Exam Clock
A full-screen classroom timer and countdown, with the extra-time finish worked out for every group of candidates.
Everything is computed in your browser; no instruction, no name and no time is ever sent to a server.
Running the exam online instead? Evalmee times each candidate individually, extra time included, and submits the paper automatically at the right minute. Open Evalmee
How to use the timer in an exam room
- 01
Enter the start time and the length of the paper
The start time is pre-filled with the current time rounded up to the next five minutes; change it if the paper starts later, or press “Start now” when the papers are going out this minute, then type the length of the paper in minutes.
- 02
Add a group with one click on its chip
Under the display, one chip per allowance — “Standard time”, “+25 %”, “+50 %”, “+100 %” — adds or removes its group, and each group then takes a bar of its own, with its finish time at the end of it. The “Groups and options” strip opens the editor, for renaming a group or giving it a percentage of your own.
- 03
Go full screen and project it
The full-screen button scales the display to the size of the screen: the digits then take up close to a fifth of its height, which stays readable from the back of a hall. The dark theme suits a room with the blinds down.
Showing the extra-time finish
A room holding candidates with access arrangements needs two finish times on the wall, sometimes three. That is what the groups do: one for standard time, one for 25 % extra time, one for 50 % if the paper grants it, each with its own bar and its finish time at the end of it. The bars are drawn on one shared time scale, so the gap between two finish times shows in their lengths before it is read in figures.
Percentages are applied to the length of the paper and the total is rounded to the nearest minute, half a minute rounding up — the rule the published extra-time tables follow, so that 1 h 45 with 25 % extra time reads 2 h 11 here and 2 h 11 on the paperwork. The French tiers-tempsTiers-temps (French statutory extra exam time)The extension of exam time granted to a candidate with a disability. The French code de l'éducation provides that it may not exceed a third of the time normally allowed, a longer extension remaining possible exceptionally, on the reasoned request of the doctor who examines the situation. is an exact third rather than 33 %, and is treated as such: a three-hour paper ends at four hours precisely.
Supervised rest breaks are added flat, never multiplied: ten minutes of rest stay ten minutes whatever percentage was granted. The clock has no field to type one into, so the finish times it shows are those of a paper without breaks; the extra time calculator keeps a column for them and produces the name-by-name table, before handing this page its groups already filled in.
| Length of paper | Standard | 25 % extra time | 50 % extra time | 100 % extra time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 h 00 | 1 h 00 | 1 h 15 | 1 h 30 | 2 h 00 |
| 1 h 30 | 1 h 30 | 1 h 53 | 2 h 15 | 3 h 00 |
| 1 h 45 | 1 h 45 | 2 h 11 | 2 h 38 | 3 h 30 |
| 2 h 00 | 2 h 00 | 2 h 30 | 3 h 00 | 4 h 00 |
| 3 h 00 | 3 h 00 | 3 h 45 | 4 h 30 | 6 h 00 |
A 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minute countdown
The countdown tab shows the time left in very large digits, with a progress bar, a colour change at five minutes and again at one minute — two thresholds you can edit — and an optional alarm, off by default. The duration chips set the timer in one click and write the duration into the page address, so a shortcut to a 45-minute timer can be bookmarked.
The count is derived from the target finish instant, never by adding up clock ticks. A backgrounded tab, a sleeping laptop or a loaded machine therefore cannot shift it: two hours into a paper, the display still agrees with the invigilator's watch. Pause, resume and a plus-five-minutes button stay available for the whole of the paper.
For a plain countdown projected in a classroom, with no finish time per group, the online timer opens the same engine straight on the countdown, with a paragraph for each common length, from 5 to 120 minutes.
Projecting the clock on a beamer
The full-screen button blows the display up to the size of the screen: the digit size follows the height of the window and the controls disappear apart from the exit button. Escape returns to the page. On a 1080p projector the digits are close to a fifth of the screen height, which stays readable from ten metres away. On a computer and on Android the browser also hides its own address bar; on iPhone and iPad it does not allow that — add the page to the Home Screen to lose it too. The screen stays awake for as long as the display is open.
