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Exam Ritual

A cover page that turns a mock exam into a sitting: sign your name, set the clock, hand in the paper. Shipped to production and A/B tested.

Year
2025
Track
built
Category
prototype

Tools

  • Next.js
  • CSS Modules

The mock exam system already existed. I built it. What it did not have was a moment before the exam that told you an exam was starting.

So this is a cover page. You sign your name, you set the clock, you agree to sit it without notes, and at the end you hand in the paper and countersign it. The bet was that a student who performs the ritual treats the exam as a real sitting, takes it more seriously, and comes back.

It shipped, and it was A/B tested against the version without it.

Conversion did not move. The cover page relocated the drop-off rather than removing it. What moved was who got through: the students who signed the sheet were the ones who meant to sit the exam, so they scored better and came back more often.

Screens

  1. The paper open mid-sitting. One multiple choice option is selected and highlighted in blue, and below it Section 2 asks for a short answer on Durkheim and Weber worth forty marks, with ruled lines to write on. A countdown card fixed at the top right reads 59:49 above a Call time now control.
    The clock runs in the corner, and it can be called at any point.
  2. The hand-in screen. A record of the sitting lists the name, the start and finish times, the time taken and how many questions were answered, then a drawn signature. Below it a ticked box reads I worked alone, no notes, no AI assistance, a second signature countersigns it, and a Hand in paper button closes the sitting.
    The other end of the ritual: sign the record, countersign the declaration, hand it in.
  3. The paper comes back marked. A dial reads twenty out of a hundred, broken into twenty from multiple choice and none of the forty self awarded. Under it each question is listed with the answer given, the correct answer and a Why disclosure, with unanswered ones flagged in red against a red rule.
    What comes back. The long answers are marked by the student against a printed rubric.
See it running

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