Join an assessment

Purpose

Open the assessment you were sent and start answering it.

Who this is for

Anyone who has been asked to complete an assessment.

The one thing to know about signing in

Assessorio holds no password of yours. Sign-in is BIMei, a separate identity service, and the only sign-in control you will ever see here is a button that says Continue with BIMei or Sign in with BIMei. Your password, your two-factor settings and your account recovery all live on that side.

Two consequences, because they trip people up:

• We never send a verification email. If you are waiting for one, you are waiting for a message that does not exist. Nothing is stuck.
• Nobody here can reset your password, and nobody here can see it. Password recovery happens on the BIMei sign-in page.

Plenty of assessments need no sign-in at all — see the first row below.

Work out which kind of link you have

There are six, and they behave differently.

Your link looks like	What it is	What you need
…/a/ABC123	The assessment itself	Nothing — it opens straight away
…/public/campaign/…	A campaign's public page	Nothing to look; a passcode, an account, or an application to take part
…/public/campaigns/…/join/…	A colleague's invitation	An email address
…/register/…	An application form	An email address
…/auth/entry?token=…	A personal invitation	A BIMei account
…/me/assessments	Everything open to you	A BIMei account

If you were given a code rather than a link, go to /auth/entry. You will see Sign in to continue and one field, Campaign code; type the code and choose Continue.

If the campaign is by invitation, that page asks you to sign in — or create your account — with the address your invitation was sent to. If that address is on the campaign's invitation list, you go straight in, exactly as your personal link would take you. If it is not, the page tells you which address you are signed in with and that it is not on the list, and ends in a contact link: the campaign's own address if the people running it published one (Contact <address>, which opens your mail app), and otherwise the platform's own Contact us form.

A direct assessment link

Open it. You do not need an account and you are not asked to sign in.

You will see the assessment name in a header bar at the top of the page, and the questions below it. Work through them and choose the final button on the last page to submit. You should then see Assessment Submitted.

If your name appears above the questions. A link that was minted for you personally shows a band reading Answering as and your name, so you can tell at a glance whether the link you followed was yours or a colleague's forwarded copy. See Somebody else's name is above the questions if it is the wrong one.

If more than one language is available, a language menu appears in the header — it shows the current language rather than a label, and screen readers announce it as Survey language. Changing it reloads the questions in that language and your answers are kept. Your choice is remembered for the next page you open.

If the assessment starts with a consent question, answer it before anything else. Usually a campaign asks once and carries an agreement to its other assessments. If its approved wording changes, you are asked again because the earlier answer belongs to the earlier wording. Some campaigns allow each assessment to make its own decision instead: in that case a refusal closes the assessment in front of you, while the campaign's other assessments stay open. Otherwise, refusing the campaign's first consent question closes that campaign for you. The wording's internal version is recorded for audit but is never shown as a question.

On an older campaign that has not enabled campaign consent, the questionnaire template still decides how consent works. It may record your answer as soon as it is saved, even if you do not finish, and it may end immediately when you decline. That is deliberate rather than a fault.

Your answers are saved as you go. A pill in the header says Draft saved, Saving…, or Not saved — retrying. See Save your place and come back.

A campaign's public page

This page describes the campaign — its name, instructions, and sometimes a document to read first. It has its own language menu if the organisers enabled more than one, and it shows the privacy statement and usage rules the account has set. What you do next depends on the buttons offered:

• Join Campaign — an open campaign. It takes you to sign-in with BIMei, and brings you back afterwards.
• A Campaign passcode field on the page itself — the campaign has a passcode, and you can answer it without an account. Type the passcode you were given and choose Enter with passcode. The page then lists the assessments that are open; choose one and start answering. Nothing is emailed to you and nothing is created for you — you are answering anonymously, exactly as you would on an open campaign.
• Join with Code — the same campaign, the longer way round: sign in with BIMei first, then type the passcode. Choose this one if you want the campaign to appear in your account afterwards. The passcode comes from whoever is running the campaign; it is not on the page and we cannot supply it.
• No join button, and a note that the campaign is by invitation — only the people it invited can get in. Use the personal link in your invitation email, or enter the campaign's code at /auth/entry and sign in with the address you were invited at; if you were never invited, use the Contact us link on the page.
• Apply to Take Part — an application form. Someone reviews applications before you are let in; see below.
• View Campaign Document — background reading, no action needed.

Some campaigns accept only the people they invited. Use the personal link in your invitation email, or enter the campaign's code at /auth/entry and sign in with the address the invitation was sent to — either way the campaign checks that you are on its invitation list. If you have lost both the email and the code, ask whoever invited you.

If you were invited, use your link even where the campaign is open. Typing your email address into an open or passcode campaign does not put your answers against your invitation: an address anyone can type is not proof of who you are, so we record it as a label on a new, separate entry rather than matching it to the person who owns it. Your answers count either way — reports that count people fold the two entries back together — but the campaign's own list of who has replied will show your invitation as still outstanding. Ask whoever invited you for a fresh link if you have lost yours.

