This guidance is for IT staff members who are involved in the set up of on-screen tests.

At OCR, we use SecureClient to deliver the Cambridge Technicals on-screen tests which must be installed on all on-screen test computers. We use the ‘unified’ SecureClient which is also used by other awarding organisations, meaning you only need to install unified SecureClient once.

To help you with installing SecureClient, you may find our handy checklist useful:

To confirm you can use SecureClient, check your computers meet the minimum system requirements.

SecureClient can only be installed on Windows – versions 10 and 11 are currently supported. Windows versions 7, 8 and 8.1 can be used, but are not supported. Microsoft .NET framework v3.5 is also required.

You can view the full system requirements on the Surpass Help website. 

SecureClient must be installed by a user with full system administrator rights and not a standard user with elevated permissions.

If you've not installed SecureClient before, you can download here:

1. Go to https://ocr.surpass.com/launchtest
2. Click the ‘Secure Delivery’ button
3. Click the ‘Download for Windows’ button

If you’re using a proxy server and/or firewall to access the internet, it will need to be configured to allow SecureClient to access the following sites on ports 80 and 443:

• ocr.surpass.com (including ocr.surpass.com/DeliveryService and ocr.surpass.com/DeliveryUI on port 443 only)
• cms.surpass.com
• cmspublic.surpass.com
• demo.surpass.com
• cdnukshared.surpass.com (on port 443 only)

These URLs should also be added to the safe list of any firewall.

If you already have SecureClient installed on your computers, please make sure you update it before delivering tests. Depending on when you last used SecureClient, there may be more than one new version to install. These must be installed in the order they were released, see Checking for updates below.

A new version of SecureClient is released 3–4 times a year and it's important to keep it updated on your test computers. To check for updates:

1. Launch SecureClient on every computer it is installed on. Any updates are detected and will be automatically applied, taking up to 5 minutes to complete. SecureClient may appear unresponsive whilst this takes place so allow sufficient time for the update to take place.
2. On completion, you’ll be asked to restart SecureClient.
3. On restarting, SecureClient will either open the Enter Keycode screen or, if another new version is detected, it will update itself again.

SecureClient can only be updated from the two most recent major versions. If more than one update is necessary, these are applied automatically and in sequential order of release.

If you haven't used SecureClient for a long time and have not kept it updated, it may not be possible to update to the latest version. In these circumstances, we recommend you completely uninstall SecureClient and then reinstall from the Launch Test – Secure Delivery website (select Download for Windows).

When you have finished updating or reinstalling SecureClient, we recommend you schedule the installation test to confirm you can use SecureClient to deliver tests in your environment. This should be done well before you need to schedule practice tests for your candidates and before the live timetabled tests take place, see Testing the installation below.

We'll let you know when major versions of SecureClient are released. 

Tip: Keep SecureClient updated regularly when new versions are released – don’t wait until the next on-screen test session. To check which version of SecureClient you have installed, from the Enter Keycode screen, click ‘Surpass, Powering Assessment’ in the bottom right-hand corner.

Once you've installed or updated SecureClient, it's important to check it works as expected in your environment. To do this we suggest you schedule and sit an HTML Installation Test on one or more test computers. There is no charge for using the HTML Installation Test.

It's important to test the installation so you can identify any issues well ahead of the scheduled test date. It also allows time for troubleshooting and means we have time to provide help if needed. 

Please don't leave your preparation to the test date, as there’s little time to troubleshoot issues on the day.

We've set up a dummy candidate in your centre (InstallationTest Candidate) you can use to schedule an Installation Test, which can be sat in SecureClient logged in with a candidate account.

To schedule an HTML Installation Test follow the steps below:

1. Navigate to the Schedule screen in the Test Administration menu.
2. Click Schedule Test in the bottom menu to open the wizard.
3. Select your centre and then Next.
4. Select the HTML OCR Diagnostic Tests subject and HTML OCR Installation Test.
5. Choose today’s date or a date range. You don’t need to change the start and end time. Click Next.
6. Select the InstallationTest Candidate and then Next.
7. Click Next.
8. Click Schedule Test to finish – a record is added to the Schedule screen. 
9. Within 15 seconds the schedule locks (if the start date is today) and a keycode is created in the Invigilate screen. 
10. Navigate to the Invigilate screen in the Test Administration menu and take note of the keycode. 
11. On a test computer start SecureClient to load the Enter Keycode screen. Enter the keycode and click OK. Confirm the test downloads. 
12. Accept the candidate details and sit the test. 
13. Finish the test and check the finish notification is displayed. 
14. Repeat on as many test computers as required, particularly where they are in different rooms or different networks, in case they have a different path to the internet. 

