Exam seating plans - assigning candidates to and removing candidates from exam seats

This article provides a comprehensive guide on how to manage exam seating plans, including assigning candidates to seats, unseating them, and copying existing plans. It covers the necessary preparations, the process for auto-assigning seats, seating individual candidates, and downloading seating plans. Additionally, it explains how to unseat candidates and reallocate them to different rooms.

In this article, we'll show you how to manage where candidates are sitting for their exams, in order to create a seating plan for standard or in-house exams. You can also copy a previous seating plan.

What you'll need before getting started

Before you follow these instructions, make sure you have:

  1. Set up exam rooms (including choosing which seats are available or excluded)
  2. Allocated students to an exam room

 

Assigning seats

To assign candidates to exam seats and check seating, go to Students > Examinations > Scheduling > Assign Seats

Check rooms and seating

On the Assign Seats page you will see a list of your rooms that have had exams allocated to them. It includes a count of how many candidates have been assigned a seat, and will turn green when all candidates have been given a seat. 

Hovering over a sitting brings up a tooltip showing which exams take place in that sitting.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.35.17.png

 

The By Exam tab will show assigned seats for each individual exam.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.33.35.png

 

Click on the row containing the exam you want to seat candidates to get to the seating overview. From here you can seat candidates, print a seating plan, candidate labels and lists and an exam register for use on exam day.

Screenshot_2023-05-19_at_11.39.38.png

Auto-Assign Candidate Seats

When you click 'Auto-Assign Candidate Seats', a slide over will appear allowing you to choose how exam seats should be assigned.

Choose:

  • Which column to start from (Useful if you want to leave a buffer row between different exams happening in the same room)
  • How to order candidates ( By candidate number, name or Access Arrangements)
  • Whether to overwrite allocated seats (Not ticking this box means you will only allocate candidates to empty seats. Ticking this box means this will replace any old candidates in these seats with the ones newly allocated)
  • Whether to re-seat candidates (Ticking this box means all candidates that were previously assigned seats will be resat according to the other rules you have defined.)
  • Which examinations to seat (useful if you want to leave a gap between exams)

Screenshot_2023-05-19_at_11.40.27.png

 

Top Tip: To sit certain exams first, click the bin icons next to the exams then add them again in the correct order. 

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.40.26.png

 

Click 'Auto Assign Seats' to save your changes. The new layout will be displayed in the seating overview along with the candidate numbers and names.

Screen_Shot_2019-04-16_at_15.07.17.png 

Seat individual Candidates

You can seat candidates one by one by clicking the 'Seat individual Candidate' button in the seating overview and choosing where they will sit. It will also display any candidates' extra time and access arrangements.

Please note: This will override any seats assigned using the auto function.

Screen_Shot_2019-04-16_at_16.55.00.png 

Copy an existing seating plan

Duplicate a seating plan by clicking the green Duplicate seating plan button.

In the slide over, select:

  • the source exam (the exam seating plan that will be copied). Top Tip: You can select in-house exams from here, to seat the students who took mock exams in the same places.
  • destination exam (the exam you want to copy the seating plan into).

This will also assign them to the rooms.

Screenshot_2023-05-04_at_16.13.05.png

 

Once you have duplicated your seating plan, you can see the students who are enrolled in both exams that will be seated. Click confirm to duplicate the seating plan and seat the candidates.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.39.30.png

Download your seating plan

Click into the Table View to see the layout, or to download the plan.

Screenshot_2023-05-19_at_11.44.17.png

 

Unseating Candidates

If you want to change a room layout after candidates have been seated, you will have to unseat all the candidates in that room. To do this, or if you would just like to unseat candidates, complete the steps below.

Unseat candidates from the seating plan

Go to Scheduling > Assign Seats and click the exam.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.41.11.png

 

On the next page, click the red Unseat All candidates button to remove all candidates.

Screenshot_2023-05-19_at_11.42.09.png

 

You can also click the grey Unseat Candidates button to unseat individual candidates, rows, columns or full exam papers.

Screen_Shot_2019-05-03_at_10.54.44.png

Unseat candidates from the seating plan and room

You can unseat candidates from School > Examinations > Scheduling > Allocate Exam Rooms > Select the exam. 

Select the candidates you would like to unseat using the tick boxes next to the candidate names. Click the Bulk action button and select Clear Exam room Allocation. In the slide over, click Unseat candidates to confirm the unseating and remove the candidates from their seats.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.42.45.png

 

In the slide over, confirm the unseating and remove the candidates from their seats. This will remove them from both the exam room, and the seat.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.43.14.png

 

To allocate students to a new room you can click the students you need to allocate, then using the Bulk action select Allocate Exam Room. You'll now see a drop-down with a quick summary of the students and their access arrangements.

Screenshot_2022-10-28_at_16.44.31.png

 

What's next?

Now you have assigned candidates, you can generate seating plans and print them out: Creating and printing exam seating plans

Was this article helpful?
2 out of 5 found this helpful
I'm still stuck!

Comments

0 comments

Article is closed for comments.