Practice exams (experimental)¶
Practice exams let students download an exam, complete it independently, and submit a scanned PDF through a personal link. Feedback is automatic and not instructor-reviewed. Practice scores never enter the course Gradebook, LMS grade exports, or official course performance analysis. Students need no Gradebird account.
Create and prepare a practice exam¶
Ask your organization administrator to enable experimental features for your account, then open the course’s Exams page, choose Add New Exam, and check Practice exam (experimental). Either build in Gradebird or use an existing PDF. Both types appear in the Exams list; practice exams have a gray background and an asterisk. Instructors without experimental features do not see practice exams. The same checkbox is available when creating your first exam in course setup. If setup offers an existing exam, continuing opens it without changing its type; use edit on the Exams page to change the type when permitted.
Use edit beside an exam to change its label and practice-exam checkbox together, then Save. Cancel discards the edit. The checkbox locks once a student link or instructor preview exists, scans/submissions exist, or grading is saved or queued. The label remains editable. Publishing content and preparing rubrics do not lock the choice. A published PDF without a valid student name region cannot switch to regular exam grading. Accounts without experimental features retain the ordinary edit label control.
The type belongs to the shared exam. Changing an ordinary exam to practice also hides it from colleagues without experimental access; coordinate that change with other instructors before saving.
The practice navigation is Build → Print → Rubric → Scan → Release → Report. For existing PDFs, Template replaces Build and Print. Publish the content using the normal preparation tools. For generated exams, generate the reusable master PDF in Print. The Viewing version selector lets you choose the published version; each version has its own download, links, submissions, and reports.
Prepare the downloadable PDF¶
For a Gradebird-generated practice exam, choose the published version in Print and generate its reusable master packet. You can download it to inspect the pages. Students receive that PDF through their personal links; individual named or numbered packets are not used for practice exams. For existing PDFs, publish the reviewed template instead. The first preview or release fixes that version’s download.
Rubrics, answer keys, and feedback settings¶
Open Rubric after publishing the exam. Import, generate, edit, review, and publish a rubric for every free-response question. For objective questions, select each correct answer in Practice exam answer key and choose Publish answer key. Draft rubrics and unpublished AI proposals do not make a practice exam ready for students. Release explains which rubrics or answer keys still need publication.
Below the question table, Grading extra information contains optional Extra instructions for practice feedback and the following score controls:
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Earned points adjustment | Add or subtract points from the total; positive values give free points. |
| Points possible adjustment | Change the total points possible; a negative value can represent bonus questions. The adjusted total must remain greater than zero. |
| Allow scores above points possible | When unchecked, cap the adjusted total at 100%. Earned totals never fall below zero. |
| Save settings | Save the instructions and score controls in place. The status says Saved, No changes to save, or asks you to correct fields. |
The Course AI settings ↗ link opens model order, grading policy, agreement tolerance, and assessment-selection preferences. Published rubrics, answer keys, instructions, score adjustments, and AI settings apply to subsequent submissions. They do not rewrite earlier reports. Retrying a stopped submission uses its original grading inputs; upload another complete PDF to test newly changed settings.
Test the student experience¶
Choose Scan → Open student preview. Download the exam and upload a completed scan, then follow the progress, warning, and feedback pages. The blue Instructor-only student preview header identifies your private test and provides Back to instructor Scan. You must remain signed in with instructor and experimental access. Other instructors cannot open your preview.
Previews send no student invitations, appear in no student reports, and do not use student submission allowances. You can test repeatedly, one active submission at a time, including while student submissions are closed. Tests use normal AI usage limits and share processing capacity with ordinary grading. Practice activity can therefore consume shared AI allowances and increase waiting times for ordinary work. Creating the first preview fixes the version’s download and locks its exam type; it does not invite students.
For a failed or incomplete preview, Retry processing appears beside the failed attempt, including under Earlier submissions. It updates the submission panel in place. Retrying preserves the attempt and successful results. If retry explains that a clearer replacement is required, upload another complete PDF. A completed report cannot be retried or rewritten.
AI processing account¶
Release identifies the AI processing account: the instructor who authorizes student AI processing and receives its usage attribution. The first instructor to create a preview or release supplies this account. Another instructor’s later preview or invitation does not automatically change it.
That account must stay active, retain instructor and experimental access, and have AI access. If it loses access, new uploads and AI work starting afterward are blocked. Work already executing may finish. Students see a message asking them to contact their instructor; downloads and existing feedback remain available. Work that stops before a complete report may need an explicit retry after access is restored.
An authorized instructor can open Release and choose Use my account for AI processing. Wait for active submissions to finish or stop first. This changes future processing and retries to your account without changing personal links, submission allowances, saved reports, or historical usage attribution. It does not grant access to another instructor’s private preview. If the current account is already yours, restore its access/settings rather than looking for a takeover button. The account information is visible to instructors, not students.
Release and manage personal links¶
In Release, search the roster and select eligible students. The table shows Name, Sections, Email, Link, Email delivery, Last emailed, Submissions, and selection checkboxes. Active roster students and existing recipients appear, including recipients later marked inactive. Use the page-size control and paging buttons for longer rosters.
Select All selects eligible students matching the current search across all pages. The header checkbox selects just the current page; Clear All clears the selection. Choose an Action, review the button’s selected-link count, and apply it:
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Email new links | Invite selected active roster students with email addresses who have not already been invited. |
| Resend emails | Send the same links to their saved delivery addresses. |
| Replace links | Send new links to the students’ current roster email addresses and disable the old links. This also restores a revoked link. |
| Revoke links | Disable access to downloads, submissions, and feedback through those links; retain the saved submissions. |
Resending, replacing, or revoking links does not reset submission allowances or remove saved reports. After changing a roster email address, use Replace links to deliver to the new address. The table identifies a differing previous delivery address. Deactivating a roster student does not revoke an existing link; use Revoke links if access should end.