To help understand the on-screen test process, we've listed the sequence of events below. This may help when troubleshooting any issues.

1. SecureClient is started. If there are any updates, these are automatically installed, otherwise the Enter Keycode screen opens.
2. The candidate enters their keycode for the test to be sat and clicks OK.
3. SecureClient communicates with the Surpass CMS to check the owner of the keycode. The keycodes ending in 4J belong to OCR.
4. SecureClient communicates with OCR Surpass to authenticate the candidate’s keycode to check it's valid, in the right state and date period. If successful, the test downloads to within the SecureClient folder and a progress bar is displayed on screen. 
5. The candidate’s details and test are displayed. 
6. The candidate checks their details and the test they're scheduled for and clicks OK.
7. The introduction screen is displayed. 
8. The candidate reads the instructions and starts their test. 
9. The candidate navigates through the test answering the questions. Once finished they click Finish, Accept and Accept again. 
10. A finish success notification is displayed.
11. On the Invigilate screen, the test’s state shows as a green tick (Finished).

Problems with updating SecureClient

If your version of SecureClient is more than two versions behind, SecureClient may get stuck in an ‘update loop’ as it continues to find new updates. You can fix this by uninstalling and reinstalling SecureClient. Make sure the SecureClient folder is empty before reinstalling. You can view further information in the SecureClient Update Loop section on the SecureClient for Windows troubleshooting web page.

For other updating issues, you may find it helpful to check the update logs in the log.xml file at C:\Users\Public\Surpass\SecureClient\UpdaterProgramme.

Problems when entering keycode

When entering a keycode, the following issues may occur:

• Invalid keycode message or error validating keycode.
• White screen appears with spinner.
• Introduction screen does not load successfully.

These problems can occur because of several reasons, which we've listed below. When troubleshooting, we recommend you eliminate these causes one by one.

Keycode has not been entered correctly

• Close SecureClient and enter the keycode again. 

SecureClient isn't communicating with one or more of the four sites, listed in the Installing SecureClient section above

1. Log in as a candidate and check they can access these sites in a browser. If not, log in as an administrator and repeat the check to determine if it is permissions related.
2. If you use a proxy server, check its settings and, if authenticating, enter the details into the proxy.xml file at C:\Users\Public\Surpass\SecureClient\configfiles. See further instructions.
3. Check the log.xml file in C:\Users\Public\Surpass\SecureClient\configfiles for connection errors which may help identify the cause.
4. Try a keycode in SecureClient on a laptop which is disconnected from the network and connected to the internet using a mobile phone hotspot. 

The test hasn't downloaded and isn't saved in the SecureClient folder

1. Check the candidate has full read/write access to the SecureClient folder to save the downloaded test, retrieve the questions and save their responses.
2. Log in as an administrator and repeat the check to determine if it is permissions related.

Introduction screen is not loading after confirming candidate details

1. Check the candidate has full read/write access to the SecureClient folder to save the downloaded test, retrieve the questions and save their responses.
2. Log in as an administrator and repeat the check to determine if it is permissions related.

Problems during a test

To allow the test to be downloaded and to upload the candidate’s responses, your test computers must have an internet connection at the start and end of the test.

You may experience problems during a test if:

• Your internet connection is poor and/or intermittent.
• Your anti-virus software real time scanning interferes with the test.

We've provided support for these issues below:

• If you know your internet connection is poor you can use the ‘Download Test to Take Later’ option on the Enter Keycode screen and run the test offline. At the end of the test a message displays if you're still offline. You'll need to restore the internet to upload the candidate’s responses, see our On-screen tests page.
• If you loose your internet connection part way through a test, SecureClient falls into offline mode and the test continues. At the end of the test a message displays if you're still offline. You'll need to restore the internet to upload the candidate’s responses, see our On-screen tests page.
• If your internet connection is poor or intermittent and you're not running the test offline, you may notice SecureClient is slow moving between questions as it synchronises the candidate’s responses to the central server. In this situation, we recommend disconnecting from the internet to allow SecureClient to fall into offline mode to continue the test. For additional information, you can check the test logs in the log.xml file in C:\Users\Public\Surpass\SecureClient\clients\4J. 
• If you see a notification from your anti-virus software during a test, the real time scanning may be interfering with the communication to and from the SecureClient folder. To prevent this, you can add an exception to the anti-virus software to allow communication with the SecureClient folder. You can contact us for further guidance if needed.

For further support on using SecureClient, you can refer to the ‘SecureClient best practice’ guidance, on the Surpass Help website. This includes advice on configuring antivirus software, downloading tests ahead of time, troubleshooting and whitelisting and more.