Take your course exam

If your course has an exam, it's a separate, course-level test you take after finishing every section — different from the short quizzes that can appear inside individual sections (see Take a quiz embedded in a section). Not every course has one; if yours doesn't, there's no Exam item to see.

Before you can start

Select Exam in the course's right-hand Sections panel (it's locked with that panel's own icon until then — see Find your way around a course) or wherever your course links to it. Until every section is done, the Exam tab itself still opens, but it blocks you from starting:

The alert Complete all sections first / Finish all sections to access the exam appears no matter what your exam history looks like — even a learner with past attempts (like the two failed ones above) sees this blocked view again if a section becomes unfinished. There's no way around it other than finishing the rest of your sections.

What the Exam tab shows

Once every section is done, the same page unlocks. Four stat cards summarize the exam:

• Pass threshold — the score you need, as a percentage (80% above).
• Attempts left — how many more tries you get. Your organization sets a limit (or leaves it unlimited).
• Questions — the total question count across the exam.
• Time limit — how long a single attempt gives you, or a leftover Cooldown card underneath if you have to wait between attempts.

If you've attempted the exam before, a Previous attempts table lists each one — result, pass/fail Status, when it started and ended, and an eye icon to View attempt (covered below). Your best score so far and how many attempts you've used also show near the top of the page:

This particular learner already passed once and is retaking it, which is why the heading and history above look different from a first attempt — covered next.

Starting the exam and answering questions

On a first attempt, the heading reads Ready to Take Your Exam? instead of Exam Completed!, but the button underneath is the same either way: select Start Exam and your attempt begins immediately — there's no separate confirmation step — dropping you straight into the first question:

Each question appears one at a time, with your position (Question 1 of 2, for example) and the section it belongs to at the top. If the exam has a time limit, Time left counts down in the top-right corner. Select an answer to move on — multiple-choice and multiple-response questions work the same way sections' quizzes do, and a fill-in question has you drag words into blanks. Every answer saves the instant you pick it, but — like a section's quiz — nothing tells you yet whether it's right; that only shows up after you submit.

Previous steps back to an earlier question (disabled on the first one). The button on the right reads Next until your last question, then switches to Review — or Review answers appears earlier too, as a secondary option, once you've looked at more than 40% of the questions.

Reviewing before you submit

Selecting Review opens a table listing every question in the exam: its section, type, a Status of Answered or Not answered, your selected answer, and an edit icon (Change answer) that jumps straight back to that question. Nothing is graded yet at this point — it's purely a checklist so you can catch anything you skipped before committing.

When you're ready, select Submit. A confirmation dialog opens — Are you sure you want to submit the exam? — reminding you this is your last chance to change anything, with your remaining time shown one more time. Confirming Submit grades the whole attempt at once.

After you submit

You land on a results page with your outcome, right away:

If you passed, you'll see your score against the required threshold, how many attempts you have left, and:

• Continue — takes you to your course's completion page if every section is also done (see Complete a course and share your feedback), or Back to Dashboard if some section is still unfinished.
• Review answers — opens the same per-question breakdown covered below.

If you didn't pass, the page instead explains why — you missed the overall threshold, missed a section-specific threshold your course may set, or both — and offers different next actions depending on your situation:

• Attempts remaining, no wait required: Retry Exam starts a fresh attempt right away, alongside Review Course Materials (back to your course) and Review answers.
• Your organization set a cooldown period and you're still in it: no retry button yet — a Cooldown Period Active alert tells you how many minutes until you can try again.
• You've used every attempt: a No More Attempts Available alert explains there's nothing left to try — you'd need to contact your instructor.

Looking back at a past attempt

Selecting View attempt from the Previous attempts table (or Review answers right after submitting) opens a read-only page titled Your answers, listing every question from that attempt grouped by section:

Each question shows every option again, with the one you picked marked green if it was right or red if it wasn't — the others stay plain, so a question you got wrong doesn't reveal which option would have been correct. Nothing on this page can be edited or resubmitted; it's a read-only record of that one attempt.

Next steps

• Take a quiz embedded in a section for the section-level quizzes this exam is separate from.
• Complete a course and share your feedback for what happens once you pass and every section is done.
• Download your diploma after completing a course if your course issues one.
• If your course requires periodic recertification, see Renew your certification when it's about to expire.
• More questions? See the Learner FAQ.

Frequently asked questions