Honest Test - (User Guide)
Honest Test (HT) is a nifty little test making utility which will be useful to teachers of every subject the world over. This is a free shareware program. You are free to download it from our web-site and share it with whomever you wish.
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It can be used to compose and store your tests and quizzes. It accommodates both open ended and multiple choice questions. So far we haven't described anything that an ordinary word processor, such as Microsoft Word, cannot handle. But the unusual feature of HT is that each time it prints out a test, it shuffles the questions, so that no two pages are alike. That means that a pupil whose eyes wander where they should not during test or quiz time, will see a page that is different from his own.
There is another useful feature. If you have a long test, with, say, 100 questions., but you want to give a short version, with, say, only 25 questions, you can instruct HT to randomly select 25 questions and print them out. If you repeat the procedure, say, 5 times, then you will have 5 different tests. If you have a class of 40 students, you can print 8 copies of each test and have enough to supply the whole class. Then you will have a test which is nearly cheat-proof, because a student who looks onto his neighbor's paper will see not only a different order of questions but a different selection of questions. (Of course, this would only be fair if all the questions in the larger list were approximately of the same difficulty.)
HT will also print out an answer key for each version of the test. As most teachers know, the answer key is essential for fast and easy scoring of tests and quizzes.
Each version is identified by a code number at the bottom of the page. You, the teacher, can use the code to match a test or quiz with its corresponding answer key.
HT can also be used to merge two or more tests into a large test. Let’s suppose that you give a 10 question quiz every week, and you compose your questions with HT. Then at the end of the semester, you would like to give a review test of 75 questions. You can merge your 10 short quizzes into a data base of 100 questions. Then you can instruct HT to print out a test of 75 questions – or several versions of this test, each one different.
Some teachers object on principle to a procedure that puts obstacles in the way of cheaters. They say a school should create an atmosphere of trust, and if the atmosphere is disrupted, then students will be actually encouraged to cheat. This is really a philosophical position, and there is not much to be said about it one way or another. Most teachers now recognize that the struggle to create an atmosphere of trust has been lost. We teachers have the choice of doing what we can to interfere with cheating, or doing nothing and therefore being friarim (suckers). This is a personal decision which every teacher must make for himself. 'Nuff said.
HT can accommodate questions in any language, but the interface is in Hebrew, which is the language that most people understand in Israel.
HT is an open program. You are invited to get into the source code and make improvements. Then, if you will send the updated version to us, we will put in on our web-site and make it available for download. We will also give you credit for the update, unless you prefer to remain anonymous. HT is programmed with Microsoft Visual Basic programming language, so if you are familiar with this code, you are capable of producing updates. The present version, which will call Version 1, was designed by Laurin Lewis and programmed by Issac Goldstand when he was a student at the Jerusalem College of Technology. Issac now operates a company providing Internet services. For information, visit www.mirimar.net.
Disadvantages
1. HT is programmed for Microsoft Access 2000. It will also work on earlier versions. However, it may not work on later version of Access. Please let us know if you have trouble using HT with later versions.
2. Because HT is a data base, you are restricted to the kinds of characters that a data base allows. This means in practice that you cannot have special formatted characters, such as italics and bold letters. If you want to emphasize certain words in your test, you will have to use other characters, such as quotation marks (aka inverted commas) or other symbols.
If it is essential to for you to use special formatted characters and you still want to do something about copying on tests, you may want to look at AntiCheat, another teacher utility. AntiCheat takes your test which you have composed with Microsoft Word or other word processing program, and it mixes up the questions, creating as many versions as you specify. AntiCheat is not shareware, so you must purchase it. But you can download a free trial version from this web-site. The trial version will work for 18 days, and then you can purchase it if you so decide. To purchase AntiCheat, you must send a check for NIS 129 to
English4Students
16 Beer Sheva
Jerusalem 94507
Telephone 02-6221447
or you can call us and order by credit card.
How to use HT
You will find the operation of HT quite transparent.
1. Getting Started. To open a new test, click on New Test. You must provide a test name and a date. Then enter your questions one by one. Enter your answers. If the question is multiple-choice, then check the appropriate space, and then enter your choices. For your answer key, indicate which choice is correct. You have buttons which allow you to move to the next question or delete a question.
You also have buttons to move to the next test or to delete a test.
2. Printing. To print a test, click on the symbol. HT will ask you many questions you want to print. HT will display two windows, one behind the other. One is the test itself, the other is the answer key. You may print each one. If you want another version with the questions in a different order, you must repeat the procedure. At the bottom of the page, there is a unique code number for each test and its corresponding answer key.
3. Merging tests. If you would like to combine two tests into one, just click on the button Append to Test at the top of the screen. Then type in the name of the test to which you would like to add the present test.
