The online format allows students to use a computer, laptop, or tablet to compete. It's easy to use and students can practice using the online platform from our website, at any time.

Logging in:

After you purchase entries, we will email you a list of individual usernames and passwords that students can use to access the Challenge.

Let students know that they can attempt the questions in any order and can always go back to change an answer. Their answers will be saved immediately. At the end of the Challenge, they must select the 'submit' option beneath question 80. 

Please note: Teachers are fully responsible for ensuring students are not allocated more than 35 minutes to complete the Challenge (unless a student requires extra).

Once your students have finished, you do not need to do anything further.

Students can sit the challenge on paper booklets, similar to a formal exam. There's no need to worry about printing! Before the exam, we will post the question and answer sheets to your school. The Challenge should be sat in school and under exam conditions, with no exceptions.

Students must record their answers on a separate multiple-choice answer sheet. A template of this answer sheet can be viewed before the challenge here. Students will need to fill in their candidate number (which will be emailed to you) on the answer sheet. 

After the challenge, you must scan each student's answer sheet and download them to your computer. You must email this file to BMSAQ before the deadline closes. You do not need to upload any question booklets or rough worksheets. These can be kept safe until the results are released, when you may return them to students (if wished).

No, we print and deliver all papers. All papers should arrive at your school at least one week before the challenge date. If your papers have not arrived at least one week before the challenge you should contact us immediately. We will be able to rectify the issue and provide peace of mind.

BMSAQ will award candidates who normally receive additional time for any formal UK/ Ireland recognised exam to receive an additional 25% extra time in all papers because of their impairment which substantially impacts upon a student's reading, writing and processing skills. The member of staff organising the BMSAQ within a college must lead on awarding the access arrangement of extra time within his/her centre.

More information regarding access arrangements can be found on our 'Teacher's Information' webpage here.

All BMSAQ Challenges have a possible 80 marks which students can achieve. Each question is worth one mark. There are NO marks deducted for a wrong answer.

The Challenge can be completed in a paper format or online. If you choose to compete using the online format, students will need to have a computer, laptop or tablet.

When ordering your challenges we will ask you to provide an email for us to invoice. This can be your email or your school's finance office. After you confirm your order we will send an invoice to the email you have specified. Invoices can be paid via BACS or cheque.

You must scan and send your student's answer sheets to us on the day they sit the challenge. On the day of the Challenge, we will send you an email reminder.

Firstly, you will need to scan the paper answer sheets to your computer. Your files can be up to 100MB. This should be more than enough to upload all your answer sheets in 1 file, however, if not you will need to put them into several different files and send them together. It does not matter what these files are called. 

Tips:

• Use a sheet-fed scanner to create a PDF file

• Do NOT use a cell phone PDF scanner app, which will alter the layout and hide glare marks.

• Scan papers between 100-300 PPI

• Scan in Grayscale, black and white or colour.

• One answer sheet per page

• Maximum File Size of 100MB

Please note: Do not upload any rough work, blank sheets, seating plans or answer booklets.

No, your students must not take home any materials on the day of the challenge. This is to accommodate any schools who may be taking the challenge at another time. 

However, if you wish to hold these materials in a safe location, students can collect them after results have been released. This is not mandatory.