Make a multiple choice test

The content is yours, the result is a sheet to print

There is no on-screen game here: you write the questions, and what comes out is the test ready to print, in two, three or four versions with questions and answers in a different order, plus the answer key for each version on a separate sheet. It is the job usually done by hand in Word, and it is easy to get wrong exactly where it matters: the key for version B that still carries the letters of version A.

It is for anyone who teaches, runs training, or prepares a revision session or an entry test. The different versions are there for the reason everybody knows: two students sitting side by side have the same question in a different place and the right answer under another letter.

How to write the list

One question per block, with a blank line between one block and the next: the first line is the question, underneath are the answers, one per line. The correct one is marked with an asterisk, in front («* Lisbon») or at the end («Lisbon *»), and it does not appear on the printed sheet. The example already written in the box shows all the forms together: just delete it to start.

The format forgives the habits of anyone who keeps the questions in Word: the numbers in front of the questions («1.», «1.-», «Question 3:») and the letters in front of the answers («a)», «B.», «(c)», «a.-», even inside a bulleted list such as «- a)») are removed and put back in order, and the same goes for numbered answers «1)», «2)». The letters only count if they run in order, a, b, c: a question that starts with an initial, such as «E. coli is a bacterium?», or an answer such as «A. Lincoln» stay as you wrote them. If the questions are pasted without blank lines, every «a)» opens a new question; if Word put a blank line between one answer and the next, the answer with the letter is joined back to its question. The bold copied from a chat (**Rome**) is removed and does not count as an asterisk.

Sums stay as you write them: «7 - 4 = ?» and «12 : 4 = ?» are not mistaken for the question number, because the number of a question has the sign attached, such as «1.» or «1)». The asterisk and the hash sign, on the other hand, have a meaning: if you need them as text, for example «*p» in a programming test or «#include», write them with a backslash in front, «\*p» and «\#include».

Whatever does not add up is not guessed: it is stated, with the question number and the line. A question without an asterisk, with only one answer, with two identical answers or with the asterisk on all of them (it happens with bulleted lists made of asterisks) is left out, and above the sheets it says why. If the letters skip, for example a, b, d, the page asks whether an answer is missing.

The answers that cannot be shuffled

It is the classic mistake of anyone who shuffles tests with just any program: «All of the above» ends up first, with nothing above it, or «None of the above» ends up in the middle and the question changes meaning. Here these answers are recognised and stay at the bottom, while the others are shuffled above them. «All» or «None is correct», which do not say where the others are, stay at the bottom if you put them at the bottom, while in the middle they are shuffled like the rest, because they are true in any place. The phrases are recognised in Italian, English and Spanish whatever the language of the page («Tutte le precedenti», «Ninguna de las anteriores»), because a language test is written in the language being studied.

The second case is sneakier: the answers that refer to the others by letter or by position, such as «A and C», «Both A and B but not C», «None except C» or «The first two». After shuffling, A is a different answer, and no shuffle leaves the question the same: the answers of that question stay in the written order, while the question can still move, and above the sheets it says so. If an answer has to stay where it is for a reason the page cannot know, put a hash sign (#) in front of it; in front of a question, the same sign keeps it at its number. And if an answer refers to the others in a way the page does not recognise, you notice it because the notice above the sheets is missing: put the hash sign in front of every answer of that question, and they stay in the written order.

The shuffle code: the same test, identical

The shuffle starts from a code, written on the answer key. With the same list, the same code and the same choices the page rebuilds exactly the same versions, on any computer and in the Italian and Spanish versions of the site too. It helps when the key gets lost, when a colleague reprints the copies for another class or when an absent student sits the test a week later, with the same version as the others.

The page suggests a code, but you can type your own, such as «3B-HISTORY»; «New code» reshuffles everything. The order also depends on how many questions and answers there are: if you add or remove a question the versions change, while fixing a typo changes nothing.

The answer key and the score

The key has one row for each place in the test and one column for each version, with the correct letter in every cell. Next to it there is a small number, the question's position in your list: if half the class gets question 7 of version B wrong, you know at once which question it is. When more than one answer is correct the cell has them all, and the question counts as correct only if the student marks all of them and nothing else.

The score is chosen for the correct answer, the wrong one and the blank one. With penalties there is a useful sum: someone guessing among four answers gets one in four right, so the penalty that makes guessing pointless is minus one third (in the box «-1/3» is fine too), and with five answers minus one quarter. Over 20 questions with the correct one at 1, the wrong one at minus 0.25 and the blank one at 0, a student with 14 correct, 4 wrong and 2 blank scores 14 minus 1, that is 13 out of 20.

Under the print buttons there is a marker: pick the version, type the letters the student marked, with a dash for the blank ones, and you get the net score. Not the grade, and that is on purpose: the grading scale is decided by your school, and to turn the net score into a grade there is Score to grade converter, which asks precisely for the score with the penalties already taken off.

How to print

With the buttons or with Ctrl+P (Cmd+P on a Mac). Only the test goes on paper, with no menu and no explanations: every version starts on a new sheet, the key comes last, on its own, and a question is never split across two pages.

In the print window untick «Headers and footers», otherwise the browser adds the date and the page address. And if you print double-sided, a version with an odd number of sides makes the next one start on the back: it is better to print the versions one at a time, or to save as PDF and print from there.

What it does not do

It is not a game to play on screen: for that there are General knowledge quiz and Times Tables Quiz, which have the questions already inside. It does not mark scanned sheets, because that would need an optical reader, and it does not handle open questions, images or formulas: text stays text. It does not give different weights to different questions, nor partial points to a student who gets half of the correct answers of a question.

For other material to print for the class there are Make a word search and Squared and lined paper to print.