If the passcode is refused, the message is the same whatever went wrong: That campaign code and passcode do not open a campaign. That is deliberate — the page will not tell a stranger which campaigns exist or which are still running. Check the campaign address and the passcode with whoever gave them to you. If you have tried many times in quick succession you may see Too many attempts just now; wait a minute and try again.

A passcode lasts twelve hours on the device you typed it on. Long enough for a sitting, including a break; short enough that the next person to use a shared machine does not inherit your campaign. Your answers are saved as you go and are not lost when it lapses — you type the passcode again and carry on. It is not an account and it does not identify you: it only says that somebody who knows this campaign's passcode is at this browser.

It also ends early if the organisers change the passcode. Twelve hours is the longest it can last, not a guarantee — a passcode that is replaced (or removed) stops working for everybody at once, including anyone part-way through. You will be asked to type a passcode again and, as above, your saved answers are still there. If the one you have is refused after it had been working, ask whoever gave it to you for the current one.

If the page says This campaign is currently closed or This campaign has been archived, the round has finished. The message shown is written by the organisers and usually says what happens next.

A colleague's invitation link

Some assessments are answered by an organisation or a department rather than by each person separately. On those, anyone already taking part can invite colleagues, and the link they send you looks like …/public/campaigns/<campaign>/join/<a long code>.

You do not need an account, and you are not asked to sign in.

The page names the campaign and the organisation or department you are being invited to answer for — "Join Acme Waterworks' assessment", with the sentence You will answer for Acme Waterworks above everything else. That is what the tick further down agrees to, so it is said before anything is asked of you. If the organisation's own record has since been removed the page says "your organisation" rather than showing you an internal code. Below that it shows the terms the organisation running the campaign publishes, beside the platform's own privacy policy and terms of use. Read them: the tick box under them is one agreement covering both, and nothing is recorded until you tick it and choose Join and start.

You are asked for your first name, optionally your last name, and an email address. The address is where your own link is sent, so you can come back to the questionnaire later — it is not shared with the colleague who invited you.

Your answers go to the organisation, not to you. Everyone invited this way answers the same assessment for the same organisation or department, so what you write may be added to, or edited by, a colleague answering alongside you. The join page says so before you agree.

You agree for yourself. The colleague who sent you the link agreed for themselves only; your tick is your own record, with the date and the version of both sets of terms you were shown.

If you were already on the list — because the people running the campaign had loaded your address earlier — you are not added twice. The invitation simply connects you to the organisation, and your place on the list stays as it was.

Where you land. Joining opens the first questionnaire that is still open for your organisation — never one a colleague has already completed on its behalf. If there is nothing left to answer you are taken to My assessments, which says so.

If the page says the invitation is no longer open

Three things can end one of these links, and the page says which:

• It has expired. They last thirty days.
• It has been withdrawn. The colleague who created it took it back.
• It has already been used by as many people as it was issued for. Each link is worth a set number of newcomers — ten unless the people running the campaign chose another number.

In all three cases the fix is the same: ask the colleague who sent it to you for a new one.

Inviting somebody yourself

Once you are taking part, you can do the same. Look for Invite a colleague on My assessments, or on the page you see after you submit. Choose Create an invitation link, then either copy it and send it yourself, or type an address into Send it to first and let us send it.

The link appears with the two facts you need before you send it: how many places are left on it ("7 of 10 places left" — what is left, not what has been used) and the date it stops working. Copy link puts it on your clipboard, and Withdraw this link ends it immediately.

Links you created lists the rest the same way — places left, expiry, and a Withdraw for each. Withdrawing ends a link immediately: anyone still holding it is refused from then on.

If you were sent straight into a questionnaire when you signed in — which happens when there is exactly one thing open for you and nothing else to report — use See all / invite a colleague at the top of the questionnaire to get back to My assessments, where the panel lives.

An application form

1. Enter the email address you want to be contacted on, and choose Start the form. If you are already signed in, your address is filled in for you; you can change it with Change email.
2. Answer the questions and submit.
3. You will see Thank you — your registration is in, with a reference number and the address your answers were filed against.

Applications are reviewed by a person (sometimes with automated help). The outcome comes by email to the address you gave.

Two things can stop you at this stage:

• Sign-in required — this form is only open to signed-in applicants. Sign in and you are brought straight back here.
• Open this form directly — the form is embedded in another page and will not accept answers there. Use the Open the form button.

A personal invitation link

The link carries a token that identifies the invitation. There is no password field on this page and no account to create here — Assessorio reads the invitation, then asks BIMei who you are.

