Shortcuts for your cbes

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Shortcuts for your CBEs

25 Feb 2026

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Below are general functionality built-in the exam software and irrespective of whichever CBE you are sitting these are available:

Flag for review: this option allows students to leave a question and revisit it later.

Next and previous button: this functionality allows students to navigate through the exam questions.

Navigator tool: this tool is useful if you want to jump from one question to another in a disarray sequence.

Time and exam progress: it is the default setting to show time and exam progress on-screen but students can choose to hide it.

Scratchpad: This facility is a built in tool to help students note down their rough workings. These, however, are not visible to the marker therefore these won't be marked. If students wish to have their workings or notes seen by the marker then these should be included in word processing tools or spreadsheets.

Calculator: students can also use built-in calculators but they are given the option to bring their own except that it must not display text.

Highlight and Strikethrough: this is an option where students can highlight the important elements of the case. Whereas strikethrough indicates that students have dealt with a part of the question by way of crossing it.
Help feature: depending on what exam you are taking this feature is shown with different names on any given paper.

Scrolling: When a question has a scrolling option, the student must ensure to scroll and view the full content of the case. Warning notification is displayed if you move on to another question without viewing the full content of the case.

Splitter bar: here the screen is either split vertically or horizontally and shows the division between the question and answer section

How CBEs are conducted:

This part describes how CBEs will be examined. There are three ways listed below:

● Objective test questions (OT Questions)

● Objective test case question (OT case Questions)

● Constructive response question

OT Questions: these are auto-marked short questions worth 2 marks each. Also, there are several methods under which OT questions are examined.

OT case questions: there are 5 OT questions worth 10 marks each. An integrated case is given around which these questions are based. But no extra mark is cut if students made a mistake in the previous requirement meaning there is no butterfly effect.

Constructed response questions: these questions are complex and students produce numerical and narrative answers. Also, there 2 ways constructed response questions are examined, through word processing and spreadsheet functions.

Since students have to give answers in their own words they use these functionalities to present their answers

Let's explore these important functionalities that provide useful shortcuts:

It is important to note that there are different shortcuts for word processing and spreadsheet functionality.

Functions	Additional Information/ Shortcuts
Reset	This icon allows students to erase all that you wrote. A notification will pop up to confirm reset.
Paste Copy Cut	Following are small shortcuts Paste (Ctrl+V) Copy (Ctrl+C) Cut (Ctrl+X)
Undo Redo	When you undo your previous action and it happens to be reset then the erased content will restore in the word processing but not in the spreadsheet. The shortcut for this icon is Ctrl+Z (undo) Redo (Ctrl+Y)
Paragraph	6 different font sizes are available
Bold Italic Underline and strikethrough	Ctrl+B (bold) Ctrl+I (italic) Ctrl U (Underline)
Tables	The basic table offering cell, row, and column feature
Bulleted List Numbered List	The text can be presented either in the bulleted or numbered ways.
Format painter	Format painter If there are set of text or object in a particular format and you wish to apply that format to your whole response or other objects than this tool is used
Select All	There is no toolbar icon available for this feature but this function has a shortcut of (Ctrl+A)
Cell fill colour	Right click the cell and select format cells and that is how cell is colored
Number formats	This feature allows students to format cell numbers. Right click the cell and select format cell for this feature
Currency format	This function can format currency. Again format cell option by way of right clicking the cell can opens this feature
Percentage format	It's the same as above
Fraction format	Same as above
date/ time format	This can be accessed the same way
Fraction format	Same as above

Function	Syntax	Description
Sum	=SUM(number1,[number2],…) number1 (necessary) – the first number argument to be added. number2,,… (can be opted) – extra number arguments to be added.	Sum up arguments you specify A number, range cell reference is called an argument
Average	=AVERAGE(number1,[number2],…) number1 (required) – This indicates the argument you want the average of. number2,,… (optional) –This indicates the option to add extra argument you want the average of	Average functionality allows students to get average of an argument they specify
Square root	=SQRT(number) number (required) – the argument for square root	This formula provides positive square root
Power	=POWER(number, power) number (needed) – the base number (must be a real number) power (requiste) – It is the exponent that raises base number	Returns the number raised to a power Can also be used to apply multiple roots.
Count	=COUNT(value1,[value2],…) value1 (required) – The main item, range of cell, or cell reference counts the numbers contained. value2,… (needed) - extra numbers, cell references or cell ranges that need to be counted.	If your spreadsheet contains lots of numerical data in cell the count feature will count the number of cells
Round	=ROUND(number, num_digits) number (required) – the number you wish to round num_digits – the number of digits which you wish to round the number argument to. This argument allows number of digits to be rounded	This feature allows student to round digits as per their request
Log	=LOG(number,[base]) number (required) – the positive real number for which you want the logarithm base (optional) – This option allows alteration of the base you specify and if base is omitted it is perceived to be 0	The base you specify is returned to that logarithm number
NPV	=NPV(rate,value1,[value2],…) rate (required) – the discount rate given as a decimal. value1 (required) – the item, cell reference, or range you want to discount cash flows within. value2,… (required) – additional numbers, cell references or ranges to be discounted.	With this formula students can perform NPV calculation of an investment at a given discount rate over series of future cash flows.
IRR	=IRR(values,[guess]) values (required) – the range of cash flows for which you want the internal rate of return. guess (optional) – a rate you think is close to the result of the IRR given as a decimal.	This formula allows student to perform calculation on internal rate of return for a series of cash flows

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