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MacQTEX: Online self-marking Quizzes, using pdfTEX and
exerquiz
Ross Moore
Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydneyross@maths.mq.edu.auhttp://www.maths.mq.edu.au/ ross/
Frances Griffin
Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydneyfgriffin@maths.mq.edu.au
http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/~fgriffin/
Abstract
The MacQTEX quiz system uses JavaScript [1,9] embedded within PDF format [4] documents to allow students to do multiple-choice style quizzes. The Internetmay be used to supply the quiz document, and to record results. But evenwhen not connected, there is immediate feedback as to how many questions wereanswered correctly and what are the correct answers, as well as providing workedsolutions indicating how the correct answers could be deduced.The highest quality of typesetting is employed in the quizzes by using the TEXtypesetting software [7], via the pdfTEX variant [6], to control the generation of the PDF documents [4]. Other software, such as Perl [12] and
Mathematica 
[13],can be used to control the production of unique instances of a particular quiz sothat each student gets slightly different questions to answer.
PDF Quizzes
At Macquarie University the Mathematics Depart-ment has been developing
1
a web-based system forproducing quizzes which allow students to test theirknowledge of mathematical ideas commonly usedin courses that we teach. Currently these quizzesare used mainly at the most elementary level, forrevision of the basic skills which the students shouldhave acquired from courses at high school.The current version of this quiz facility providesstudents with a multiple-choice answer quiz, of typi-cally 10–12 questions, as a PDF document [4] down-loaded from a web-site (figure1). This documentis an interactive form, controlled using embeddedJavaScript [1,9], which allows a student to read and work with the document, using the AcrobatReader plug-in [2] to his/her favourite web-browser(figure2). Figures2–7show some views of such a quiz, as it appears to the student before, during andafter attempting to answer the questions.
1
This project has received funding via a ‘Targeted Flag-ship Grant’ from the Center for Flexible Learning, MacquarieUniversity, and the Division of Information and Communica-tion Sciences, Macquarie University as well as an equipmentgrant from Apple Computer, Australia Pty Ltd, via the AppleUniversities Consortium.
In this paper we will concentrate mainly on theTEXnical aspects of the MacQTEX quiz system. Forother aspects of the full system, such as the rationalefor using quizzes at all, and features available to aninstructor when preparing a set of quizzes for useby students, figures13–15show presentation slides prepared
2
for talks at educational meetings.
pdfTEX,
exerquiz
and JavaScript
A quiz document is typeset using pdf-L
A
TEX [6], withthe
exerquiz
[10] macros to handle the embeddedJavaScript [1,9] actions needed to produce appropri- ate interactivity. In this setting, JavaScript controls
•
the appearance of check-boxes, as the studentselects his/her answers;
•
counting the number of correct choices selected,and displaying an appropriate message;
•
showing which of the student’s selections werecorrect, which were wrong, and which were thecorrect choices for each question;
•
resetting the form, for further attempts at thesame set of questions.Donald Story [10] has explained some of these meth-ods elsewhere in this volume.
2
...using the Marslides package [8].
168
TUGboat
, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3—Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting
 
MacQTEX: Online self-marking Quizzes, using pdfTEX and
exerquiz
Figure 1
: Quiz-site (at
http://www.maths.mq.edu.au/~fgriffin/quizzes/MATH130quizzes.html
)from which students can download the compulsory quiz documents. Username/password are requiredfor recording accesses and results. Also from this site they may download practice quizzes, devoted to aparticular mathematical concept. Guest access is also allowed for all quizzes.
MacQTEX self-testing quizzes
MATH130 AssumedKnowledge
Basic Skills 1Legend:
After marking the quiz,
indicatesthat the student gave the correct response;while
indicates incorrect—in this case, thecorrect answer is marked with a
G
.Copyrightc
1999 exerquiz (D.P.Story), 2000 MacQTEXLast Revision Date: June 27, 2001
Figure 2
: An opening page to a typical quiz.In fact we have added some extra features notfound in the released versions of 
exerquiz
. Hence themacro file that we actually use is named
exerquizX
,
3
Basic Skills 1
Begin Quiz
1.
Evaluate
53
−
119
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
−
12
−
2949
none of these.
2.
Which of the following fractions is less than 1?
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
444443414180
none of these.
3.
Simplify 10
−
7(
−
4 + 2).
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
40
−
10 24
−
6none of these.
 
