Auto Random Question Selection

PrimeExam
MC, SE, GOLD

Creating New Examinations
Auto Random Wizard

By far the fastest means of creating a new exam is by Auto Random selection of questions from a question bank. As mentioned before, the primary power of PrimeExam lies in the Question Banks (when properly prepared) and Auto Random selection of questions. The Drag ‘n Drop method of building an exam gives the user maximum control over the questions being selected. However compared to Auto Random selection, Drag ‘n Drop is a slow tedious process.

If a question bank covering several subjects is well balanced in its coverage of those subjects with respect to the number of questions per subject and how the course is taught, Auto Random selection of questions will give a well balanced and fair exam in less than a second. You can view the number of questions having the same subject by using the Statistics panel.In addition, several Forms of that exam can be prepared in which the same questions are in the various forms but randomly sorted questions making cheating nearly impossible. Four forms (a,b,c and d) can be prepared in less than a second and ready for printing master copies.

The steps in creating a multiple choice exam using the Auto Random Wizard are shown below.

(1) open the MAIN MENU > EXAM > Create new Exam > Auto-Random from Bank >

What appears is an "Auto Random Wizard." It begins with an “Add Questions from Document”, a dialog box from which a question bank can be selected. The most recently opened question banks appear first. If the bank needed is not in that list, check the Search for File on Disk then click the Search button to locate the question bank. PrimeExam will by default go to the QBanks folder in which all question banks created in PrimeExam are stored. Click on the question bank of your choice, and press the “OK” button.

Click on the “Next” button and the “Choose Method” dialog box will appear.

Select “Auto Random” and enter the number of questions desired for the exam. If for example, 50 questions were designated to be chosen randomly from the question bank, a set of 50 questions will appear in the new Exam numerically numbered 1 through 50 on the far left.Click on the Next button, and the Select Question Types dialog box will appear

In this dialog box, you can accept the default number of questions of each type that PrimeExam selects based on the percentage of each type in the question bank from which the questions were derived (Select "Add questions of any type").

However, you can modify how many of each type of questions you wish on the exam (Select "Only questions matching the following criteria"), as long as you don't exceed the original number you entered in the "Choose Method" dialog box shown above. If you make this error, it must be corrected in this dialog box before you can proceed.

If everything is as desired, click the Next button.

Note that the "Allowed questions of ANY level" (in green type above) is less than 50. PrimeExam will then select randomly the remainder in questions of any level of difficulty.

If any subject is not automatically selected, you can change that by increasing the number from zero to the rrquested number. If a number is requested that exceeds that which is available, PrimeExam will simply reduce the total number of questions by the difference between that available and the number selected.

Questions selected on the basis of the textbook source can not exceed the number available in the question bank for that particular source. Again, as in selecting subjects, PrimeExam will simply reduce the total number of questions by the difference between that available and the number selected.

In the final panel, a list of numbers and percentages will appear. In this panel, one can quickly see how many questions will be missing in the exam produced by PrimeExam simply be looking at the last column on the right under "Missing."

This panel will show the numbers and percentages of each type of question that will appear on the exam as prepared automatically by PrimeExam. Click the Finish button to complete the AutoRandom Wizard process.The new exam will appear next with questions arranged in a random manner.

COMPLETED EXAM WITH 50 QUESTIONS

Note that there are only 49 questions even though 50 were requested. The requests made in all categories combined as listed above, could not be satisfied by PrimeExam. This is because the total number of questions in one or more categories were not available, given the question bank from which questions were taken. The solution is simple. Open the question bank from which this exam was prepared and then select questions desired and add to the exam using the Drag 'n Drop method.