Caribou Help / FAQ
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Help Tree → For Caribou Coordinators (Teachers) → Access Codes → General Information about Access Codes
Questions & Answers:
What are access codes?
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What are access codes?
Answer:
An access code is a 12-character code composed on numbers and letters (e.g. 2022Q7D32J7A). Each student needs an access code to participate in the year’s contests, and they will use the same access code for each contest. Students typically get their access codes from their Caribou Coordinators, or by making a purchase in the Online Shop. Each access code is tied to a grade level, so it is important that Caribou Coordinators give their students an appropriate access code.
A yet-unused access code can be used by any student. However, once it is used it is tied to the student’s account and becomes their access code for the whole year.
Access codes do not carry over from one Caribou Cup to the next. This means students use a different access code for each school year.
If you have a code that is 10 characters long, it is a Voucher Code. See the Vouchers page for information about redeeming your voucher for an Access Code.
How do I get access codes?
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How do I get access codes?
Answer:
How you get an Access Code depends on your situation. Usually, a student will be given their Access Code by their Caribou Coordinator (teacher organizing the contests). If a student is not participating with a school, they can obtain an Access Code by making a purchase in the Online Shop. In some cases, a teacher or student may have received a Voucher Code which can be redeemed with a Caribou Coordinator account to obtain Access Codes.
For instructions tailored to your situation, please use the walkthrough on the Registration Guide.
Caribou Coordinators should read the Contest Coordinator Instructions for detailed instructions. Usually, Caribou Coordinators can obtain new Access Codes by signing in as Coordinator and going to Get Access Codes. From there, they can generate the number of codes they want for each level. Please only request the number which you need to avoid clogging up our servers with unused codes.
Please note, after the October contest (which is free), you will only able to generate K/1 and Grade 2 access codes for free, because the K/1 and Grade 2 levels are free all year. To be able to generate access codes for other grades after October, you will need to make a purchase in the Online Shop. For example, you can purchase School Wide Contest Participation or individual Contest Participation.
Does it matter if I use all the access codes?
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Does it matter if I use all the access codes?
Answer:
No, you can generate more access codes than you need. However, if the extra access codes are bothering you, you can delete them. Log in as Coordinator, go to Manage & Print Access Codes > Edit Names and Credits > click on ‘Remove Codes that are unused, unpaid, and unassigned’.
What if you forget an access code?
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What if you forget an access code?
Answer:
If a student does not remember their access code, they can simply ask their Caribou Coordinator who can sign in at any time get a list of all their students’ names and corresponding access codes on the page Manage & Print Access Codes.
If the student or parent purchased the access code directly from the Online Shop, then the Access Code was sent in the confirmation email for the purchase. Please check your inbox for this email.
If the student cannot reach their Caribou Coordinator, or if the student is signed up with the Caribou Virtual School, they should Contact Us with as much information about the account as possible (associated first and last names, name of the Caribou Coordinator, name of the School) to retrieve the access code.
How do I assign new access codes to students?
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How do I assign new access codes to students?
Answer:
If you are creating Access Codes by making a purchase of individual items in the Online Shop, you have the option to enter students’ names at that time. These access codes and the associated names will then be visible 1) in the confirmation email sent to you when the payment is processed and 2) at any time in your Coordinator account on the page Manage & Print Access Codes.
If instead you are creating free October codes, or you have purchased a School Wide item, then you can sign in to your Coordinator account to generate access codes on the page Get Access Codes. At the time of creation, these student access codes are not linked to any one student. Once a student signs in to writes their first contest in a school year, their name becomes linked to the access code they’ve entered, and this becomes their access code for the rest of the year.
You can assign Access Codes to students ahead of time, but we usually advise against this. To do so, go to the Manage & Print Access Codes page > Edit names and credits. Enter their full name there and click ‘Save Changes’. We recommend printing a list of students’ names and access codes to have it handy when students log in on contest day.
When a new student is given an access code, can they log in before the contest to create their account?
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When a new student is given an access code, can they log in before the contest to create their account?
Answer:
Yes, students can log in before the contest days, for example to practice the online games or try practice tests that have been purchased for their access code. Once a student signs in with their name and access code, these are linked, and can be seen and modified by their Caribou Coordinator using ‘Manage & Print Access Codes’. How do I assign new access codes to students?
Can I give new participants the access codes of those who are no longer participating?
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Can I give new participants the access codes of those who are no longer participating?
Answer:
It depends:
If the access code has already been used to write a contest, the answer is No. The test entry cannot be removed from the access code and would affect the new participant’s scores.
If the access code has not been used to write a contest, you can just change the name associated with it. To do so, sign in to your Coordinator account, click on ‘Manage & Print Access Codes’ then ‘Edit Names and Credits’ where you can modify the name and hit ‘Save Changes’.
I have students who dropped out after one or two contests. Is there a way to remove them from my list?
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I have students who dropped out after one or two contests. Is there a way to remove them from my list?
Answer:
While we do not delete contest records, there are a couple things that can be done:- In Display Access Codes, you could assign a different "class" to students who are no longer participating, like "Z", then click on the column header "Class" to organize the table according to that header such that they are sent to the end of the table and are less visible.
- If absolutely necessary we can move them to the Caribou Virtual School so they are not part of your school anymore. This could be time-consuming if there are many students.
How can I change the grade of an access code?
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How can I change the grade of an access code?
Answer:
If an access code has been used in one grade, like 5/6 then it can not be used in another grade later because that would mess up the Caribou Cup ranking. If you have a school wide pass then simply generate a new code for the correct grade and use that instead. Do not allow the student to participate in a contest more than once because question sets of different grade levels overlap and the student would get an unfair advantage by knowing some questions already. If you do not have a school wide pass then you could email us the access code, we could retire it and issue a new one, but the change of grade can not but be from grade K/1 to 2 or from grade 3/4 to higher grades because of the price differences for different grades. So, if you send the used code we could retire it and send a new code for grade 3/4.
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