# How do I sit an assessment? > What you need before you start, how the timed sitting works, what counts as a warning, and how to hand in. Source: https://www.revquix.com/docs/assessments/taking-an-assessment Last verified: 2026-09-27 --- An assessment is a timed, integrity-monitored exam. Pass it and you earn a **Revquix Verified** credential with its own public page. You sit it on a laptop or desktop, in fullscreen, and your answers save as you go. ## Two ways in - **Through a certified program.** A mentor's Certified Program ends in an assessment. Once you have done enough of the program, it appears at the top of [your assessments](https://www.revquix.com/dashboard/assessments) with a button to sit it. - **An open assessment.** Some assessments are open to anyone, from their own page under [certifications](https://www.revquix.com/certifications) or from a link the author shared. You need a verified email address to sit one. Each way in has its own attempts. The wait after a failed attempt, and the rule that you never see the same questions twice where the pool allows, apply across both. ### Open assessments sold per sitting Some open assessments are sold one sitting at a time. The assessment's page and the screen before you start say so, and how to buy one: - **An assessment a mentor wrote** is bought on that mentor's service page, priced in your own currency, like any of their services. - **An assessment Revquix issues** is bought with credits, right on the screen before you start. One purchase is one sitting, up to the assessment's own number of attempts, and you can hold one unused sitting at a time. **It is refundable in full until you start it, and not after** - a sitting you fail is not refundable. Refund a sitting bought from a mentor by cancelling the order on your orders page; refund one bought with credits from the screen before you start, and the credits go back to your balance. A sitting you never start stays yours for a year. If we void a sitting because something went wrong on our side, you get the sitting back to use again. Buying is not offered when you could not sit it anyway: once you have passed, once your attempts are used up, or when your Certified Program already includes it. ## Before you start The page before the exam lists everything that applies to this assessment - the time, the number of questions, the pass mark, how many attempts you have and how long you wait after a failed one - and it says plainly if you cannot start yet and why. 1. **Use a laptop or desktop.** Phones and tablets are refused: a phone cannot hold the exam in fullscreen, and it reports every notification as if you had left the page. 2. **Confirm your date of birth**, once. Assessments are for people aged 18 and over, and the date can only be set once, so check it before you save it. 3. **Check your name.** The page shows the name your certificate will carry. Fix it in your profile before you start - it cannot be changed on an issued credential. 4. **Try the exam screen** (optional, and worth it the first time). It runs the real screen in fullscreen on practice questions, shows you what would count as a warning, sends nothing and does not use an attempt. 5. **Agree to the integrity policy for this attempt, and press Start.** The clock starts the moment you press it. > **Note** - Need more time? > > If you need extra time for a disability or another good reason, ask through [Help & Support](https://www.revquix.com/dashboard/help) before you start. Agreed extra time shows on the > page before the exam as "Your time", and the clock includes it. ## During the sitting - **The clock runs on our server.** Closing the tab, reloading or losing your connection does not stop it or reset it. Come back to the same page and you continue where you were. - **Answers save by themselves.** The bar at the top says "Saving", "All answers saved", or "Not saved yet - retrying" if your connection drops. An answer that has not reached us is retried on its own. - **Sections** may start with a short introduction from the author. - **The question list** on the right shows every question as answered, not answered or flagged. Press **Flag for review** on anything you want to come back to. - **Keys:** `1` to `9` choose an option, the left and right arrow keys move between questions, and `F` flags the one you are on. Keys never act while you are typing an answer. - **Coding questions** show a problem, its worked examples and a code editor. Pick a language and press **Run and submit** as often as you like before the deadline - the last run is the one that counts. You see the verdict and how many hidden cases passed, never a failing case. A run can take a little while when many people are running code at once; it waits its turn rather than failing. - **If our code runner fails** on your run, you are told, and your code is kept. Press Run again, or leave it: it is run again automatically after you hand in, and your result waits for it. ### Timed sections Some assessments give each section its own time. The page before you start says so and lists each section's minutes. On one of these: - **You see one section at a time**, in order. The clock at the top counts down that section; the paper's overall time sits beside it. - **When a section's time is up, the next one opens** by itself. What you saved in the section that closed is kept and marked. - **You can move on early** with **Next section**. The time you did not use carries over to the next section, so finishing a section quickly gives you longer on the rest. - **There is no way back.** Once you leave a section you cannot return to it, so the confirmation lists anything you have left blank before you move on. - **Question numbers run across the whole paper**, so the first question of the second section might be question 9. ## What counts as a warning Leaving the exam is recorded, and you are told each time: switching tabs, moving to another window or app, leaving fullscreen, and pasting something from outside the exam. Going quiet for more than about a minute and a half - no contact from your browser at all - counts too. **One trip away counts once.** Switching to another tab hides the page, moves the focus and ends fullscreen all at the same moment; that is one warning, not three. Copying from the exam, right-clicking and developer-tools shortcuts are blocked or recorded but never count against you. After the number of warnings the page shows (usually three), the attempt closes. What you had answered is handed in and marked as normal, and a person reviews attempts that end this way. There is no camera, no microphone and no screen recording. > **Warning** - Leaving fullscreen covers the paper > > Pressing Escape always leaves fullscreen - no web page can stop that. The questions are covered until > you press **Return to fullscreen**, and your time keeps running underneath. ## Handing in Press **Submit**. Before anything is handed in you see how many questions are answered, which ones are blank and which you flagged, each linked back to its question. If an answer has not reached us yet, nothing is handed in and you are told, so a slow connection can never turn an answer you can see into a blank. When the time runs out, what you had answered is handed in for you, and the page moves to the end of the sitting on its own. An answer that arrives after the time is up is not saved. On a paper with timed sections you can hand in from any section. Questions in sections you have not opened are marked as not answered, and the confirmation tells you how many there are. Your result shows as soon as the paper is marked - usually straight away. See [results, retakes and appeals](https://www.revquix.com/docs/assessments/results-retakes-and-appeals).