Topic outline

  • Before creating the question

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    • Always start by planning the structure of the entire question, including establishing how many parts and answers you want, and how the answers relate to each other.

      1.  Decide on question text. You will need introductory text for the Main question, and specific instructions for the parts.  

      2.  Prepare the mathematical formulas for producing the correct answers.

      3.  Make decisions about the variables in the question:

      • Which values in the original question will be randomly assigned?
      • What are the upper and lower limits of each random variable?
      • What are the incremental steps for each random variable?
      4.  Decide on the marks to be allocated for each answer.

      5.  Decide on the relative or absolute allowable error, and whether you want the question rounded off.

      6.  Consider whether you want adaptive marking – it may be possible to add this functionality, depending on the question.


      Watch out for this: Try to keep variables and ranges to the minimum essential for test security. The more variables you use, the more possibilities for things to go wrong. 

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