Set up an exam: create, schedule, and enter marks

Setting up an exam in CloudSchool has three stages: create the exam, build its date sheet, and enter marks once papers are done.

1. Create the exam

Go to Examinations → Create exam (you'll need the manage-examinations privilege). Fill in:

• Exam name — for example, "Mid-Term Examination"
• Term (optional) — No term, Term 1, Term 2, Term 3, or Annual
• Passing percentage — defaults to 40
• Start date and End date

Then tick which classes and batches the exam covers, using the checklist table. If it applies to every class the same way, tick the Common — all classes header to select everything at once. Ticking several classes creates one exam per class (same name, term, dates, and passing mark) — this saves you creating them one by one.

Click Create exam (the button shows "Create exam for N classes" if you ticked more than one).

2. Build the date sheet

Open the exam and go to its schedule screen, under Scheme & schedule. Tick one or more batches, then set marks, date, and time per subject — saving applies to every batch you ticked, which is handy when several batches share the same date sheet.

To save time, use Auto-schedule: set a Duration (min), a Daily start time, and whether to Skip weekends, then click Auto-schedule. CloudSchool picks a date for each subject within the exam's date range, one paper per day, avoiding clashes with the batch's other exams — you can still fine-tune any row afterwards.

Click Save scheme & schedule to confirm. If marks have already been entered and you change a subject's total, you'll be asked whether to Keep the marks as typed or Rescale marks to the new total.

Once scheduled, the read-only Date sheet card shows Class, Batch, Subject, Date, Time, and Max marks for everyone to see, with a Print date sheet link.

3. Enter marks

Go to the exam's Marks page. If you hold the marks-entry privilege you can enter marks for every subject; otherwise you'll only see the subjects you're allotted to teach for that batch, marked with a badge "Your allotted subjects only."

For each student, type their mark, or tick Absent if they did not sit the paper — this counts as 0 for that student, excludes them from the class average, and marks the exam day absent on their attendance register. A ticked row shows "AB · Absent" and disables the marks box.

Before you can save, every student needs either a mark or an Absent tick — CloudSchool will tell you exactly how many are still blank and refuse to save until they're filled in. It also checks that no mark is higher than the paper's total; if one is, you'll be told to fix the mark or change the paper's total on the schedule page.

Click Save marks once the sheet is complete.

What's next

Once every subject's marks are in, see "Print report cards" for how to check the results and print report cards, and the consolidated tabulation and subject sheets for a whole-batch view before anything goes to print.