Large Digital Test Administrations
Giving digital tests to large groups of students in the same room or on the same network can pose challenges, but you can lower the chance of test day disruptions by working closely with school or district technology staff.
Room Choice
It’s not enough to measure the total network bandwidth in your building. To make sure every testing room has strong, consistent Wi-Fi, do the following:
Choose rooms where digital testing was successful before.
Run a speed test in every testing room.
Ask your technology staff to compare the expected number of test takers to the device capacity of wireless access points (WAPs) within range of each room. To learn more, go to Check Testing Room Capacity.
Best Practices for Large Rooms
If you’re planning to use gyms and other large spaces, it helps to divide students into groups and assign each group to a different area:
Run speed tests in each area to determine how many test takers the area can support.
Make sure each area is within range of a WAP that can support the expected number of test takers.
In each area, set up charging stations by placing extra desks near an electrical outlet. Reserve their use for students whose batteries are running low and ask students to return to their assigned seat after 15 minutes of charging.
Assign a room monitor to each area.
Provide the proctor with a microphone.
Network Traffic
Here are a few ways to avoid test day delays:
Stagger start times slightly. Because demands on the network are greatest at the beginning and end of testing, you can balance the network load by telling some proctors to wait an extra 5 minutes before reading the script and sharing the start code.
Make sure Bluebook is up to date. Ask students to open Bluebook shortly before test day in case it needs to auto-update.
Minimize competing network activity. Ask technology staff to throttle or delay scheduled backups.