Elaarn's weekly contests and leaderboards only mean something if everyone plays fairly. Fair-play mode exists to keep rankings honest, not to punish anyone. Practice is never ranked and never uses it.
1. How contests work
- Contests run at a fixed time each week, shown in the app.
- Each class has its own contest and leaderboard. An S1 student is never ranked against an S4 student.
- Students get different questions of similar difficulty, so sharing answers doesn't help.
- Contest questions are never published on the website.
2. What fair-play mode does
- Locked screen. The app pins itself to the screen and blocks screenshots. Leaving the app once gives a warning; leaving 3 times ends the attempt.
- Face check. Every few seconds the app checks, on your phone, that a face is in view. No face for more than 15 seconds gives a warning; two faces flag the attempt.
- Talking check (when switched on). Long talking flags the attempt.
- Warnings show on screen straight away, so you can fix the problem.
Nothing is recorded or uploaded. The camera and microphone are checked on your phone and the pictures and sound are thrown away at once. We only receive your score and a list of events, such as "left the app at 10:14". See our privacy policy.
3. What decides your result
- A clean attempt goes on the leaderboard.
- A flagged attempt keeps its score and feedback but is left off the leaderboard. Nothing else happens, and it doesn't affect your future contests.
- Results that look impossible, such as hard questions answered in 2 seconds or many accounts on one phone, are checked and may be removed.
- Ranked results only count from the official Elaarn app downloaded from elaarn.com.
4. If you think we got it wrong
Bad light, a weak camera or a noisy room can cause a flag by mistake. Write to support@elaarn.com within 7 days of the contest with your phone number and the contest date, and we will look at the event list again.