Online Placement Instrument

FAQ

What is the difference between Saturn Short and Pluto Short?
They are different test versions. As the results are on the same scale it is easy to compare results between the two tests.

What happens if a student is logged out accidentally?
The student will be returned to the last question they were working on when they log back in.

Which age levels correspond to the year levels in the OPI (especially for international schools)?
The year levels in the OPI test correspond to years of schooling or the US 'grade' system - so a student doing the year 3 OPI test will be measured against students with 3 years of structured primary school teaching behind them (assuming that the student commences this structured schooling at the age of 5). This definition stems from UNESCO's International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-97) classification of grades.

The one exception is British style schools where students are younger. In that case it will be suitable for the students in a British style school in year 4 to do the OPI test for year 3.

The student scored in the 95th percentile, but was not offered a bump-up test?
The bump-up facility is enabled when the student answers more than 95% of the questions correctly – this corresponds to a higher percentile score. Likewise with the bump-down facility, the student will have to answer more than 95% of the questions incorrectly before being offered a test at the lower level.

Can the teachers access all the individual reports at once?
No, the individual report can only be accessed via the student’s login. The teachers can access all the students’ results through the group report. Please refer to page 17 of the user-guide for more information about the group report.

 

Technical tips

  • Please make sure that the OPI is the only program running on the computer at the time of the test
  • Make sure to use the navigational tools provided within the OPI software (i.e. the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons), not the navigational tools in the browser (i.e. the back button)
  • Please keep a list of which usernames and passwords were allocated to which student.
  • It is also useful to cross-reference that list with a list of group identifiers (if applicable)

 

What Bandwidth is required?

The speed of your Internet connection will determine the number of students who can sit a test at any one time. Below are suggested maximum numbers of students for different types of Internet connection.

Connection Type

Connection Speed

Maximum Number

Modem

56K bit/s

1 student

ADSL (basic)

128K bit/s

2 students

ADSL (medium)

256K bit/s

5 students

ADSL (high)

512K bit/s

10 students

ADSL (corporate)

1.5M bit/s

30 students
1 class

Cable (basic)

1.5M bit/s

30 students
1 class

Cable (high)

>3 mb/s

1 - 2 classes