The light theme — near-black digits on white — carries better in a room lit by daylight; the dark theme suits a lecture hall with the blinds down and is gentler on the projector. The instructions, typed in “Groups and options” under the display, appear under the bars, one per line, and three ready-made ones are offered so you do not retype them every session.
Once the page has loaded, nothing more is asked of the network: the clock, the countdown and the alarm all work offline. The trade-off is that the time shown is the computer's own, with no server to correct it — check its setting before the session, as you would check a wall clock.
What must an exam room display?
The constant, whatever the exam, is that the start time and the finish time are visible from every seat, along with a clock candidates can read without turning round. Depending on the paper, the room also displays the permitted materials, the earliest time a candidate may leave, and a reminder of the penalties for malpractice.
For centres following the JCQ regulations, the instructions for conducting examinations require the start and finish times to be displayed and visible to candidates throughout the examination, with a centre-supplied clock in every room. The wording changes between series and is not ours to reproduce: read the current version on jcq.org.uk, then type your own into the “On-screen instructions” field, under “Groups and options”, so they stay on screen for the whole paper.
Under an access-arrangement, the extra-time finish is displayed alongside the standard one rather than instead of it — which is why the group list holds several rows at once. In France the equivalent instructions come from the awarding authority and the académie; the French version of this page points to them.
How the finish time is worked out
A group's length is the nominal length of the paper multiplied by its allowance, then rounded to the nearest minute. The finish time is the start time plus that length.
group length = round(length × (1 + allowance ÷ 100))
finish time = start time + group length
Example: 09:00, 1 h 45 paper, 25 % extra time
group length = round(105 × 1.25) = 131 min = 2 h 11
finish time = 09:00 + 2 h 11 = 11:11
Frequently asked questions
Click the full-screen button under the display: the browser scales the clock to the size of the screen and the digit size follows the height of the window. Escape, or the button in the top-right corner, returns to the page. On a projector, connect the video output first, then go full screen on the projected display.
Only if you ask it to. The alarm is off by default, because an exam room does not always want a sound. Tick the alarm box before starting: three short notes are then produced by the browser itself, with no audio file and no network connection, and a preview plays the moment you tick the box.
Click one chip per allowance, under the display: “Standard time”, “+25 %”, “+50 %”, “+100 %”. Each group then takes a bar of its own under the clock, with its finish time at the end of it, and the editor in “Groups and options” adds the allowances the chips do not cover. Three groups fit without scrolling, full screen included.
The current time, very large, as the wall clock it replaces. Under it a bar stands for the paper: it runs from the start time to the finish time and fills as the clock moves, with the time elapsed small on the left and the time left on the right, in the largest figure after the clock, its colour changing at the two warning thresholds. With several groups there is one bar per group, all drawn on the same scale and crossed by a single vertical mark for the present moment, so an extra-time band is simply a longer bar the room reads rather than works out. Above five groups the list of finish times takes over. Before the start the screen says how long until the paper begins; a group that has finished says so on its row; and once they all have, that the paper is over.
Yes. Once the page has loaded, the timer, the clock, the stopwatch and the alarm ask nothing more of the network. You can switch the room's Wi-Fi off without consequence. The only trade-off is that the time shown is the computer's own: no server corrects it, so check its setting before the session.
Yes, one per line, under the clock and under the finish times. Three ready-made ones are offered — phones off and in bags, no candidate may leave before a given time, rough work not collected — and you can write your own. They stay on screen in full screen mode.
A timer counts down: you give it a length and it runs to zero, which is what a paper needs. A stopwatch counts up from zero and measures a length you do not know in advance: an oral, a practical, an individual slot. Both are here, in two tabs, with a third one for the room clock itself.
Nothing leaves your browser. The instructions and the groups are kept in your browser's local storage so that you find them again at the next session, and none of it is sent to a server. Clearing the site's data erases them for good.
Other tools
And when the exam itself is online?
Evalmee times each candidate, access arrangements included, and submits the paper automatically at the right minute.