Blackboard Quiz and Test Tips for Students

How to Avoid Quiz/Test Problems and Frequently Asked Questions

Use the Firefox Browser to Avoid Quiz or Test Problems
Firefox can be downloaded from the following website: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox

Advice About Essay Questions
When using essay questions in your quiz, we recommend that students write their essays in a word processing program and copy and paste them into Blackboard. This way, if the individual computer crashes, or there are problems with the server, the students work would not be entirely lost.

Advice About Timed Quizzes
A pop-up window with a timer appears for students while taking a timed quiz. When using certain browers, this pop-up window may obscure and block the student from clicking the quiz SUBMIT or FORWARD button. To avoid this problem have the student use Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox) when taking the test. This is the recommended approach.

Blackboard Quizzes Should NOT Be Saved in Progress by the Student
Students should not use the Save Button during a test. This feature does not work well. It is recommended that students complete a quiz on the first attempt by answering all questions and then pressing Submit.

Browser Windows Should Not Be Resized or Refreshed During a Quiz or Survey
When a browser window is resized, the assessment will stop and no score will be recorded. We recommend that students do not resize or refresh a browser window while taking a quiz or survey. The course instructor must reset your quiz attempt if this occurs.

Do NOT Preview a Quiz
Students should not take or "preview" the quiz until they are actually ready to take it. If the students "preview" the quiz or begin taking the quiz and then log out (manually or by quitting out of the browser) Blackboard will not let them back in to take or finish the quiz. The students will receive a "Sorry… you already took this assessment on (date) and (time)" message. The course instructor must reset your quiz attempt if this occurs.

Printing Your Score When Finishing a Quiz or Test
Occasionally, a student will take a Blackboard quiz, receive a score, and but when the instructor looks up this score in the BB gradebook nothing is listed. This is a rare but known bug in the Blackboard software. To avoid this problem, print your score after a quiz is completed, so that you can provide evidence of your earned score to the instructor if there is a technical problem.

Specific Steps for Student Test Score Printing:
Upon finishing a test and clicking the Submit button. The student should then click OK. The student's total score will then be displayed for the quiz attempt. Immediately in their browser program, the student should then go to the File menu and choose Print. The student should keep this printout in case it is needed for quiz score verification.