Exam Timer

Common questions

How do I set reading time and writing time?

Each phase is a row with a kind (reading time, working time or break), a name and a length in minutes. The page opens with 10 minutes of reading and 60 of writing. Add phase puts another row at the end, Up and Down reorder them, and a length can be a decimal, so 0.5 or .5 is thirty seconds. One exam holds up to 12 phases, each up to 600 minutes, and up to 24 hours in all. Then press Start at to run from the date and start time you picked, or Start now. A start time that has already passed puts the timer straight into the right phase; one after the whole schedule has finished is refused with the time it ended.

What happens if the page reloads or the laptop sleeps during the exam?

The running exam is saved in this browser as one deadline per phase, so a reload reads the time left from those deadlines instead of starting the phase again, and a paused exam comes back paused. While the page is open, time is carried by the browser's own steady clock from the moment the page opened. If the computer sleeps and the device clock comes back ahead of that count, as it does on some systems, the timer follows the device clock; a device clock set forward by hand looks the same to a page and is followed too. A step back of the device clock is followed by up to the amount the timer has followed forward since the page opened and not yet followed back, so a clock set forward by mistake and then put right brings the timer back to the right time; the rest of any step back is ignored. A change of 10 seconds or more, followed or ignored, is announced once in the status line with its size. When the page wakes, the status line names the latest change it missed, with no chime if that was more than 90 seconds ago. A reload always starts again from the device clock, and a finished exam more than 12 hours old is not restored.

Can I add extra time to one phase?

Yes. Each phase has + 1 min and + 5 min while the exam runs, and + 5 min beside Pause adds to the phase that is running. Added time moves that phase's end and every later phase's end by the same amount, so the phases after it keep their lengths, and nothing before it changes. Up to 240 minutes can be added to one phase. A phase that has already finished cannot be extended, and the message names the phase that is running instead. Take back removes all the time added to a phase, unless the phase has finished or taking it back would put its end before now. The timer does not decide who gets extra time or how much: that stays with your exam's own rules.

Can I pause the exam?

Yes. Pause freezes the time left on the projection, and Resume moves the paused phase's end and every later end by the length of the pause, to the nearest second. The text export lists the paused time inside each phase's length. A pause is refused before the exam starts and after it finishes, with a message that says which.

How do I show it on a projector?

Press Full screen under the projection, or F when you are not typing in a box. The projection fills the screen with the title, the kind of phase, the phase name, the time left, the end time, your instructions and the time now, in type sized to the screen. Where the browser refuses full screen, as some embedded pages do, it fills the window instead and says so. Escape or Exit full screen leaves it. Keep awake asks the browser to stop the screen sleeping while the page is showing; a browser without that, or one that refuses, says so, and the computer's own display sleep setting still applies.

Does it make a sound when a phase ends?

With Chime on, which is the default, a short chime plays as each phase starts, 10 and 5 minutes before each phase ends when the phase is longer than that, and at the end of the exam. The tones are made in the page with Web Audio, so there is no sound file. A browser will not play anything until you have pressed something on the page, so Start or Test chime unlocks it. In a background tab the browser can run the page's timer only about once a minute, so a chime there can come late; a cue noticed more than 90 seconds late is announced in the status line without a chime. Silent keeps the screen and the status line changing with no sound.

Can I save the schedule to my calendar?

Calendar .ics saves one event per phase with its start and end in UTC, so a calendar app shows them in its own time zone, and the instructions go in each event's description. Text .txt and Copy give the same schedule as plain text: one numbered line a phase with its length and times, any added or paused time, your instructions, and the device's offset from UTC. With no exam running, an export needs a date and a start time; while one runs, it exports the live deadlines.

Where is my exam saved?

Only in this browser. The title, instructions, phases, start time and sound choice are remembered for next time, and a running exam is kept until you end or clear it, or for 12 hours after it finishes; nothing is uploaded and there is no account. The date is not remembered, so the page opens on today. Start over at the top of the page forgets all of it. Where storage is blocked, the schedule pane says so and the timer works the same without remembering.