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

1. In wp-admin, go to Plugins -> Add New -> Upload Plugin.
2. Choose plugixa-exam-free-1.0.0.zip (or the premium build) and install it.
3. 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, Exams, as a single-page app with its own navigation rather than a long list of WordPress submenus.

Screen	What it is for
Dashboard	Recent activity, attempts needing marking, what is open now
Question bank	Writing and organising questions
Subjects	The subject tree questions hang from
Tags	Free-form labels that pools can select on
Exams	Building exams out of sections
Attempts	Every sitting, and the marking queue
Calendar	What is open, opening or closing, by date
Import & export	Moving the question bank in and out
Email	The notification templates and the sending queue
Roles	Who can do what
Settings	General, Pages, and the App Manager

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 -> Add 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 -> Add exam. Give it a title, then add a section.

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 all six routes answer under a language prefix on a multilingual site.

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.