ExamDoc and the exam rules

In the UK, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) sets the rules for using a word processor in exams. This page says what ExamDoc does about the points those rules cover, and what it leaves to the school.

ExamDoc is not approved, endorsed or certified by JCQ or by any awarding body. Your centre remains responsible for following JCQ's regulations, which change from year to year: check the current editions on JCQ's website.

Spelling and grammar checks

Off unless the exams officer allows it. In an exam session the spelling check is off for every candidate, and the exams officer switches it on for each candidate who is allowed it. An invigilator can also switch it on at a device, and a candidate can switch it off.
Spelling only. No grammar check, no autocorrect, no predictive text and no word suggestions as the candidate types. Misspelt words are underlined, and suggestions appear only when the candidate asks for them.
ExamDoc's own. British English (accepting "-ise" and "-ize"), with words from common GCSE and A level courses. It runs on the device and sends nothing anywhere, so it works offline and is the same in every browser.
Without an exam session the spelling check is off and needs the invigilator to turn it on.

The browser's own spellchecker and writing aids

ExamDoc's page tells the browser not to check spelling, autocorrect or offer writing suggestions in the candidate's answer. That way only the candidates the exams officer allows have a spelling check.

A web page cannot switch off everything: some aids belong to the device, such as the on-screen keyboard's predictive text, the browser's settings and installed extensions. The lock-down guides (below) switch these off on the device, and say not to install grammar checkers or other writing extensions on an exam device.

The internet and other programs

ExamDoc is a web page. On its own it cannot stop a candidate opening another tab, another program or the browser's settings. The device has to do that, with a lock-down set up by the school's IT. We have written guides for two:

Chromebooks: kiosk mode, set in the Google Admin console. The device starts straight into ExamDoc, with no address bar, tabs or other apps.
Windows laptops: Safe Exam Browser, with a ready-made configuration file that lets through only ExamDoc and its server.

The guides are drafts. They are written from Google's and Safe Exam Browser's own documentation and have not yet been tried on a real device. Each ends with a check for the school to run on one device before any exam. Macs and iPads are not covered yet.

Neither lock-down replaces invigilation: they do not see phones or the room.

Keeping each candidate to their own work

In an exam session, the candidate's screen has no way to open, create or close another document, change the candidate's details, or log out.
One candidate per device and one device per candidate, enforced by the server. Moving a candidate to another device is the invigilator's action.
Desk-slip PINs are random. Wrong PINs lock the device, or the candidate number, for ten minutes, and every attempt is recorded in the audit log.
Without an exam session, documents stay in the browser, and the invigilator deletes them between candidates.

The printed script

Every page of the script carries, in its header, the candidate's name and candidate number, the centre number, and the exam: board, subject, specification and component. The footer has the date, a signature line and "Page X of Y".

Print and Download as PDF produce the same pages, and so do the scripts the exams officer downloads from the server's backup. The printed script remains the official record: ExamDoc's backup is there so that work is not lost, not to replace it.

What stays with the centre

Deciding which candidates use a word processor, and which are allowed a spelling check.
Locking the devices down, and checking the lock-down on one device before the exam.
Invigilating, and everything else JCQ's regulations ask of the centre.
Printing the scripts and sending them to the awarding body.