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Cream of the Crop 21
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Cream of the Crop 21 (Terry Blount) (October 1996).iso
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QUIZ.ADV
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1996-07-01
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CREATE A QUIZ
ADVANCED TOPICS
Help screens:
A custom "help screen" can be displayed on the screen
for a student taking a quiz. If a "xxxx.HLP" file exists,
it will be displayed PRIOR TO the first question in a quiz.
"xxxx" represents a file name (up to 8 characters) and MUST
match the same name of the quiz file (xxxx.QZ). The
extension ".HLP" must be used. This "help screen" (or
information screen) is a simple ASCII text file. If one
does not exists, it will not be used. Also, this same .HLP
file can be accessed at ANY TIME during the actual quiz by
pressing the [F1] key. If you would like to have such a
screen appear PRIOR TO the first question in a quiz, but
NOT be available again after the first question is
displayed, then use the file extension ".1ST" instead.
Again, it is important that all these files have the same
prefix filename as the quiz file (.QZ) that you wish to
use. Example: MYTEST.QZ and MYTEST.HLP, and STUDY.QZ and
STUDY.1ST are valid file combinations.
Forcing new lines in questions:
As you prepare your quizzes, you will notice that
after you enter a question in the editor, the editor will
reformat the text that you just entered. If you wish to
preserve the appearance of your question (to a degree)
where new lines start, then you can use a " | " (pipe)
character to indicate a new line. If you type, for
example, the following question into the editor...
Where can you find these words? | "E Pluribus Unum" | "Sic
Semper Tyrannis"
...when it comes time to display this question
on the screen, the person taking the quiz will see this:
Where can you find these words?
E Pluribus Unum
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Notice how a new line is forced at each position where
the " | " character appeared in the original question. It is
important to separate the "|" character from the words
before and after with single spaces. See example below:
He said that this is|NOT|acceptable!
He also stated that this | IS | acceptable!
The latter example would produce the following output
on the screen at test time:
He also stated that this
IS
acceptable!
Prerequisites:
From with the question/answer editor, you as a teacher
have the ability to force prerequisites on a particular
quiz. For example, if the teacher wanted to ensure that
before QUIZ-2.QZ the student took QUIZ-1.QZ and achieved a
score/percentage of 20 questions taken with a percentage of
80% or above, then the teacher can define these
prerequisites from within the editor by choosing "[O]
Options" then "Prerequisite quizzes". From here you can
enter up to four prerequisite quizzes, along with minimal
percentage achievements.
In the example above, when ANY student attempts to
take QUIZ-2.QZ, the scoreboard file for QUIZ-1.QZ will be
scanned, and the highest score (regardless of the student's
name) in the QUIZ-1.SCB scoreboard file will be compared
with the prerequisites you have defined. If you specify in
QUIZ-2.QZ that a score of 75% or better (with a minimum of
10 questions attempted) be obtained from QUIZ-1.QZ, then
QUIZ-1.SCB will be checked as the student attempts to take
QUIZ-2.QZ. If the highest score in QUIZ-1.SCB exceeds this
requirement, then the student will be allowed to continue
with QUIZ-2.QZ.
Expiration period:
The teacher can set an expiration period for a quiz
(in minutes). When the specified quiz is used beyond this
time limit the quiz will become inaccessible to a student.
In plain English, this means that the teacher can establish
a time limit of 120 minutes for EXAMPLE.QZ. Over the
period of days, weeks, etc. the program will track the time
all students use EXAMPLE.QZ. If the accumulated time over
any duration EXCEEDS 120 minutes, the EXAMPLE.QZ will not
longer be available for the student to use. This
"expiration" option can be set from the editor - select [O]
for advanced "Options" menu.
Student login messages and input:
Before any quiz begins, a message window appears
asking for the quantity of students participating and then
prompts for the name of each student. At this preliminary
point in the quiz, you can customize what message appears.
If you create an ASCII file an name it "QUIZ.WHO", the
contents of this file will change the following prompts:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Enter total number of students participating: │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
On line 1 of this QUIZ.WHO ASCII file, enter the
word(s) that would go in the following blank: "Enter total
number of ________ participating: " If line 1 of this file
is left blank, the word "students" will appear since it is
the default. If line 1 of the QUIZ.WHO file contains the
single word "penguins", then the following message will
appear:
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Enter total number of penguins participating: │
│ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
On line 2 of the same QUIZ.WHO file, you can enter a
text string that you want displayed when each player is
prompted for their name. Example: "Please enter your
student identification number:" If this second line is left
blank, then the default prompt "Please enter your name:"
will be used.
The QUIZ.WHO file format can be customized even more.
For instance, in order to prompt more information from the
student prior to taking a quiz lines 3-9 can be used to
gather information from the student, such as address,
social security number, age, and so forth. If you are
going to take advantage of this expanded prompt feature to
collect detailed information from the student prior to
taking a quiz, then lines 1-2 can be left blank. Line 3 of
the ASCII file QUIZ.WHO will be assumed to be a prompt
asking the student for their name. Lines 4-9 then can be
used to prompt for whatever additional information one
wishes.
Example QUIZ.WHO file:
Line 1 -> (leave blank)
Line 2 -> (leave blank)
Line 3 -> Your complete name
Line 4 -> Your age
Line 5 -> Social security #
When the quiz testing session begins, the following
message window will appear, prompting the user to fill in
the prompts:
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ │
│ Your complete name: _____________________________ │
│ Your age: _____________________________ │
│ Social security #: _____________________________ │
│ │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
What value is this additional information? If you use
the command line parameter LOGFILE=xxxx then all of the
additional information input by the student will be saved
in the specified log file. If you do not use the
LOGFILE=xxxx parameter, then all of this extra prompted
information is of no value.
Environmental variable USER:
If you create a DOS environmental variable and call it
"USER" and then store a value/string to it, Create A Quiz
will pass the contents of USER= to the name of the player/
student taking the test. For instance, at the DOS prompt
you create a new DOS environmental variable by typing:
C:>SET USER=JOHN SMITH
...then when Create A Quiz i