Essays in a "slide" test.

QUESTION
I wonder if it would be possible to include the option of essay questions when designing an assessment using the slide mode?  I typically use the slide mode because of the graphics ability but occasionally wish to add an essay or writing portion to the assessment.

ANSWER
You can't add an essay in a slide.  You can only add an essay in multiple choice / short answer design mode.

However, you should change the way you think about the design area for slides and multiple choice.  It is a place to create questions, but not always the place to assemble finalized tests.  If you assign two tests (one of type "slides" another of type "multiple choice") to the same class, you can merge those two question sets into a single test.  Select both tests and use the "Merge" button.  You can rearrange the question order and even remove questions after you have merged them.  Some teachers find it useful to create a class whose purpose is not to contain actual students, but simply to contain their important tests, which have been assembled from various parts (slides, essay, auto-generated math tests, etc).

What happens to grades when students don't meet the minimum score?

QUESTION
It would be helpful if scores were saved every time a quiz was complete, but only when the score is above threshold would it disappear from the students view. Is this feature available?

ANSWER

When you click on a test name to configure its options, there is an option that looks like this:

Save grades when score ≥ N

When you enter some number N for a minimum score, the grades are not saved in the sense that they would appear in your grade table.  However, thatquiz.org does keep a record of this attempt.  You can access this discarded grade by looking at the grade report.  Click on the test name on your grades page for the report.  Or, check the test name in the list of tests for the class and then click the "Grades" button.

On the grade report, if any students missed the minimum score, you'll see a link that says "Discarded grades".  Click the link, and you'll see all the discarded grades.  You can even choose to accept a discarded grade, in which case it will become visible in your grades table and disappear from the student's view.