Exam Timer — User guide

1Before your first exam

Do this once on each venue PC, ideally the day before exams start. It takes about five minutes.

Sign in. Open the Exam Timer website and click Sign in to your school. Use the email address your school registered: sign in with your password, or with Google if that address is a Google account. The first time, choose Create an account — we email you a 6-digit code to confirm the address. After signing in you go straight to the timer, with your school's name and subscription already on it.
Install it as an app (recommended). In Chrome or Edge, click the install icon at the right of the address bar and choose Install. The Exam Timer then opens like any other program, straight to its setup screen, from the Start menu or a desktop icon.
Check it works offline. Open the timer once while connected. If an orange bar appears at the top of the screen (below), offline mode is not working on that PC — tell your IT person before exam day.
Connect the projector and choose Duplicate or Extend display (Win + P on Windows). Press Test next to Sound alerts to check the speakers, then launch a test paper.

The orange warning bar that shows when offline mode is not working — The only warning you should ever need to act on before an exam. No orange bar means the timer will open and run even with no internet.

✓

Once opened, the timer never needs the internet during an exam. A paper that is running keeps counting down even if the network, the website or the power to the router goes.

2Setting up a paper

Everything is on one card. Fill it in from top to bottom and press Launch Timer.

1
Subscription line
How long your school's subscription still runs. Turns amber within 60 days and red within 30. After the end date the timer keeps working for 7 more days, then stops until the subscription is renewed.
2
Subjects in venue
How many different papers are written in this room — 1, 2 or 3. Each gets its own column on the projector.
3
Subject name
Exactly as it should appear on the projector, e.g. CAT Paper 1.
4
End time
When the standard paper ends, on the 24-hour clock.
5
Duration
Hours and minutes of writing time. The timer works out the start from the end time and the duration.
6
Reading time
Off, 5 or 10 minutes of reading before writing starts.
7
Exam mode
Basic, Accommodation or Matrics — see section 3.
8
Extra time tiers
Tick every concession group in this room: +10, +15 or +20 minutes per hour. Shown in Accommodation and Matrics mode only.
9
Theme
Light for bright halls, Dark for darkened rooms.
10
Sound alerts
Test plays the chime so you can check the volume; the switch next to it turns the chimes on or off.
11
Launch Timer
Starts the projector view in full screen.

💡

The card remembers. Your mode, extra-time groups, theme and sound stay from day to day. Today's papers are remembered too, so if the timer is closed by accident it reopens with the same times — but on a new day the papers start blank, so yesterday's paper can never appear by mistake.

⚠

If an end time has already passed when you press Launch, the timer asks you to double-check first. That catches the most common slip: an afternoon time typed as a morning one.

3Choosing the exam mode

The mode decides how extra time works in this venue.

Basic

One start, one end

Everyone writes the same time. No extra-time groups, no bathroom tracking. For ordinary venues.

Accommodation

Extra time before

Concession groups start earlier and everyone finishes together. Each group gets its own start time on the schedule.

Matrics

Extra time after

Everyone starts together; concession groups finish later. Adds the bathroom status line.

How extra time is worked out

Per hour of the paper. The minutes are rounded to the nearest whole minute.

Group	2-hour paper	2½-hour paper	3-hour paper
+10 min/hr	20 min	25 min	30 min
+15 min/hr	30 min	38 min	45 min
+20 min/hr	40 min	50 min	60 min

Accommodation mode: every group starts at a different time and all finish together — **Accommodation:** each group starts reading and writing at its own time, and every group finishes together.

Matric mode: everyone starts together, groups finish later, bathroom status at the bottom — **Matrics:** one start for everyone, later finishes for each group, and the bathroom status.

The bathroom status (Matrics)

The line at the bottom of the projector tells candidates whether they may leave the room:

🔴 Bathroom Locked for the first hour of a paper and its last 30 minutes (counted from the standard end, and it stays locked through the extra time).
🟢 Bathroom Available in between.
With two or three papers in the venue it shows Locked whenever any of them is in a locked period.

4The projector screen

Designed to be read from the back row. Nothing on it needs touching during a normal paper.

The projector screen with numbered parts

1
Date
Today's date, always in view.
2
Your school
From your account.
3
Clock
The time of day, to the second.
4
Paper
The subject name, with what is happening underneath: Starts 09:00, Reading time, Time remaining.
5
Countdown
Time left in the current phase.
6
Progress bar
Time left in the current phase; the bar shrinks as the time runs out.
7
Schedule
Reading, writing and end times for every group. The group still writing is marked; finished groups fade out.
8
Bathroom status
Matrics mode only — see section 3.
9
Controls
Nearly invisible until you move the mouse there: −5 / +5 minutes, sound on/off, and ⚙ back to setup.

Light or dark

A basic paper in the light theme — **Light** — best in a bright hall or on a whiteboard projector.

