Exam days will always carry some tension, but problems don’t have to derail your sitting. The network wobble. The candidate who can’t log in. The accommodation request that arrives on exam day. When you’ve stress-tested your process beforehand, these become manageable moments instead of full-blown crises.
This webinar was designed for anyone involved in delivering online exams who want practical ways to reduce exam-day headaches. You’ll find preparation steps, tested response protocols and real examples from teams running high-stakes exams at scale, all from three key perspectives: the technical side, the service desk and the organisational view.
We opened the session with Jeroen Habets, our CTO:
Jeroen Habets: The Tech Perspective
Jeroen opened with the principle that anchors how Cirrus engineers exam-day reliability: “Prepare for eventualities…because anything can happen”. Reliability is not a promise you make on the day. It is the outcome of decisions you make long before the sitting starts.
He framed the work in two parts that operate together. First, what Cirrus does in the platform and certified processes to reduce risk. Second, what customers can do in their own processes so the whole delivery chain behaves predictably. The ISO mindset runs through both. Learn from what went wrong and from what went right. This is the PDCA loop: Plan an improvement, Do the work, Check that it worked and then Act again on what you found.
Actionable steps for you
- Run your own PDCA loop before the next sitting. Pick one improvement you control on your side. For example, publish a simple invigilator checklist or reduce the number of browser versions you support. Do it, measure the effect and record what you will adjust next. Treat PDCA as a habit, not a one-off.
- Write the first ten minutes for your top three “what ifs.” Use Jeroen’s prompts. What if a center network wobbles? What if a section loads slowly? What if a proctor queue grows? For each, name the first responder, the confirming check, the first safe action, and where you will post the first status update. Keep it to two pages so people actually use it.
- Coordinate capacity signals with Cirrus. Share your exam calendar and expected volumes early, especially for high-stakes windows. Confirm whether auto-scaling is sufficient or whether manual capacity planning should be in place for your sittings. This is the fastest way to convert unknown spikes into predictable load.
- Rehearse an incident tabletop with your team. Gather your core group for 30 minutes. Walk through one scenario from report to resolution. Practice posting a short status with a time estimate. Note the slow steps and assign owners to fix them. Repeat before your biggest window.
Aiden Molavi, Insights from the Service Desk
Aiden explained how Cirrus’ Service Desk is structured to be the first point of contact and the fastest path to resolution. At Cirrus, Customer Success and Support sit together by design, so the same people who guide onboarding and adoption also handle live issues for the accounts they know best. That context shortens diagnosis and cuts back-and-forth. And as Aiden explained, “that combination works especially well because Cirrus is highly customisable and works in different ways for different clients.”
Each client has an assigned Customer Success Manager (CSM). That CSM leads implementation, trains teams and remains hands-on when tickets arise. Because the CSM understands the client’s setup and history, triage starts with the right context. Tickets are handled by the CSM team and escalated to QA, Development or Systems Operations only when needed, while the Service Desk owns communication and coordination.
Practical levers clients can use to keep exam day calm:
- Test what candidates will see. Use Candidate Preview to view an assessment exactly as a candidate, check rendering, timers, media and ReadSpeaker integration, and fix issues before publishing. Share no-login access links to collect reviews from colleagues or external SMEs without creating accounts.
- Give yourself safe flexibility before the start. Cirrus allows item-level edits up to 20 minutes before a scheduled start. After that point, the assessment is locked to protect psychometrics and performance data during delivery.
- Run mock exams that mimic real conditions. Start with staff, then extend to candidates so the first high-stakes sitting is not their first experience. Mocks surface issues early and reduce stress for both candidates and invigilators.
Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Audrey Carter & Nikki Kurtz: Organisation Playbook
Nikki and Audrey’s team makes exam day feel familiar from the first week of the academic cycle. Students get an e-assessment microsite with everything in one place, then practise in Cirrus with practice papers and full mock exams that mirror timing and tools. Four weeks out they run a practice onboarding session to check devices, ID and camera, with a clear route to help if something fails.
