Features

What is actually in the product today, grouped by who uses it.

Understanding the paper

• PDF segmentation into sections, questions, sub-questions, multiple-choice options and marks.
• Automatic English / Afrikaans detection per segment, with short fragments inheriting the language of their parent question.
• Noise filtering that strips admin forms, page footers and dot leaders before anything is read.
• Speech shaping that expands abbreviations and Rand amounts so they are spoken the way a person would say them.
• Automatic flagging of visuals, data tables and matching exercises for human review.
• Server-side OCR over page images for dense visual sources — maps, photographs, comics and infographics.

For the teacher or invigilator

• Sign-in with per-teacher accounts created from the dashboard.
• Learner import from Excel or CSV, paste-in from a table, or manual entry — with duplicate detection and validation.
• Learner records covering candidate number, name, grade, class, language preference and accommodation notes.
• A review screen that shows only the segments needing attention, with the spoken text directly editable.
• One-click audio generation and refresh after an edit.
• Paper assignment per candidate, and a live view of active exam sessions.
• Backup and restore from the dashboard, plus automatic weekly backups with the newest four retained.

For the learner

• Full-screen reader mode with large, obvious controls.
• Play, pause, repeat, previous and next question.
• Playback speed control, within the limits the school allows.
• Progress through the paper, so the learner can pace themselves.
• The current question text on screen alongside the audio.
• The page image itself, for the learner who needs to see the layout as well as hear it.

Voices

• Offline neural Afrikaans and South African English — bundled with the server installer. No subscription, no internet connection.
• Azure Neural TTS — optional, using your school's own subscription key, if you prefer the cloud voices.
• Windows built-in speech — the emergency fallback for text that was never cached. The app warns staff when it has to use it, because quality and Afrikaans support vary by machine.

Exam integrity

• Borderless, topmost full-screen reader with admin navigation hidden.
• Normal close, minimise and task-switch commands blocked from the visible interface.
• Attempts to leave the exam screen are logged.
• An audit trail covering uploads, edits, approvals, assignments and every playback event.
• A temporary network drop does not end an active exam session.

Exam Reader is designed for a supervised room. It removes the distractions and logs what happens; the invigilator remains the final control. Full Windows kiosk lockdown can be layered on where a district requires it.