An accommodation paper in the dark theme — **Dark** — easier on the eyes in a darkened room.

5Alerts during the exam

At every change the whole screen shows a large message for a few seconds, with a chime, then returns to the countdown on its own. You don't press anything.

📖 Reading time

When reading starts, if reading time is on. Shows for about 4½ seconds.

🔔 Start writing

When writing starts — per group in Accommodation mode.

⚠ 5 minutes remaining

Five minutes before the end — per group in Matrics mode.

🛑 Time is up

At the end — per group in Matrics mode, everyone at once in the others.

🔇

Need silence? Press M (or the speaker button in the controls) to turn the chimes off. The on-screen messages still appear.

6Several papers in one venue

Choose 2 or 3 under Subjects in venue and fill in each paper. They run side by side, each with its own countdown, schedule and alerts.

Three papers side by side on one projector — Alerts name the paper they belong to, e.g. *Afrikaans HT P1 — 5 MINUTES REMAINING*, so the right candidates react.

💡

Different lengths are fine: papers can end at different times. Put the paper that finishes first on the left if you can — candidates read the screen from left to right.

7When things go wrong

The timer is built for bad days. Here is what to do in each case.

A fire drill, power dip or other disruption

Move the mouse to the bottom-right corner of the projector screen and click +5 min once for every five minutes lost. Every finish time still to come moves with it; a group or paper that has already finished stays finished. −5 min takes five minutes off again — but never so much that a paper still being written would end.

The adjustment is remembered: if the timer is closed and reopened the same day, it comes back with the extra minutes and says so on screen.

The timer was closed by accident, or the PC restarted

Open the Exam Timer again (the app, or the website).
Today's papers are still filled in. Check them and press Launch Timer.
The countdown carries on from the real time — nothing is lost, including any +5 minutes you added.

The internet goes down

Nothing happens. A running paper never needs the internet, and a PC that has opened the timer before can open it again with no connection — from the installed app, or a bookmark of the timer page itself (its address has /timer/ in it). The website's home page and this guide need the internet.

You need to change something mid-exam

Press Esc (or ⚙ in the controls). The timer asks before it leaves the projector view, so a stray key can't end an exam. Make the change and launch again — the countdown picks up from the real time.

8Keyboard shortcuts

These work while the projector view is showing.

Key	What it does
`F`	Full screen on or off
`M`	Sound on or off
`Esc`	Back to the setup card (asks first)

9Questions and fixes

I don't have a password / I forgot it

Click Sign in to your school. The first time, choose Create an account with the email address your school registered — we email you a 6-digit code to confirm it. If you forgot your password, choose Forgot password? and follow the link in the email. You never need a Google account.

The Launch button says “Sign in to continue”

This PC has no current subscription on it yet, or the subscription ended more than 7 days ago. Press the button, sign in with your school account, and you are back on the timer. Each PC needs the internet for that one sign-in; after that it runs offline.

A red banner says the subscription has ended

The timer keeps working for 7 days after the end date, and the banner shows the last day. In the last 3 of those days a message asks you to Renew or Ignore each time the timer opens; Ignore simply carries on to the timer. Once the subscription is renewed, the PC picks it up by itself the next time it opens the timer with internet. Nothing needs to be re-installed. The banner and the message only ever appear on the setup card, never on the projector.

It says the date on this PC looks wrong

The PC's clock is set to an earlier date than it had before. Correct the date and time in Windows (or turn on “Set time automatically”), then reload the timer.

The school name or the "days left" line is missing

Both come from your school's subscription. Sign in on the website once and the timer shows them; after that they stay on that PC, even offline and in the installed app, and update themselves whenever the PC is online.

An orange bar says offline mode is not working

That browser can't keep its offline copy — usually a private/incognito window or a locked-down browser. Open the timer in a normal Chrome or Edge window, or ask your IT person. The timer still works while connected.

There is no sound

Press Test on the setup card. If you hear nothing, check the PC's volume and the projector's speakers, and that sound wasn't switched off with M.

It says an end time has already passed

Check the time is on the 24-hour clock — 14:00, not 2:00. If the paper really is under way already (you are relaunching), confirm and it continues from the real time.

A group's time looks wrong

Check the duration and the ticked groups on the setup card: the extra time is the per-hour rate × the length of the paper (see the table in section 3). Launch again after a fix — nothing else needs resetting.

Can we use it in several venues at once?

Yes. Open it on as many PCs as you have venues; each one runs its own papers.

Does the timer collect any information about learners?

No. It never sends learner data anywhere. The only thing it checks online is your school's subscription; papers, times and settings stay on the PC that uses them.

Who do we contact?

CAT Mastery, for accounts, subscriptions and any fault in the timer: email us at catmastery.sa@gmail.com with your school's name.