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CHAPTER 12
C R E A T I N G / E D I T I N G
A
Q U E S T I O N B A N K
CREATING/EDITING A QUESTION BANK Quiz Master 5.0
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Creating your Question Bank(s) to use with the QUIZ MASTER
is as easy as typing the questions in your own word processing
program! There are a few strict formatting rules to follow, but
there is no need to learn any new word processing program or
commands.
The word processing program you use to type your Question
Bank(s) needs to have the ability to save and retrieve files in
standard Ascii Text File format. You will need to refer to your
word processing program manual for procedures particular to your
program.
Refer to Appendix A for more information on Ascii Text
files.
12.1 PLANNING A QUESTION BANK
To make the actual typing of your Question Bank easier and
faster, it is helpful to plan ahead.
The Quiz Master program allows up to 999 questions per
Question Bank, and you can mix up to 10 Questions Banks on one
exam. (You can also have nearly unlimited numbers of separate
Question Banks, depending on disk space). Those questions can be
organized in any number of categories up to a total of seventeen
(17). If you do not want to use multiple categories, all of your
questions can be in Category #1. Categories can be named to suit
your particular purposes.
When you are creating exams from your Question Bank, you
have the opportunity to select questions by category, so plan
your categories in a way that will facilitate question selection.
For example, if your Question Bank will contain all the questions
possible for the final exam, you might want to separate those
questions into categories that follow the order of teaching and
testing. That is, the questions pertinent to the first part of
the course might be included in Category #1, the second part in
Category #2, etc. By organizing your Question Bank in this way,
when you prepare the first exam, you would select only questions
from Category #1. The second exam would select only questions
from Category #2, etc., and the final exam would select questions
from all categories.
Another excellent use of the categories is to organize the
Question Bank to match the published questions for a certifying
exam. If those published questions are categorized, you can
duplicate those categories in your Question Bank.
Categories can also be used to group your questions in any
other way that seems appropriate and helpful to your particular
testing situation. If it would be helpful to be able to select
exam questions by subject, for example, then use subjects as your
categories.
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If you plan to take advantage of the category feature, plan
your questions and categories prior to typing the questions.
Identify what categories you need, what to name those categories,
and which questions belong in which categories. The following
worksheet can be used to identify the categories you need.
Complete the worksheet before proceeding.
CATEGORY # CATEGORY NAME (Maximum of 30 characters)
1 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
2 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
3 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
4 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
5 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
6 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
7 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
8 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
9 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
10 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
11 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
12 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
13 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
14 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
15 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
16 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
17 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Gather together all of the questions you will be typing into
your Question Bank. The questions can be in Multiple-Choice,
Essay, Fill-in or True/False format, with a maximum of 9 answer
choices.
If you want to scramble the answer order when printing
exams, avoid using answer choices for your questions that depend
on their answer order to be correct. For example, the following
answers would not be meaningful if their order was scrambled:
Normal Scrambled
1- THE TOP 1- BOTH 1 & 2
2- THE BOTTOM 2- NONE OF THE ABOVE
3- BOTH 1 & 2 3- THE BOTTOM
4- NONE OF THE ABOVE 4- THE TOP
Page 12.2
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Your questions will need to be grouped by the categories you
have designated. If it is not already done, go through your
questions now and identify the categories in which they belong.
When you enter the questions, it is most efficient to enter them
in category order (Category #1 questions first, Category #2
questions second, etc.). If this is not practical, you could
type them out of order and then use your word processor's cut-
and-paste procedures to move the questions around until they are
in category order.
12.2 TYPING A NEW QUESTION BANK
Before reading this section it is recommended that you read
chapter 11, "Question Bank Construction". Open a blank document
in your word processor and use the following settings.
12.2.1 Guidelines
Questions can have up to 9 answer choices. Questions can be
up to 40 lines in length (including the blank line at the end, so
39 text lines).
You can either type the question format lines as you type
the questions, or just type the questions first and then go back
and insert the format lines.
The check program provided with Quiz Master will
automatically number your questions and complete the category
header start-stop numbers. This means that you only need to type
a tidily (~), then the answer type(M,E,F,T), then the one-digit
answer number (if it is an Essay, or Fill-in question enter the
number of lines below the format line that contain the answer),
then the category number, all followed by commas. Eg. ~,M,3,1
says the question is multiple choice, then answer is 3 and the
question is in category 1.