Use the copy icon next to an Active link to copy the existing personal URL. The control reports Copied or Copy failed. Copying sends no email and changes no link or allowance. Students should keep their personal links private. Revoked or replaced links show an unavailable page asking the student to contact their instructor.
Email delivery progresses through Queued, Sending, Sent, or Failed. Pending delivery refreshes in place, retaining search, paging, and selection. Some actions are unavailable while delivery is pending or sending. A failed email can be explicitly resent. If an update cannot be confirmed, refresh to check its status before trying again.
Close submissions stops new student uploads but preserves downloads and saved feedback. Already accepted work continues. Reopen submissions requires the exam to be ready and its AI processing account to have access. Instructor previews remain available while student submissions are closed. Links have no automatic expiry or deadline, and students receive no automatic completion email.
Student uploads and submission allowances¶
Students open their personal link, download the PDF, complete it, and scan every page in order, including blank pages. Use a scanner or phone document-scanning mode and export one unencrypted PDF up to 20 MB, with exactly the downloaded exam’s page count. Practice exams support up to 50 pages. Students can leave the name field blank: the personal link identifies the submission.
Drop the PDF in the upload area or choose a file, then choose Upload. Upload and processing update in place through Upload, Check PDF, Read scan, and AI feedback. Keep the page open during upload. Once receipt is confirmed, students can return later. Processing can take several minutes. Only one submission can be active at a time.
Each student has three accepted submissions, including replacement PDFs. The student page and invitation emails do not display the allowance or submission-counting rules. When no submissions remain, the student page asks them to contact their instructor. Files rejected during the initial PDF, encryption, or page-count checks use no allowance. Once those checks pass, the submission counts even if later scanning or AI feedback fails, including a wrong exam PDF that passes the initial page-count check. Every replacement must contain the entire exam. Retrying an already accepted attempt does not consume another allowance. Links cannot be reset by resending or replacing them.
Open feedback¶
When feedback is ready, choose View AI feedback. A dedicated warning explains that the feedback is experimental, unreviewed, and not a prediction of an official exam grade. Choose I understand — show AI scores and feedback to continue. Opening feedback again goes through this warning. Earlier submissions provides previous attempts and their feedback links without exposing scores on the landing page. Submit a replacement PDF opens the upload form when another submission is permitted.
The report shows the score, percentage, any score adjustments, and expandable questions containing Question, Rubric, Student work, and Assessment. Its top header shows the Gradebird brand without the practice/experimental label; the practice and unreviewed-feedback disclosures remain inside the report. Warnings identify scan-quality concerns, model disagreement, or results from a single model without an agreement check. Where usable work remains, failed scan checks produce a warning; missing or unreadable answers are not silently scored as zero. Feedback is published only when every question has a result. Check questionable feedback against course materials or with the instructor.
Instructor Report workspace¶
Report shows active-student counts and a completion bar: green means feedback is available, orange means invited without feedback, and gray means uninvited. Inactive recipients remain in the table but are excluded from these overview counts.
The searchable, sortable, paginated table contains Name, Sections, question scores, Total, Final %, Feedback, and Submissions. Scores use each student’s latest completed report. A newer pending or failed upload does not erase an earlier report: the link becomes Previous report. Other labels include Invited, Uninvited, No feedback yet, PDF needs correction, Feedback incomplete, Feedback unavailable, and Link revoked. Refresh Report to see new submission results; it is not a live student-processing progress screen.
Click a question score to open a read-only page with the student answer and saved AI feedback. View report or Previous report opens the full saved report. Notice icons identify confidence or scan warnings. Click the N / 3 submission count to open Upload history, which lists timestamps, statuses, details, and available report links. Retry processing appears for failed or incomplete attempts without a published report. It can retry stopped scanning or eligible failed free-response AI work while preserving successful results. Unclear objective recognition requires a clearer replacement PDF. Close history with its close button or Escape. If a retry cannot proceed, its explanation appears in the Report workspace with the student table and previous reports still available. Manage links and emails in Release, not Report.
Practice exam performance shows question averages, coverage, distributions, and optional AI analyses. Each student’s latest completed submission counts once, including inactive recipients with saved submissions; previews and older attempts are excluded. If saved reports have different points possible, total performance uses percentages and displays Points vary or Varies by submission. Click a distribution thumbnail to open its chart. Generate, View, and Update AI practice analysis controls use automatic, unreviewed feedback. New completed submissions can make an analysis out of date. The AI analysis cell updates while its job runs. These analyses do not enter official course analysis.
Review one practice answer¶
Open a question score from Report to see the saved question, rubric, student answer images, score, and AI feedback. This page is read-only and keeps the exam’s course selected in navigation. Use the question links to move within the submission or Back to Report to return to its practice Report workspace.
Retention, deletion, and copies¶
Roster students with practice invitations or submissions cannot be deleted through bulk roster deletion. Use Deactivate to preserve their history, and explicitly revoke their links if needed. The course owner can delete the whole course from Access → show delete form; the Exams row also provides exam deletion. Both require the displayed confirmation text and wait for active practice submissions, including previews, to finish. Whole-exam/course deletion removes the associated practice records and makes their links unavailable; it is irreversible. Private practice downloads, submitted PDFs, and report/scan images are cleaned up after the deletion commits. A blocked deletion preserves the records and files.
Course copies retain generated practice-exam preparation assets but exclude personal links, previews, submissions, feedback, and practice AI analyses. Courses containing existing-PDF templates cannot currently be copied. See Courses and rosters.