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User guide
Assessment guide

Having technical problems?

This site has been tested on a number of Operating Systems such as Windows, Mac OS X (only 10.4 onwards is supported) and Linux (Ubuntu), and web browsers such as IE (Internet Explorer), FireFox, Opera, Safari and Chrome. The site also uses a wide range of methods of interactivity. Your browser will need to be enabled for Java and Javascript and must accept cookies. Clicking the Check Computer button below will display some information that should help you confirm if any of these are not enabled or installed:



Please note that if you see Manual Check Required against the Java Enabled item then you will be using a version of Internet Explorer (IE). If Java applets are not working (especially if the field to the right of Java Installed remains blank) then click on the Tools menu and select Internet Options. Click the Advanced tab and scroll down the list until you see the Java entry and make sure that it is enabled - sometimes you may see more than one type of JRE (Java Runtime Environment) listed, if one doesn't work then try enabling a different one.

For any other Java-related problems please make sure you are using the latest version of Java. To check your version of Java under Windows then right-click the Java icon in your System Tray - the bottom right section of your task bar - and then click the About option which should reveal the version you currently have installed. If it is old then upgrade to a later version.

You will need to close and restart IE before the changes to the Java installation are recognised.

Please note that the Apple iPad cannot use Java.

Internet Explorer Users Please Note:

IE9: So far this browser renders this site nearly as well as the other main makes of browser. The problems described below for IE8 are far reduced in IE9 so that particular browser is not forced into compatibility view mode by default. However, the occasional question page sometimes does not display the mathematical symbols correctly. If you encounter this then try the Compatability View button. Please bring to our attention any pages that don't display properly in either mode.

IE8: This site uses Compatibility View for certain pages. This is switched in automatically for the pages affected - you can tell when this is switched on as the button (see image right) that allows this to be turned on manually will not be available - it is normally next to the address bar. If you experience problems with other pages then the button will be available - please use it to see if this improves the situation for you. Compatibility View switches in IE7 compatibility though it is not always successful. Alternatively, please use another much more Web Standards compliant web browser such as FireFox, Opera, Safari or Chrome or, if available for your computer, upgrade to IE9.

IE6 and earlier: This site is primarily optimised for web standards and only a few concessions are made to very old browsers. For this reason IE6 and earlier may not display the pages as well as later browsers and certain features will be disabled. If you are still using an older version of IE (prior to IE8 or any browser based upon it) then please use the links above to upgrade to a newer version or to a different browser. Note that IE8 can only be used be used on Windows XP and later whilst IE9 can only be used on Windows Vista and later. If you are using Windows 2000 then versions of Firefox and other browsers are still available for that platform.

Apple Mac Issues

We have had reports of pages not rendering properly from a user who was using T-Mobile's broadband via a plug-in dongle on their Apple Mac computer. The problem was resolved when they stopped using the dongle. If you experience this problem then please try to use your computer on another type of broadband access to see if it resolves the issue.

It has also been noticed that the GeoGebra third-party applet used on some pages does not work under Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8 (and possibly earlier versions of 10.6). It has been tested under Tiger (10.4.x) and Lion (10.7.x) and works fine in those environments. We are currently looking into this but there may not be a solution.

Tablet Computer Issues

We are updating the site to work with tablet computers such as the iPad and those running Android. The DragNDrop applet used on some questions has been updated to work with the iPad as of 10th October 2011. The iPad does not support Java so cannot use questions on the site that use this - we are slowly replacing Java usage on the site with JavaScript. The site doesn't use Flash so this does not cause any iPad issues.

Other Issues

If you are experiencing other problems not documented above then please contact the creators of the site here.