Eleven solutions to deter cheating in a quiz, test or exam

By Joanna, FlexiQuiz.
5 minute read.

Cheating can be a way for students to gain an unfair advantage by breaking the rules during an exam.

Whether students are completing final examinations, certification assessments, or practice tests, it is essential to ensure that the work submitted is their own. This allows you to accurately assess their knowledge, understanding, and true capabilities.

As almost every exam situation is unique, we offer a range of options to help you create secure online exams with FlexiQuiz that prevent learners from cheating.

This article shares our top ten ways to minimize cheating on your tests.

1. Secure access to your quiz content

Controlling access to your FlexiQuiz content is an effective way to protect your questions and maintain the integrity of learning content.

FlexiQuiz lets you secure your tests so that only intended learners can view them during a specific time. Keeping your tests secure helps reduce the risk of questions being shared or of learners researching the answers in advance.

You can limit availability by setting start and end dates, restricting the number of attempts, or defining how long the quiz remains open.

Below are some secure ways to share your exams or tests with FlexiQuiz.

Email invitations

Invite test takers to complete your exam by sending a customized email directly from your FlexiQuiz account.

Each participant receives an email with a unique, trackable link to access their exam. This unique link lets you see when they start and how long they spend on each page.

Respondent portals

Learners sign in to their personal FlexiQuiz Respondent portal using a unique username and password.

The Respondent portal shows learners all of the quizzes you have assigned to them.

Access codes

Provide each learner with a unique access code to join the quiz. You can set how many times people can use the code to view your FlexiQuiz content.

This ensures secure, individual access for every learner.

Restrict access to specific IP addresses

Limit quiz access to specific IP addresses to ensure only learners in approved locations can take the exam.

You can still share your quizzes using a link, QR code, email invitation, Respondent Portal, or access codes, but learners must also be connected to the approved IP address to access the quiz.

This option is ideal for in-person testing environments such as schools, training centres, or workplaces.

Passwords

You can add a registration page to the start of the quiz and ask learners to provide a password to join the quiz. All learners use the same password to access the quiz.

Unlike access codes, which assign a unique code to each learner, password protection uses a single shared password for all learners.

2. Prevent the use of other browsers and sites - New April 2026

Stop learners from switching tabs to open unauthorized materials, sending messages or browsing the internet for answers.

We have introduced two new ways for you to prevent learners from opening other tabs or browsers.

Prevent learners from switching tabs

FlexiQuiz allows you to set the maximum number of times learners can switch tabs.

Each time they switch tabs, they will see a warning message. If they attempt to switch tabs too many times, their quiz will automatically submit.

Learn more about restricting learners from switching tabs.

Force full-screen mode

When the full screen mode is enabled, students must remain within the test window.

If learners attempt to leave full-screen mode, they can see a warning message and then the quiz can be automatically submitted.

Switching tabs and entering full-screen mode are Premium, Enterprise, or Enterprise+ features.

Share different versions of the same test

To help prevent students from copying answers or discussing exam content during a test, we recommend creating multiple variations of the same exam. When each student receives a slightly different version, it becomes much harder to copy from another screen or share answers.

FlexiQuiz provides several ways to achieve this:

Randomize the order of questions

You can shuffle the question order so that each test taker sees the same questions, but in a different sequence.

This reduces the likelihood that students will follow along with each other during the test.

Learn more about randomizing questions.

Select random questions from your question bank

The question bank lets you create a larger pool of questions and automatically select a random set for each test.

With FlexiQuiz:

• Questions are organized into categories (e.g., topic or difficulty level).
• Each category can contain similar types of questions.
• You can choose how many questions to pull from each category.
• The FlexiQuiz system will randomly pull the set number of questions from your chosen category.

This means every student receives a unique combination of questions while maintaining consistent difficulty and coverage.

Learn more about the question bank.

Tip

For best results, combine both methods:

• Randomize the order of questions in an exam.
• Plus, use the questions from the question bank.

This creates a much more secure and varied testing experience.

4. Limit the number of times students can view the questions

If you minimize the number of times students can view your questions, it gives them less opportunity to look at the information, research it and complete the quiz later.

There are a few options:

• Maximum quiz attempts. Set a limit on how many times students can take your online exam.
• Prevent backtracking. You can configure the test to allow students to view one question at a time. When they submit their response, they move to the next question and cannot return to view or modify their answers.
• Only allow students to retake the quiz if they fail.

5. Include a free format question

Free format is an open-ended question that allows test takers to share workings, information and feedback. A free format question reflects the student's unique thinking and approach, which means every response should be slightly different. If several students are giving the same response, it can alert you to possible cheating.

With FlexiQuiz, you can add free format questions using the free text question type that allows students to type their text directly onto the FlexiQuiz system.

In addition, you can add a file upload question type where students can attach a file with their calculations and thinking.

6. Limit the time allowed for each question

Add time limits for the whole quiz or a page. The time limit should allow enough time for students to consider their responses but not too much time that students can research the answer.

With FlexiQuiz, you can set a time limit for the whole quiz, page or both.

Learn more about setting time limits on your examinations.

7. Prevent test takers from copying and sharing your questions

There are several ways that you can stop test takers from being able to copy and share your questions easily.

• Firstly, delay sharing the PDF of responses until everyone has submitted their test. With FlexiQuiz, you can customize the results page and email notifications to show relevant information at the right time.
• In addition, you can limit the ability of students to copy, cut or print the FlexiQuiz screen. You can configure these options on the Configure/General tab.

8. Remind students of any academic integrity policies

Creating academic integrity or codes of conduct guidelines can ensure your students know the policy and consequences for cheating.

Psychologically students may think twice about cheating if they've just had a reminder of the policy before the quiz starts.

With FlexiQuiz, you can add a policy to the welcome screen that's easy for students to view just before starting their examination. You can share the policy in writing or even by using a short video.

9. Let students know that you can identify cheating

As a web-based software solution, FlexiQuiz provides powerful reporting to help make it easier for you to identify anyone with suspicious behaviors. Reminding students that reporting is available might make them consider their actions.

Key reports include:

• Time spent per page.
• Common unusual responses.

11. Proctor the exam

Proctoring allows teachers or supervisors to watch students completing an exam.

There are several tools to help you proctor tests and exams online, such as monitoring the student's screen, watching them on video or tracking which buttons are pressed.

Currently, FlexiQuiz does not offer a built-in exam proctoring service.

However, you can ask students to share their FlexiQuiz screen using online applications such as:

• Zoom
• Skype
• Google hangouts

We are continually looking at new and innovative ways to make online testing more secure. Follow us on Facebook or Twitter for the latest developments.