TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 1 of 6 INTRODUCTION "Test Maker" will allow a teacher to create a data base of questions to be used in a test or an exam. The maximum size of the file is 300 records which should be large enough for a fairly comprehensive test. A line printer capable of printing in 12 characters per inch is required to print the teacher's answer key and student answer sheet. The test itself is sent to an ASCII disk file so that it may be imported into your word processor where you can 1) make modifications to the "Student Instructions", 2) add headers or footers, and 3) break the pages at your discretion. The real beauty in this program is that it allows you to print as many copies of the exam as you need. My classroom has eight, four foot diameter round tables capable of sitting four students at each. At test time, I print four copies of the exam so that each student at a table has the same questions however they are in a totally different order. It makes the tedious chore of proctoring a test or exam a snap. TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 2 of 6 MENU OPTION 1 Initialize a Test File This option is only necessary when you first start to make up your exam. You input the name of the file using eight (8) characters according to MSDOS guidelines. The extension of .fil is added automatically. Each record (question) will take 642 bytes of disk space so if you initialize a file of 300 records (the maximum) you better have at lest 192,600 bytes free on the default drive. Two other files are created at this point. The first is PATH.WP which is a tiny sequential file that contains the path to your word processor. The default is C:\WORDPERF\EXAMS\ however you may change this at the time you print your first exam. The path you set at that time then becomes the default path and you never have to set it again. The second is ????????.REC which is another tiny sequential file (6 bytes) that contains a pointer to the first blank record in your exam file. When you first initialize the file this pointer has a value of one (1). TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 3 of 6 MENU OPTION 2 Edit or Add Questions This option allows you to actually create the data base of test questions. Full screen editing is supported thanks to BORLAND'S "Data Base Toolbox." The first four fields are question fields. You may type up to 70 characters per line. The cursor will not wrap-around so listen for a bleep. You'll be at the end of a line at that point. Press RETURN or DOWN ARROW to get to the next field. HOME, END, TAB, SHIFT-TAB, INS, and DEL are all supported. The next five fields are for your answers or choices. You don't have to use all five. Only the ones you use will be printed. In the case of a TRUE / FALSE question, you should enter a + for TRUE and a - for FALSE in fields 5 and 6. Type a T or F in field 10 for the correct answer. You may also use the multiple choice question format, fill-in question format, or short answer format. For fill-ins leave fields 5 - 9 blank - field 10 must contain the correct word (or abbreviated word). The second character must not be a SPACE. For short answer questions leave fields 5 - 9 blank - field 10 must be an X. TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 4 of 6 MENU OPTION 3 Print This option prints the following items. 1) an ASCII text file using the file name you specified for your data base with a .TXT extension. This file will be sent to your word processor according to the path that you specify. 2) a hardcopy of the Teacher's answer key - make sure your printer is set to print at 12 cpi. 3) a hardcopy of the Student's answer sheet. You may print as many copies as you need. I always print four because of my classroom seating arrangement. Just make sure that you use a different booklet number for each copy. A file called X?.ANS will be created at this point. This file is used to grade the exams. The ? is the booklet number that you specify before any printing occurs. I find it helpful after importing the .TXT file into Word Perfect to include a header in the very beginning as the example below shows: BOOKLET #4 COMPUTER LITERACY UNIT THREE TEST Page #^B TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 5 of 6 MENU OPTION 4 Grade Tests This is the best! After the test has been taken, you organize your booklets in ascending order - one through whatever. I have a sheet feeder hooked into my LQ-1050 so I just place the answer sheets of booklet # 1 into the hopper. You input the # of answer sheets for each booklet. This will work OK on a friction feed too - you'll just have to feed each sheet by hand. I change my ribbon from black to red (you don't have to) and start it up. If your test has more than 150 questions, the program will prompt you to flip the answer sheet (or insert page 2) when page 1 (1 - 150) is finished. After booklet # 1 is complete, the program comes back to the "What booklet?" and "How many?" prompts and the whole process continues again. When all the booklets have been scored, you press the ESC key. The program doesn't actually grade each test, but it does put an X on top of the correct choice in the case of TRUE / FALSE and MULTIPLE CHOICE questions. You'll have to score the FILL-INS and SHORT ANSWER questions the "old fashioned" way. TEST MAKER HELP SCREEN Page 6 of 6 MENU OPTION 5 Quit When you are finished for the day, press Q to quit. Make sure you make backup copies of all files. I just completed my "Computer Literacy" final exam. Four booklets of 300 questions (my students are very quick - nothing is worse than to see 30 kids stare at the walls for 30 minutes) and all teacher keys and answer sheets, took 1 hour and 45 minutes to print. To grade 120 exams (of 300 questions don't forget) took 17 minutes (my sheet feeder helps here!) My thanks go to the BORLAND company for their tremendous "Turbo Basic." It is a pleasure to work with! If anybody finds this thing useful and needs help you can reach me on CompuServe (#71500,3110) or at Hopatcong High School, Box 1029, Hopatcong, NJ 07843. ----------------end-of-author's-documentation--------------- Software Library Information: This disk copy provided as a service of The Public (Software) Library We are not the authors of this program, nor are we associated with the author in any way other than as a distributor of the program in accordance with the author's terms of distribution. 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