1. Open the link. It says Accept your invitation and names the account you are joining, along with the address the invitation was sent to.
2. Choose Sign in with BIMei. You are taken to BIMei, and returned to this same link afterwards.
3. Back on the page, it now says Signed in as your address. Choose Continue.
4. If this is a campaign that requires one, a Campaign passcode field appears above the button. Type the passcode you were given and choose Continue.

That is the whole flow. If the campaign has exactly one assessment open to you, the last step takes you straight into it. If it has more than one, you land on My assessments — see below.

What can go wrong here:

What you see	What it means
Checking your link… that never finishes	Reload the page.
This sign-in link is unavailable.	The invitation was revoked, has expired, or the link was copied incompletely. Ask for a new one.
Your sign-in has expired. Sign in again to continue.	The page sat open too long. Choose Sign in with BIMei again.
We couldn't sign you in	BIMei could not finish the sign-in. Choose Try again with BIMei; if it keeps happening, contact an administrator.

Invitations expire. Once past the date in the invitation email the link stops working, and whoever invited you can send a fresh one without starting again.

My assessments

Once you are signed in, /me/assessments lists every assessment still open to you — across every organisation that has put you on a list, not just the one whose link you followed. Each row names the organisation and the campaign, and opening one takes you straight into the questions.

You arrive here automatically after you join a campaign, redeem an account join key, or accept a campaign invitation. If exactly one assessment is open to you, you are taken into it rather than shown a list of one; to see the list anyway, open /me/assessments?list=1.

The links on this page expire, and each row says when. They are personal to you: opening one answers as you, so do not forward them. If a link has lapsed, come back to this page and a fresh one is waiting.

If the page says there is nothing open to you, it names the email address it looked under. Nearly every time, that address is the point: invitations go to a work address and people sign in with a personal one, or the other way round. The page also lists the two other possibilities — the round has closed, or you have already submitted. There is a Get in touch link on it if none of those fit.

This page never asks for a passcode. A campaign passcode is answered on the campaign's own public page, where you do not need an account at all.

Something went wrong

What you see	What it means
This assessment is not available	The link has been closed, has expired, or was mistyped. Check the link you were sent.
We could not load this assessment	A temporary problem. Choose Try again.
Access Denied	You do not have permission for this one — sign in, or ask the organisers.
This link is not valid for this assessment	The link belongs to a different questionnaire, or was copied incompletely.
This link is no longer valid	Personal links are issued for a limited time, and stop working when a new one is issued in their place.
This assessment needs your personal link	This campaign only accepts responses from the people it invited. Use the link emailed to you rather than the public address.
This campaign needs its passcode	The campaign is passcode-protected and this browser has not been through the door. The screen offers Go to the campaign entry page, which is where the passcode is entered.
This campaign is closed	The campaign has stopped accepting responses. If you were part-way through, the questionnaire itself shows a closure banner with any grace period instead.
You have already completed this	You finished it; the page shows the date. Your original answers are unchanged.

Two of the personal-link failures — This link is not valid for this assessment and This link is no longer valid — end the same way, and deliberately: ask whoever invited you to send you a new link. Only they can mint one, and your answers so far are saved. This assessment needs your personal link points you at the invitation email instead, and says nothing about saved answers because at that point there usually are none.

Those three screens carry a Contact us link. Every failure screen carries a Help link into this documentation — except the "already completed" one, which carries neither, because nothing has gone wrong.

Somebody else's name is above the questions

On a shared device, opening the bare assessment address resumes the last invited person's session on that device rather than starting an anonymous one — because filing your colleague's answers as an anonymous submission is the worse mistake.

When that happens the band offers Not you? Start fresh beside the name. Choosing it clears that binding from this device and starts you cleanly, on campaigns that accept walk-up responses; where they do not, it explains that you need your own link. The button only appears on a resumed session, never on a link you have just clicked.

Emails, and how to stop them

Reminder and announcement emails carry an unsubscribe link at the bottom, and work with your mail client's own one-click unsubscribe. Opening the link shows your address partly masked and changes nothing until you press the button — a link that acted on sight would be tripped by every corporate mail scanner.

Unsubscribing stops everything we would send that address, including future invitations, not just reminders. That is deliberate, but it is worth knowing before you use it: if you only want fewer reminders about one round, tell the organisers instead. Unsubscribing does not withdraw consent for answers you have already given — that is a separate act, and the organisers can record it.

What happens next

Your answers are saved as you go, so you can leave and come back — see Save your place and come back. After you submit, a reviewer may send you feedback; if they do, it appears on the same completion page under Reviewer feedback.

If you answered without signing in, the completion page shows an access code once, under Keep a copy, or a way back. It is the only thing that ties those answers to you — it is what lets you carry on from another device, and what lets you export or delete them later. Copy it before you close the page; we cannot recover it.

Related pages

• Save your place and come back
• Get back in if you are locked out
• What other people can see about you