Candidate communication builds as the window nears, in a clear sequence. The team is deliberate about not overwhelming students with information. They send three essential pre-exam emails, keeping each focused on exactly what students need to know and nothing more. As Nikki explained, “If you flood students with too much information, they’re not going to read it.” Each email serves a clear purpose: Students first get guidance on deferrals and accommodations, then the rules for sitting and one week out they receive their time slot. Every message links back to a live FAQ that is updated as new questions appear. Staff prepare in parallel. The e-assessment team and Student Operations run refreshers, confirm roles for exam week, track owners in their project management tool and close each window with a short review that feeds the next playbook. They also hold in-person prep sessions across Ireland with lecturers, Student Ops and the assessment team present. Students see sample papers, learn how to request accommodations through the Access Officer, hear about Thrive (their well-being support program) and often leave with new study groups.
The same discipline protects delivery when something goes wrong. During a summer onboarding window this year, the CAI website went down unexpectedly. This was a critical issue because students rely on the website to access their exam link to enter the Cirrus platform.
A flow-charted business continuity plan kicked in immediately. The e-assessment team engaged the web team and activated their contingency protocol. Affected students received exam links directly by email, and an SMS broadcast went out: “Chartered Accountants Ireland’s website is down for a brief period. To access your exam, you will need to go to your email and get the link and proceed from there.” Students had been briefed about this possibility in their pre-exam communications. For candidates already inside the exam, the team used Cirrus’ instant messaging tool to post an in-exam alert about the workaround.
The web team resolved the outage in under 10 minutes. Every candidate sat successfully because the response path was rehearsed, roles were clear, and updates remained calm. As Nikki put it: “You don’t want to think about these scenarios, but life happens. You need those procedures and plans in place, even if you hope they gather dust in the cupboard.”
Four steps from CAI’s Playbook
- Publish a single e-assessment hub. Create a microsite that hosts instructions, dates, rules, how to get help, practice papers in Cirrus and an always-fresh FAQ. Reference it in every email.
- Schedule practice onboarding at T-4 weeks. Run a live trial of onboarding, ID checks and equipment checks. Offer a clear route for tech help if devices or networks fall short. Track compatibility issues and close them before the window.
- Run realistic mocks and show the route to help. Staff mock first, then candidate mock in Cirrus that mirrors real timing and tools. Teach candidates exactly where to go if something goes wrong. Capture the top three questions and add them to your FAQ and invigilator quick cards.
- Plan your communication timeline. Schedule emails progressively as the exam window approaches: deferrals and accommodations early, then rules and regulations, with individual time slots sent one week before the exam. Keep each email focused on essential information only, if you overload students with too many messages or too much detail, they’ll stop reading. Reference your e-assessment hub in every email so students know where to find more.
- Prepare your contingency plan and review process. Maintain a tested business continuity plan for access disruptions (alternate delivery of exam links by email, broadcast SMS, and in-exam messaging for those already inside). Track tasks and owners in your project management tool, ensure everyone knows their role, and hold a post-exam debrief to capture what worked well and what needs improvement for the next session.
In closing, we asked “if you could offer one final nugget of advice to make exam day easy, what would it be?
- Jeroen Habets (Technology): Prepare and communicate. Make it easy for candidates to reach you and share clear, time-bound updates while you work.
- Aiden Molavi (Service Desk): Test, test, test. Use candidate preview, share a no-login link and get fresh eyes on every assessment before go-live.
- Nikki Kurtz (Chartered Accountants Ireland): Keep communication tight across stakeholders. Tell candidates exactly what’s expected before the day and make support easy to reach.
- Audrey Carter (Chartered Accountants Ireland): Give students step-by-step resources and a human contact. Clear guidance and a reachable phone line lower stress when it counts.
That’s a wrap on our webinar recap, practical steps you can put to work this term. Stay tuned for our Exam Day Playbook e-book: deeper guidance, ready-to-use templates and step-by-step checklists to help your next sitting run without a hitch. Keep an eye here and on LinkedIn for it!
