Contents
Getting started - Plugixa Exam
This walks from a clean WordPress install to an exam a real person can sit. It takes about ten minutes, and nothing has to be configured first.
Install
From a ZIP
- In wp-admin, go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
- Choose
plugixa-exam-free-<version>.zip(or the premium build) and install it. - Activate.
By hand
Unzip the plugin into /wp-content/plugins/ so the main file sits at
/wp-content/plugins/plugixa-exam/plugixa-exam.php, then activate it from
Plugins.
Free and premium are separate downloads, not a switch. The premium build is the free plugin plus a
pro/directory. Nothing in the free build is disabled, and it contains no premium code to unlock, so there is nothing to “upgrade” in place: you install the other ZIP over the top.
What activation does
- Creates the plugin’s own database tables, all prefixed
{wp_prefix}plugixa_exam_. They are removed on uninstall. - Seeds five roles (Exam Admin, Author, Grader, Proctor, Viewer). See Roles and Permissions.
- Seeds five email templates, which send as plain text until you switch one to HTML. See Notifications.
- Registers the front-end routes under
/exams/and the learner portal at/my-exams/.
If the front-end URLs 404 immediately after activating, visit Settings -> Permalinks once to flush the rewrite rules. That is a WordPress behaviour, not a plugin one.
The admin
Everything lives under one menu item, Plugixa Exams, as a single-page app with its own sidebar rather than a long list of WordPress submenus. The Dashboard sits at the top of the sidebar; everything else is grouped under five headings, and each group folds away when you do not need it.
| Group | Screens |
|---|---|
| Authoring | Exams, Subjects, Question bank, Tags, Import & export, plus Write with AI, Custom fields and Multilingual with Pro |
| Delivery | Attempts (every sitting, and the marking queue), Calendar, Certificates, plus the Live monitor with Pro |
| People PRO | Cohorts and Enrolments |
| Insight PRO | Analytics and the Gradebook |
| Administration | Email, Roles, Settings and the App manager, plus Webhooks, LTI 1.3, API tokens and Demo data with Pro |
The header carries a search box that finds exams, questions and the people who
sat them from anywhere in the admin: press / to open it. Beside it are a
link to the site, a full-screen switch, the notification bell and, with Pro, a
light and dark switch.
Your first exam
1 - Create a subject
Go to Subjects and add one, for example Mathematics. Subjects nest, so you can add Algebra underneath it later.
A subject is not just filing. Results break down by subject, so a candidate’s report can say where they were weak, and a pool can say “two questions from Algebra”.
2 - Write a few questions
Go to Question bank and press New question. Pick a type, write the stem, mark the correct answer, and save.
Two fields are worth filling in even on your first attempt:
- Explanation - shown after marking, if the exam reveals answers. This is where a question stops being a score and starts being teaching.
- Points - the question’s default. An exam can override it.
Write five or six before moving on, so the next step has something to work with.
Mark a correct answer. A question saved with nothing marked correct renders perfectly and marks every candidate zero. The editor warns about it; the warning is worth reading.
3 - Build the exam
Go to Exams and press New exam. Give it a title, then add a section on the Questions tab.
A section is either:
- a fixed list - you pick the questions, everybody sees the same ones; or
- a pool - you give the rules (subject, tag, difficulty, type, how many) and each candidate draws their own.
For a first exam, one fixed section is fine. Then set:
| Setting | Suggested first value |
|---|---|
| Time limit | 0 for untimed while you are testing |
| Pass mark | 50% |
| Access | Open, so you can try it while signed out |
| Result release | Immediately |
| Max attempts | 0 for unlimited while testing |
Publish it.
4 - Sit it yourself
Open the exam’s page on the front end and press Start. Answer a couple of questions, submit, and look at the result.
Do this signed out, in a private window. It is the quickest way to catch the two things that surprise people most: an access mode that is stricter than you meant, and a result release policy that withholds the score you expected to see.
Where things are on the front end
| URL | What it shows |
|---|---|
/exams/ |
The catalogue of published exams |
/exams/<slug>/ |
One exam’s page, with the Start button |
/exams/<slug>/take/ |
The runner itself |
/result/<id>/ |
One result |
/my-exams/ |
The learner portal: assigned, scored, earned |
/verify/<token>/ |
Public certificate verification |
The base segment exams is filterable, and every route answers under a language
prefix on a multilingual site. To put the learner screens on pages of your own, see
Pages settings.
What to do next
- Understand what happens during an attempt in Exam Runner.
- Let each candidate draw a different paper with Sections and Pools.
- Decide who can sit it in Access and Enrollment.
- Put the catalogue on a page of your own with Shortcodes or Blocks.