Classroom Guide
This is the operational guide for facilitators using Classroom Mode. It covers, in order, how to set up a room, how students join, what the teacher does and does not see, the built-in privacy safeguards including the 30-day deletion policy, lesson plan suggestions for before and after the test, common troubleshooting steps, and how to handle social pressure or a student who discloses personal difficulties during the discussion.
1. Create a classroom room
1. Open the Classroom page from the top navigation and choose "New session".
2. Give the session a short name that helps you find it later (for example "Year 9 – Monday period 3"). The name is only visible to you.
3. Confirm to generate the room. A short 4-6 character join code is created and shown in large type on your screen.
4. Leave the room open on the projector or share the code verbally. There is no need to send links, emails, or account invitations.
2. How students join with a code
1. Students open mindset-test.org on any device with a browser — phone, tablet, laptop, or shared classroom computer.
2. They tap "Join classroom" and enter the short code you shared.
3. They complete the same 16-item test as the public version. No name, email, or account is asked for.
4. As each student finishes, the participant counter on your screen updates. Individual answers are never shown to you.
3. Minimum group size before aggregates are shown
Aggregated views only render once at least three participants have completed the test. Below that threshold you see only a participant counter. The threshold exists so that in very small groups no one can infer an individual student's answers from the aggregate — a safeguard against accidental re-identification.
If you are working with fewer than three students, use the test individually and skip the aggregate view; the group discussion still works with the general spectrum and item wording.
4. Exactly what the teacher can and cannot see
• Can see: number of participants who joined, number who completed, per-item distribution of the 6-point answers across the group, and the distribution of overall mindset scores along the 1–6 spectrum — only once at least 3 participants have finished. Never individual answers, scores or names next to scores.
• Cannot see: names, emails, accounts, or any identifier for any participant (none is collected), which answer belongs to which person, any individual student's overall or subscore, IP addresses, device identifiers, or location data.
• Cannot see, even in principle: because no identifier is ever collected, there is no way to link a completed test to a student, even after the fact and even by us.
5. 30-day deletion policy
Anonymous session data — the aggregated response distributions and the participant counter — is automatically deleted 30 days after the session was created. Nothing needs to be done manually; the deletion runs on a scheduled job.
If you want to save an aggregate for your own records, take a screenshot during the lesson. After 30 days the room and its aggregates are gone from our systems and cannot be recovered.
6. Lesson plan suggestions — before the test
• 10 min: Ask students to write down, without discussing, one thing they think they are naturally good at and one thing they think they will never be good at. Keep the notes; do not share yet.
• 5 min: Introduce the terms fixed and growth view of ability in neutral language. Emphasise that most people hold a mix and that this is not a personality test.
• 3 min: Explain the practical rules: 16 short statements, no right answers, no one sees individual results, results are used only to spark discussion.
• 2 min: Share the join code and start the test.
7. Lesson plan suggestions — after the test
• Show the group's overall spectrum distribution. Ask: "What surprises you about the shape of this?" Avoid asking anyone to reveal their own score.
• Pick two or three items where the class was most split. Discuss what a fixed reading and a growth reading of that item would look like in practice.
• Return to the private notes from before the test. Ask students to reflect silently: does anything they wrote feel like a fixed assumption they could test?
• Close with strategies, not slogans: one concrete study habit, feedback practice, or way of asking for help that fits their subject and their week.
8. Troubleshooting
A student's code is not working. Codes are case-insensitive but time-limited. Check that the session is still open on your screen and that the student typed the whole code, then have them try again. Codes are regenerated with each new session.
The aggregate view is empty. Aggregates only appear after three completed tests. Wait for more students to finish, or use the item-level general discussion prompts instead.
A student's device lost connection halfway through. They can rejoin with the same code and continue; progress is kept in their browser. If the browser was closed, they start over — takes about 3–5 minutes.
I need to end the session early. Close the room from the classroom page. Existing aggregates remain visible to you until the 30-day deletion runs; no new joins are accepted after closing.
9. Handling social pressure and personal disclosures
Group discussion of mindset can drift into personal territory quickly. Set the norm out loud before the test: no one is asked to share their score, agreement or disagreement with a statement is not a judgement, and it is fine to sit with a discussion without contributing.
If a student discloses a personal difficulty — for example that they feel "stupid", that they are being bullied about their ability, or that they are struggling with mental health — do not use the test to interpret or diagnose the disclosure. The Mindset Test is a self-reflection tool, not a screening or clinical instrument.
Thank the student for trusting the class with the information, follow up privately after the lesson, and refer them to the school's designated support staff (counsellor, school nurse, pastoral lead, or equivalent) according to your school's safeguarding policy. Escalate to safeguarding leads if the disclosure suggests risk of harm.
Privacy safeguards, in one place
• No account, email, or login is required for participants.
• No names or identifiers are collected at any point.
• Only aggregated, anonymous data is shown to the facilitator.
• A minimum group size of three prevents re-identification.
• Aggregates and session data are deleted 30 days after the session.
• Session join codes are short-lived and specific to one session.
Advertising in classroom sessions
The site is ad-funded, so ads are also shown during classroom sessions. These ads are always non-personalised, with no profiling or retargeting, regardless of the choices made by participants. Before starting a session, please check your school's own rules on showing ads to students.