As you type your questions, keep in mind that they need to
be in category order. That is, all questions in Category #1 need
to be first, questions in Category #2 follow those in #1, etc.
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12.2.2 Steps to completing a question bank.
1. Set the margins to one (1) on the left and sixty-five
(65) on the right. The automatic word-wrap feature should
be on.
2. Type your questions now, following the guidelines
presented above. As with all important word processing
documents, it is a good idea to save your work frequently.
3. The next step is to copy in the category header template
to identify your document as a Quiz Master Question Bank and
to assist you in completing the header. This template is
located in the \QM50 directory for hard disk users and on
the Program Disk for floppy disk users. Read in the category
header file following your word processor's procedures for
reading in an Ascii Text file.
Move the cursor to the top of your Question Bank document
and make certain the cursor is after any control characters
(for margin and tab settings) and is on the first blank line
of the document.
4. After reading in the header, the header template shown
below should be at the top of your document. The '['s must
be in column # one.
[CATEGORY 1
[CATEGORY 2
[CATEGORY 3
[CATEGORY 4
[CATEGORY 5
[CATEGORY 6
[CATEGORY 7
[CATEGORY 8
[CATEGORY 9
[CATEGORY 10
[CATEGORY 11
[CATEGORY 12
[CATEGORY 13
[CATEGORY 14
[CATEGORY 15
[CATEGORY 16
[CATEGORY 17
Page 12.4
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Now enter your categories 1 at a time, first changing the
'[' to a '{' to tell Quiz Master that the category is
active, and enter the category name. Let's say we want 2
categories in this Question Bank, "Aircraft Engines" and
"Electricity". The header would now look like:
@@~@@,a.,Sample Physics Exam <-- line # 1
{Aircraft Engines
{Electricity
[CATEGORY 3
[CATEGORY 4
[CATEGORY 5
[CATEGORY 6
[CATEGORY 7
[CATEGORY 8
[CATEGORY 9
[CATEGORY 10
[CATEGORY 11
[CATEGORY 12
[CATEGORY 13
[CATEGORY 14
[CATEGORY 15
[CATEGORY 16
[CATEGORY 17
<--- leave a blank line
~,M,1,1 <--- this is line # 20
This is all you need to do to define your categories. The
check program automatically fills in the start-stop
numbers.
The question bodies should start on line 20 of the
Question Bank, and they should start with a format line
as shown above.
5. Now enter line 1 of the Question Bank. It should start
with @@~@@, then a comma, then the Answer Style and
delimiter for the multiple-choice questions, then a
comma, then the Question Bank title, as shown above.
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6. You now need to save your Question Bank as an Ascii Text
file (see instructions in your word processor manual). Be
sure to save it to the \QM50 directory or Floppy Disk B: so
the check program can find it. It must be named with a .DAT
extension, Eg. AIR.DAT, PHYSICS.DAT, SAMPLE.DAT, so it can
be read and accessed by Quiz Master. In the case of a disk
crash or other unknown, make a back-up disk copy of your
new file before proceeding.
7. Now select "Utilities" from the Main Menu, then select
"Select Question Bank", the Question Bank you just created
should appear on the list. Select it,then check your
printer for online & ready, loaded with paper, and then
select "Check Question Bank". The check program will take
over. See Chapter 13 "Checking a Question Bank" for
complete instructions.
8. If the check program has passed your Question Bank, it
is ready to use with Quiz Master to produce an exam !
Refer to chapters 6-9 to use your new Question Bank to
produce an exam.
12.3 ADD/EDIT QUESTIONS
If it becomes necessary to delete or insert questions in an
existing Question Bank, it is very easy to do:
Retrieve the Ascii Text File containing the Question Bank
into your word processing program. Position your cursor at the
point in the file where the question is to be added/edited or
deleted, and complete the adding/editing or deleting.
If inserting a new question be sure to enter the format
line.
For example, if you insert a Multiple-Choice question whose
answer is a. and it is in category 12, the format line should be
~,M,a,12 .
Save the revised Question Bank as an Ascii Text File (see
your word processor manual).
Check the Question Bank via the check program. See Chapter 13.
Page 12.6