A scoring server for assessing technical skills in a practical environment. A client application acts as a middle man between a terminal and an operating system to capture and forward all input from and output to students to the scoring server. The scoring server compares recorded student activity against a list of tasks deemed capable of accomplishing course objectives assigned to students. As objectives are met by a student, the students' grade is updated in real-time. Each student passes or fails an exam based on tasks performed and skills employed. The client application exists for two operating system types: WINDOWS® and LINUX®. A LINUX® client employs a pseudoterminal to permit access to terminal input/output and communication through stdin, stdout, and stderr channels. A WINDOWS® client (WC) comprises a WC command line activity logger and a WC monitor process to intercept all communication through stdin, stdout, and stderr communication channels.