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Add an Assessment Time Limit

How to set a time limit on assessments.

Kristin Town avatar
Written by Kristin Town
Updated over a week ago

When you assign an assessment, you can choose to set a time limit, which will determine how long the students have to complete the assessment.

How does a time limit impact an assessment?

  • Students have a pre-determined amount of time to complete the assessment.

  • The clock starts when students choose to start the assessment.

  • Assessments will automatically be submitted when the time runs outs, and students cannot go back in to finish if they did not already.

  • If you use a time limit, you will be able to see how long the student took to complete the assessment. This information will be available in Assessment Analytics.


How to Enable a Time Limit

  • Step 1: Select the assessment you'd like to assign from your drafts list.

  • Step 2: Click the ellipsis to the right of the desired assessment and choose Assign.

  • Step 3: After determining the students, due dates, start dates, availability windows, and instructions, check the box for Time Limit and enter the number of minutes students should have to take the assessment.

  • Step 4: Select Assign to make the assessment available to your students.


Student Actions

Student View

  • Students have a set amount of time from the moment they open the assessment and click start. They will see the time remaining at the top of their screen.

  • The clock will continue to countdown until they submit and finish the assessment. If students do not finish in the allotted time, the assessment will lock and be submitted automatically. 

Simple Assessments

  • The countdown timer will appear in the upper-right corner.

  • If the student is actively working on the assessment when the time runs out, they will see the following prompt:

Rubric Assessments

  • The countdown timer will appear in the upper-right corner.

  • If the student is actively working on the assessment when the time runs out, they will see the following prompt. Selecting Okay auto-submits their assessment.

Advanced Assessments

  • The countdown timer will appear in the upper-left corner

  • If the student is actively working on the assessment when the time runs out, they will see the following prompt.


FAQ and Troubleshooting

Click to see FAQ and troubleshooting details.

Can I change the time limit?

Yes. You can edit your assignment settings at any time. If students have already submitted the assessment, they will not get additional time. This article shows you how to edit assignment details.

Can I remove the time limit?

Yes. You would uncheck the time limit box to remove the time limit for any students that had not already taken the assessment. This article will outline that process for you.

What if students didn't finish within the time limit? Can they go back in and finish?

Yes. The teacher can unsubmit the assessment for the student. For simple assessments, you can choose to reset the time limit when you unsubmit. For advanced assessments, you will need to extend the time limit in your assessment settings in order for the students to have access.

What happens if a student saves & exits the assessment and has time remaining in the Time Limit?

If a student saves & exits without submitting and there is time left in the Time Limit, when they return to the assessment they’ll have the remaining time left. For example: if there was a 30-minute time limit and the student saves & exits after 10 minutes, when they return, they’ll have 20 minutes to complete the assessment.

Can I see how long it took a student to complete an assessment?

If the assessment was assigned with a time limit, you will also see Time to Complete to the left of the overall score when looking at an individual student's assessment data in Assessment Analytics.

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