Microsoft Take a Test (Optional)

1. When it’s needed

An Exam Session can require Microsoft Take a Test, Gameplan Secure Exam Environment or both. When it requires both, each Candidate can use either. Use one where your state requires computer lockout features for certification exams. Exam Sessions that don’t require a lockdown environment run in an ordinary browser, still supervised by a Proctor. In an Exam Session that requires a lockdown environment, Candidates can only join, reconnect and start the exam from it.

2. Set it up on your testing computers

Microsoft Take a Test is built into Windows 10 and 11, so there’s nothing to install. Mac computers, Chromebooks and iPads can’t use it.

Candidates open it in one of two ways. Decide with your IT team which one your Testing Center uses:

• A Take a Test link – Candidates who are signed in to Windows open this link, for example from a desktop shortcut or an email: ms-edu-secureassessment:https://app.gameplan.com/certifications#enforceLockdown

• A test-taking account – IT adds a Windows account that opens Take a Test at https://app.gameplan.com/certifications. Candidates choose it on the Windows sign-in screen and don’t need a Windows account of their own. IT can set it up with Intune for Education or another device management tool, with a provisioning package, or in Windows Settings under Accounts > Access work or school.

Either way, keep printing, screen monitoring and text suggestions turned off, and use the link exactly as written. Gameplan turns a Candidate away when Take a Test isn’t locked down or has any of these turned on.

Make sure your network and web filter let the testing computers reach Gameplan (*.gameplan.com) and your Candidates’ sign-in provider.

3. On exam day

Candidates open Microsoft Take a Test on their testing computer, from the link or the test-taking account. It opens Gameplan full screen, where they sign in, enter the Exam Session Code and choose a voucher as usual. To save time, a Proctor can open Take a Test on each testing computer before Candidates arrive.

Ctrl+Alt+Delete takes a Candidate out of Take a Test. If they leave it during the exam, or the computer restarts, they open it again and reconnect with a reconnection code from the Proctor.

When Candidates have submitted their exam, they leave Take a Test with Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and the computer goes back to normal.

4. Assistive technology

Windows Narrator and Magnifier keep working in Microsoft Take a Test. Check that each Candidate’s assistive technology works on their testing computer before exam day. If it doesn’t, the Candidate can take the exam in an Exam Session that doesn’t require a lockdown environment.