sees their test paused: What to do if the test is interrupted describes their screen. In the “Attempts” panel, the row of this student then has an “Unsuspend” button. One click unblocks them, and they resume where they were. You find it on the assignments you created; a school administrator finds it on all of them.
This unblocking only concerns Practice attempts. For the placement test, see What should I do if a student is blocked during the test?.
What is “Show the corrections to students” for?
This toggle only appears on a class assignment with a single attempt. In that case only, the answer review does not open as soon as each student finishes their attempt. It opens at the first of three events: the whole class has finished, the window has closed, or you have turned on “Show the corrections to students”. The toggle therefore lets you show their answers to the students who have finished, without waiting for the whole class.
You can turn it off, with no warning. The review then closes again, unless one of the other two events has already opened it. A student who has already looked at their answers has seen them. In the other cases, the review opens for each student as soon as their attempt is finished.
Can an assignment be edited or removed?
“Edit” opens the form of the assignment, as long as no student has started, even an attempt that is still in progress. After that, the settings are frozen and the screen no longer offers the button. If a change arrives too late, the server answers: “The assignment already has attempts; it can no longer be modified.” In any case, an attempt already open keeps the rules it started with.
“Remove” stays possible at any time. A browser confirmation window opens, and its look depends on the browser: “Remove this assignment? Existing results are kept.” The attempts and their marks stay in the student’s sheet. The assignment disappears from the list; to reopen the bank to the student, create a new assignment.
Where do I find a student’s marks?
In the student’s sheet, opened as explained in What will I find in a student’s sheet?, the “Practice” tab shows the marks out of 20 by practice category and the “Attempts” table, with the date, the category, the bank, the number of questions and the mark. The “Export latest answers (CSV)” button downloads, for the last finished attempt in each category, the question asked, the student’s answer, the correct answer and whether the answer was right.
The “Answers and written work” tab opens the “Practice” sub-tab. The “See the answers” button of an attempt shows its answers question by question, with the recordings and the pictures. No placement test level appears in these tabs: Practice only gives marks out of 20.
If the assignment is refused
- A draft bank cannot be assigned: the screen says “Only an active bank can be assigned.” and hides the button. Activate it first, as explained in How do I activate, share or archive a Practice bank?.
- A shared version cannot be assigned either (“A shared bank can be viewed, not assigned: add it to your banks to use it.”).
- With no target chosen, the form says “Pick a class.” or “Pick a student.”
- A timed test with no duration is refused (“Set the total duration in minutes.”).
- A closing that comes before the opening is refused (“The closing time must be after the opening time.”).
Related articles
- How do I activate, share or archive a Practice bank?In the editor of a Practice bank, “Activate” makes it assignable once it has 10 questions, and “Share” offers a copy of it to your colleagues in the school. “Switch back to draft” takes it out of service without deleting anything, and only a school administrator can archive it.
- What will I find in a student’s sheet?A student’s sheet brings together their identity, their test access and their results in four tabs, two of which depend on the Practice option. Click the student’s row in “My students”, or choose “Open the student’s sheet” in their menu.
- How do I take a Practice test and review my answers?To take a Practice test, open “Practice” in the menu, click “Start”, submit each answer, then click “Finish”. The screen then gives the mark out of 20, and “Review my answers” shows the correction.
- Why is my child’s test paused?In class, a student who leaves the test page sees the “Your test is paused.” screen appear, and only their teacher can restart the test. The same question then comes back, with the time that was left and all the answers already given.