 
 
Figure 3
: First page of questions, with “BeginQuiz” button and user-selections.and
epdftexX
has the coding specific to the pdfTEXdriver. These extra features include:
TUGboat
, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3—Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting 169
 
Ross Moore and Frances Griffin
8
End Quiz
 ¢¡¤£¦¥¨§¦©£¦£ £¦¥¥¨§¡¤ £¦!#"¦¥¨$%&$%'£¦!#(0)1¥2$!¡¤§(43£¦!(¤¡¤£¦¥'!"5%&&¤6$¦¥¨7¤(48#9A@#§¦¥¨§5(4@£¦&B C§D!£D!§§B5E£D¥2§F§$%@'(HG¦'I43!&§(¤(HP¤£¦QR'(4@SE£5B£5(¤£5E£¦¥ %¥2%@#§¦¥TF¥2$¡¤%'¡¤§¦8
Figure 4
: Last page of questions, after havingselected the “End Quiz” button, showing the totalscore, and personalised confirmation message.
5
6.
Simplify
13
t
3
−
3
t
4
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
5
t
610
t
743
t
12
none of these.
7.
Simplify 187
rt
÷
17.
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
18717
r
18717
t
17
rt
11
rt
none of these.
8.
Solve for the unknown: 2(
 p
+ 6) = 8
 p
.
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
1 2
65
−
2none of these.
 
 
 
G
 
G
Figure 5
: Embedded JavaScript [1,9] is used to show the correct answer, when the student hasmade an incorrect choice. Also visible are buttons,previously hidden, which link to worked solutions.
•
a quiz variant including both the self-markingfeature
and 
worked solutions;
•
submission of a student’s results to a server, viathe Internet;
•
return of a personalised message, as feedback toacknowledge receipt of the submitted results.With these features, a quiz document provides anicely typeset collection of questions and solutionswhich can be studied by a student, even when notconnected to the Internet. The quiz can be resetfor repeated attempts at answering the questions.
12
Solution to Question 4
Attempt the quiz before trying to look at solutions.
 
 p
2
q
4
r
−
4
2
÷
 p
4
q
2
r
4
−
2
=
 p
2
q
4
r
4
2
×
 p
4
q
2
r
4
2
=
p
2
×
2
q
4
×
2
r
4
×
2
×
 p
4
×
2
q
2
×
2
r
−
4
×
2
=
p
4
q
8
r
8
×
 p
8
q
4
r
−
8
=
p
(4+8)
q
(8+4)
r
(8
−
8)
=
p
12
q
12
Check whether this is among the suggested answers.
Figure 6
: Worked solutions use properly typesetmathematics, as do the questions themselves.This one makes substantial use of mathematicalsymbols and equation alignments.
7
11.
The Venn diagram represents students in Year 11 who study amusical instrument (I) mathematics (M) and art (A).
11
 wvut pqrs
AI 
 wvut pqrs
M 
 wvut pqrs
1513 256 15
ξ
6
ξ
=
{
Year 11 students
}
M 
=
{
students who study maths
}
A
=
{
students who study art
}
I 
=
{
students who studya musical instrument
}
Find the number of students who study maths and art but not amusical instrument.
       S    o       l    u      t      i    o    n
5 10 22 15none of these.
 
Figure 7
: Elegant mathematical diagrams canalso be used, both in the quiz questions andworked solutions.Only the first attempt can be recorded, and eventhen only if there is an active network connection.Concerning the worked solutions, these must re-main inaccessible until the quiz has been completedand the results submitted. To do this, the workedsolutions are typeset in a separate document, theneach is imported as a separate image to be the iconfor a button field. This button can be shown or hid-den under the control of embedded JavaScript code.As well as allowing the solutions to be viewed, ahyperlink from the question to its solution becomesaccessible. This is done by hiding an opaque button170
TUGboat
, Volume 22 (2001), No. 3—Proceedings of the 2001 Annual Meeting
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