Time needed: about an hour. Skill needed: none. This walkthrough takes you from a fresh WordPress site to a timed mock test with negative marking, which a student can take from its own page.
It is a beginner’s walkthrough. For every setting in detail, the reference pages are Building a quiz and Question types.
Before you start
You need a WordPress site on WordPress 6.7+ and PHP 8.1+. If you do not have one yet, do the beginner guide up to Step 5 first.
1. Install and activate the plugin
- Log in at
yourdomain.com/wp-admin. - Go to Plugins → Add New and search for Turgor Exam Engine. Or upload the zip from its WordPress.org page with Upload Plugin.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
- Check the left sidebar for Turgor Exam Engine.
2. Set your site defaults
Open Turgor Exam Engine → Quiz Settings. This sets the defaults every new quiz starts with: time limit, retake limit, shuffling and negative marking. Set them to what most of your papers need. You can override any of them on a single quiz.
3. Create a quiz
- Open Quizzes, then Add New.
- Type a title, for example Full Mock Test 1.
- Find the Questions box under the title. It holds the quiz’s settings, sections and questions.
The settings, in plain words
| Setting | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Time limit (minutes) | The whole paper’s time. Blank means untimed. |
| Passing score (%) | Score needed to pass. Blank means any submitted attempt passes. |
| Retake limit | Attempts per student. Blank means unlimited. |
| Questions per page | How many questions appear at once. |
| Shuffle question order | Each attempt gets its own order. |
| Shuffle answer order | Each attempt gets its own option order. |
| Negative marking and Deduct % | Percentage of a question’s marks taken off per wrong answer. Enter 25 for a +4 / -1 paper. Unanswered questions are never penalised. |
| Open to every signed-in student | Tick to make it a standalone mock test with its own page. |
The first four settings have a Use site default box. While ticked, the quiz follows your Quiz Settings. Typing a value unticks it.
4. Add questions
- Click Write a new question inside the quiz.
- At the top of the form, choose the Type. There are eight: single choice, multiple choice, fill in the blank, free answer, sorting, matching, rating scale and essay.
- Type the question. For choice questions, write one option per row and tick the correct ones.
- Enter the Marks. Leave Negative marks blank to use the quiz’s rate, or type a number to override it for this question.
- Save. The question lands in the quiz and also in your question bank on the Questions screen, so you can reuse it.
Next time, use Search questions by title or text to add existing questions with one click. Drag rows to reorder them.
Warning: a row marked cannot be marked stops the whole quiz from opening for students until you fix or remove that question.
Numeric answers
For a free-answer question, add one accepted answer per row and tick it. To accept any number in a range, write it with two dots: 6300..6400.
5. Split the paper into sections (optional)
- Save the quiz once so the Sections table appears.
- Type a title such as Reasoning in Add a section… and update the quiz. Repeat for each section.
- Each question row now has a section box. Choose one for each question and update again.
Students see each section’s title as a heading over its questions, and shuffling stays inside a section. For a separate timer and cut-off per section, the paid add-on is Exam Mode in Turgor Exam Engine Pro.
6. Publish and tick “Open to every signed-in student”
Tick the box if this is a standalone mock test, then click Publish. The quiz now has its own page and any signed-in student can take it, with no course or enrollment needed.
7. Create the pages students see
Add a normal WordPress page for each row, paste the shortcode, publish, then add the page to Appearance → Menus.
| Page | Shortcode | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Mock Tests | [turgee_quizzes] |
Grid of standalone tests with question count, time limit, negative marking and best score |
| Courses | [turgee_courses] |
Grid of courses with lesson count and progress |
| Login | [turgee_login] |
Sign-in, lost and reset password |
| My Profile | [turgee_profile] |
Stats, courses and scores over time |
| My Results | [turgee_quiz_results] |
Score history chart |
Other useful ones: [turgee_course_progress course_id="123"], [turgee_course_content course_id="123"], [turgee_breadcrumbs], and [turgee_if_logged_in]…[/turgee_if_logged_in] to show something only to signed-in visitors.
8. Build a course (when you are ready)
A course is an outline of sections, topics, lessons, sub-lessons and quizzes.
- Create a lesson or quiz by typing its title.
- Drag items into place, or use the + buttons. Move the pointer left or right while dragging to step out or in a level.
- Set prerequisites and completion rules per course.
- To add a video, use the Lesson videos box on a lesson, then paste its tag, such as
[turgee_video n="2"], into the lesson text where it should play. Chapters go one per line, like1:54 Exam summary.
9. Test it as a student
- Open a private or incognito window.
- Register a student account on your login page.
- Open your mock test, answer some questions wrongly on purpose, leave some blank, and submit.
- Check the score matches your negative-marking setting and review each question.
- Back in your admin window, open the Results screen to see the attempt.
Troubleshooting
- The plugin will not activate: check PHP is 8.1+ and WordPress is 6.7+ under Tools → Site Health.
- A quiz is missing from the Mock Tests page: is it published, with Open to every signed-in student ticked?
- Students cannot sign in: add a page with
[turgee_login]and link it in your menu. - A setting is refused on save: a value such as “abc” for a retake limit is rejected with a message and nothing changes. Enter a number.