---
title: "How Do Certificates Get Awarded?"
canonical: https://examlive.net/guides/award-certificates
---


## When a certificate is issued

Auto-award triggers on **result publication**, not the moment someone submits. That timing is deliberate: a test on [auto-release](/guides/auto-release-results) issues certificates as each submission finishes, while a test you publish yourself issues them all at the moment you click publish. Short answers you haven't marked yet can't accidentally issue anything.

Once results are out, every submission on the test is measured against the condition you set for it:

- **Always**: everyone who took it gets one.
- **Minimum score**: only submissions at or above the points you set, such as 18 out of 25.
- **Minimum percentage**: only submissions at or above that percentage, such as 80.

A participant who misses the condition is simply left out. It doesn't reappear later and it doesn't turn up in **Pending**. If everyone who sat the test should end up with a certificate, set the condition to **Always** rather than planning to issue the rest yourself.

## Issuing certificates yourself

Turn **Auto-award** off on a test link and nothing is issued automatically. Finished submissions on that test land on the **Pending** tab instead, where each one is yours to issue.

A row shows the participant, the test, and the certificate template, with an **Award** button beside it. Click **Award** and the same certificate is generated; you're simply the one triggering it. The tab's badge counts what's still waiting, which makes it the fastest way to see whether you have a backlog.

Worth choosing between deliberately: auto-award suits a pass mark you trust, while issuing them yourself suits something more considered, like a scholarship, where you want to see the list before it goes out.

## What the participant sees

An issued certificate shows up in two places:

1. **Dashboard**: a "View Certificate" button on the test card.
2. **Result page**: the certificate itself, with **Download** and **Share**.

An organization that hadn't uploaded a logo yet doesn't issue a certificate with a hole where the logo should be; it waits until the logo is there. See [Create and Design Certificates](/guides/create-design-certificates) for how the variables are set up.

## Downloading and sharing

From the certificate view, participants can:

- **Download**: a PDF named after the test, so **Core Skills** becomes \