8.1 - General information

Schools and centres with entries for a test session can find the computer-based components in your online World Class Test administration centre approximately three days before the first test date.

The administrator must download a copy of the computer-based components needed by the school or centre, test and install them on each student machine. We strongly suggest that this is done one or two days before the test and that the steps outlined below are followed. This is to ensure that the administrator has tested the system before students use it and has become familiar with it.

Most problems experienced by schools and centres are to do with saving the results to the C: drive of each test machine. This can be tested prior to the live sitting of the tests, thereby considerably reducing the risk of losing answers.

Although the instructions for downloading tests are straightforward, you may find it beneficial to have IT technical support available during this testing time.

8.2 - Deleting previous World Class Tests files

Make sure you have removed any World Class Test files from any previous session. The best way to do this is to delete the directory called c:\wct and its contents. Press SHIFT and DELETE at the same time so that the files will not be stored in the Recycle Bin from where they could be recovered.

8.3 - Downloading the computer-based components

Login and enter your online World Class Test administration centre using the username and password your were sent in your approval e-mail.

Follow the link [test day utilities] and you will see a similar interface to the one below:

The Test Day links next to each component will only appear three days before the scheduled tests in that session.

Click on the Test Day link for a test component and you will be led to an interface in which all the students that you entered will be displayed in an attendance list at the bottom:

Click on the link [download candidate file and test materials] to download the test package for your centre. You should choose to download to disk:

Make sure you remember the directory you decide to save to.

Repeat this process for each computer-based component you have entries for. For example, if you have students entered for nine year-old mathematics and problem solving, you would download two packages; 09MC and 09PC.

Locate the downloaded file in the directory you specified.

The downloaded file will be called something like '151-09MC.exe'. The '151' is your World Class Test school or centre ID and the 09MC is the component code.

Copy this file onto a floppy disk (or network drive if you are using a network) so that you can copy it onto all your test machines. Do not open the file until you have copied it onto the test machines. You should do the same for all computer components which you have downloaded.

8.4 - Copying the package onto each student machine

Make sure that each student machine's internal clock is set to the correct date, as the tests will not work after the exam date. You can set this in the Control Panel of your machine. The Control Panel can be accessed by going to the Start menu and selecting Settings and then Date/Time.

Copy the downloaded packages onto the C: drive of each student machine you are going to use.

The computer components will not save correctly unless they are copied onto the C: drive.

Locate each test package (e.g. 151-09MC.exe) you need on the floppy disk or network drive you saved it to. You could use Windows Explorer to find the file and then use the copy and paste facility to copy them across. If you need help doing this, please ring the helpline.

8.5 - Checking the contents of the downloaded package

Once copied onto the C: drive, double click on the World Class Test icon of the test package.

When prompted, put in your World Class Test password (the one that you received in your approval e-mail).

Several folders will be created automatically. The following example shows what would appear if you had students taking all four computer-based components:

C:\wct is the main directory. Within 'wct' you will have one or more of the following folders, depending on which tests you downloaded:

13mat   13 year-old mathematics
13ps     13 year-old problem solving
9mat     nine year-old mathematics
9ps       nine year-old problem solving

If you look inside a folder such as 9mat you will see the test, called Start.exe, and an .xml candidate file which is used to validate the candidates' ID numbers:

All schools and centres will also have an 'rs' directory within C:\wct. This is where the students' responses to questions will be saved.

Repeat the steps for all components you are taking in your school or centre.

8.6 - Checking that the computer-based components are saving correctly

Click on Start > Programs > World Class Tests and select the required component.

  

Enter one of your candidates' ID numbers when prompted. (Do not be worried that this will affect that student's test results; when the student sits the test, their answers will overwrite yours).

Complete a couple of questions and then click on the End Test icon.

Check that the following files appear in the C:\wct\rs directory on that machine:

In this case, candidate ID number 3410 was used, and 16-3410M.xml is the response file for a mathematics component in session 16. You should also see ones called 'file' and 'TestSave.txt'.

If these files have not been created, the test is not saving correctly. Please ring the helpline on (44) (0) 8700 101 798 for further guidance.

Repeat these steps for all test machines you will be using.