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Everything you can bulk import into Exam Manager

Seven importers, not one

StudyDrome Exam Manager ships seven bulk importers, not one. Questions arrive from Excel or Word with their images. Bank trees, OSCE stations, students, groups, and holds each have their own importer and template. Every one parses first and shows you the rows before anything is written.

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What can you import into StudyDrome?

Import is not one feature. Seven importers ship, each with its own template and its own screen.

What goes in

File

How much at once

Questions

Excel or Word, images and all

100 MB per file

Question banks

Excel

A tree up to five levels deep

OSCE stations

Excel, one sheet or a batch workbook

50 stations per workbook

Students

Excel

1,000 students per file

Student groups

Excel

500 groups per file

Holds

Excel

1,000 rows per file

Hold releases

Excel

1,000 rows per file

The question importer takes a much bigger file than the rest, and the reason is images. A Word or Excel document with diagrams in it quickly exceeds 10 megabytes, so that ceiling is set where real files live.

Banks and questions are separate imports. Build the tree first, then fill it. The order is useful in itself: you get to check the structure before a single item lands in it.

How do you run a bulk import?

  1. 1

    Open the workspace the data belongs to. Questions and OSCE stations import from Questions. Students, groups, and holds import from People.

  2. 2

    Choose the action. The question modal is headed "Import Questions", the station one "Import OSCE Stations", and the two hold modals "Import Holds" and "Release Holds".

  3. 3

    Download the template for the format you want. The upload step links to each one by name — "Excel Template", "Word Template", "Station Template", "Per Item Template".

  4. 4

    Fill it in, then drag the file back to the same step. Questions and stations accept drag-and-drop or file browsing.

  5. 5

    Read the preview. It reports what it parsed, and you choose which rows to keep before you commit them.

  6. 6

    For questions and stations, name the "Target Question Bank" the rows land in. Then import.

What does the question template hold?

Download the template before you write anything. Each importer links to its own from the upload step.

The Excel question template is a single sheet, 15 columns wide. A row is a question with its answers in line. A second worksheet sets out the column rules, and five sample rows show one of each type.

Columns

What they carry

Title and text

The question itself. Leave the title blank, and it is written for you from the text.

Type and points

One of five types, and a points value from 0 to 1,000.

Answers A to F

Up to six options. Name the correct one by letter, or list letters for a multi-answer item.

Timing and guidance

Estimated seconds, instructions, explanation, and a model answer for written items.

Five question types import from a spreadsheet: multiple choice, checkboxes, true/false, short answer, and essay. Each brings a rule of its own. Multiple choice requires two or more options and exactly one correct answer. Checkboxes need at least one correct. True/false is written as two options. Short answer lists every response you will accept. An essay takes no options at all.

Word is a different shape, and it suits a document that already holds diagrams and tables. Importing exam questions from Word covers the markers, the field names, and which images convert.

How does an OSCE station checklist import?

An OSCE station is a checklist with a scoring scale, and schools lay that out in two ways. Some use one scale for the whole station, with the levels running down the sheet. Others score each checklist item on its own, with the levels running across.

StudyDrome reads the sheet and works out which one you used. Pick either template, fill it in, and the parser settles the layout from the headers. Both share a Critical column and a Threshold column, so a critical item stays critical whichever way you built it.

Batch mode takes one workbook with a worksheet per station, up to fifty. That is a whole circuit in a single file, imported in one pass.

How do you place and release holds in bulk?

Holds come as a matched pair. One importer places them. A second importer takes them back off, and it is the half people forget to ask for.

The bursar sends a list of four hundred students who owe fees. You place the holds in one pass, keyed on email address and hold type, each row carrying a scope, a reason, an expiry date and a note. Three weeks later, the same office sends the list of who has paid. You release them in one pass on the same keys, with a release reason.

Scope is what makes that safe to run at size. A hold can be placed on exam access while leaving the rest of a student's account alone.

What does a bulk import guarantee?

Moving a term's worth of data into a new system is a question of trust. These are the properties you can rely on while you do it.

  • Nothing is written on upload. The file is parsed, the rows are shown to you, and the import runs when you commit it.

  • Every importer has a template, and you download it from the screen you import on.

  • Student templates are built for your account. Fixed columns first, then a name pair for each language you run, then one column for each custom field you have defined.

  • A student row can name the groups it joins, so an intake arrives already sorted.

  • Holds and hold releases are two files, two screens, and two templates. Releasing at scale is a first-class operation, not a manual undo.

  • Beyond files, the People list supports bulk role and status changes and exports for students, groups, and hold types.

Who needs bulk import?

  • Exam offices are lifting a question bank off a legacy platform, or off a shared drive.

  • OSCE leads whose station checklists were written in Excel and have lived there ever since.

  • Registry staff is placing and lifting holds for an entire cohort at a time.

  • Anyone enrolling in a new intake, where a thousand students arrive as one spreadsheet.

Frequently asked questions

How do you import exam questions in bulk?

Download the Excel or Word template from the Import Questions screen, fill it in, and upload it. StudyDrome parses the file and shows you the rows it found before anything is saved. You then pick the target question bank and import. One Excel row is one question, with its answers inline, and a file can run to 100 MB.

Can you import a batch of students?

Yes, up to a thousand at a time from Excel. The template is generated for your account: the fixed columns first, then a first-name and last-name pair for each language you run, then one column for every custom field you have defined. A row can also name the groups that the student joins, so an intake lands already sorted.

Which file formats does StudyDrome Exam Manager import?

Excel for every importer, and Word as well for questions. The question screen accepts .xlsx and .docx and states both on the upload step. Banks, OSCE stations, students, groups, holds, and hold releases each take .xlsx. Every format has a template you download from the screen you import on.

Do question banks import with their questions?

They are two imports, run in that order. The bank importer recreates the tree, up to five levels deep, so your taxonomy arrives in one pass. The question importer then fills it, and you name the target bank as you go. Building the structure first means you can check it before a single item lands in it.

How do you import a whole OSCE circuit?

Use batch mode. One workbook holds a worksheet per station, up to fifty stations in a single file. Each sheet can use a station-wide scoring scale or a score per checklist item, and the parser works out which layout you used from the headers. Critical items and thresholds are read the same way in both.

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Send us a spreadsheet of your questions or a workbook of your stations. We will import it into a sandbox and show you what arrived.

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