Exams and certificates

Certificates are a paid-plan feature. Taking an exam and earning a certificate for a course needs a paid plan that covers the course’s level (Pro for free and Pro courses; Pro + Mentorship for advanced courses), even if the course itself is free.

Test-out exams

A test-out exam lets you skip a module (or prove a whole course) by showing you already know it.

• Questions are drawn from a larger bank. Each attempt gets a random selection (10 by default), spread evenly across the course’s topics, in a random order, with multiple-choice options shuffled. Memorising answer positions will not help. If you refresh the page, you see the same exam.
• Two question types. Multiple choice, and practical questions where you type a command. A practical answer is compared with the accepted answers ignoring capital letters and extra spaces, but it must otherwise be exactly right. An abbreviation that is not listed as accepted does not count.
• A time limit. The exam shows its time limit. If time runs out before you submit, no attempt is counted and you can start again.
• A pass mark. Each exam has its own pass mark. You see your score, whether you passed, and feedback.
• A wait after a failed attempt. After you fail, you must wait before retrying. The default is 30 days, and each exam can set its own. The exam page tells you the date you can retake it. Use the time to revisit the course lessons and labs.

Your results appear in Grades, next to your lesson quiz scores.

Capstone projects

Many courses end with a capstone, a graded project that shows you can apply the skills, not only answer questions.

1. Open the capstone from the course page, or from Assignments. Read the brief and the rubric.
2. Build your solution. Package everything into one .zip file of up to 4 MB and include a short README explaining what you built and how to check it.
3. Upload it. A staff member grades it.
4. You get a score and written feedback. You have up to 3 attempts.

The rubric has at least three criteria worth 100 points in total. For each criterion the grader picks one of four levels: Exceeds (full points), Meets (75%), Partly meets (40%) or Missing (0%). The score follows mechanically from those choices, so two graders reading the same work reach the same number. The default pass mark is 70% (the page shows the exact mark for each capstone). Below it, your work is returned for revision.

Your capstone status is one of: not started, submitted (waiting), passed, revise, or out of attempts. If you use all three attempts, contact support.

Earning a certificate

You become eligible for a course’s certificate when all of these are true:

1. you have a paid plan covering the course;
2. you passed the course’s exam, or, for a course with no exam, you completed every lesson; and
3. if the course has a capstone, you passed the capstone. (Anyone who already held a certificate before this rule keeps it.)

If something is missing, Learn.GT tells you what (the exam, the lessons or the capstone).

Your certificates

Certificates in your dashboard lists everything you have earned. For each one you can View / Print and copy its public link. Certificates for classes run with an academic partner may show an “In partnership with” line.

Verifying a certificate

Anyone can check a certificate without an account. Open the certificate’s public link (/verify/ followed by the credential ID). A valid one shows Credential Verified, the issue date, the credential ID and a link to the original PDF. An unknown ID shows Invalid Credential.

Employers can use this to confirm a certificate is real.