Quiz-creation programs?

January 3, 2004 12:04 PM

I need a good relatively cheap quiz creation program for either Windows or Linux. (More Inside)

Something that has a good interface, allows for images, support for both multiple choice and fill in the blank type questions, and just plain simply works well. I'm trying to learn a foreign language on my own, and would rather use a quiz instead of the time honored method of flashcards. I tried QuizPro recently, but found it incredibly lacking.

posted by Darke to computers & internet (6 comments total)

If you happen to know a little shell scripting, it shouldn't be more than 15 minutes work to set something up using whiptail or dialog, in combination with an image viewer of your choice. It won't be as polished as something someone actually put a lot of work into, but it's usually a lot easier to coerce into doing exactly what you want.

(if you don't know shell scripting and have the time, learn it anyway, you'll run into more uses for it later).
posted by fvw at 1:12 PM on January 3, 2004

Yeah; I usually just program such things myself.

Essentially, you want to put together a list of words, their definitions, and maybe pictures of the word, right? It's essentially an array, with, say, three columns and as many rows as you have words. You create a function that randomly chooses a row, then randomly chooses an entry from that row, and asks for the associated word or definition, and then checks your answer against the table. Sounds like something you could even do with javascript. You'll also get some additional exposure to the words from entering them in the database.

Feel free to email if you need help.
posted by kaibutsu at 2:05 PM on January 3, 2004

Five years ago when I was in High School Comp Sci I could have done this for you during one class in Pascal or C++.

It seems that all you need is a quick code that selects a matching answer to a question from an array of said questions/answers and then checks to see if they match what you type on the screen.

I don't even know if people still use VB anymore; that's the only thing I would know how to do that with a visual interface instead of just text I/O.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 4:01 PM on January 3, 2004

Well, I guess it might be good for me to manually program one. My programming skills are incrediably rusty and weak, so this might be a good excuse to get in some mild programming experience in. I'll look into coding it next week, and most likely kaibutsu I'll be emailing you desperate for help.
posted by Darke at 5:18 PM on January 3, 2004

I like Memory Lifter, it does everything you want, and allows multiple choice, adding audio files, pictures, even video clips, and is easily customized. It also has several clever approaches to quizzing.

I used it in addition to a course I was taking. For the vocab quizzes I ripped each word to a Speex file, and linked it into the card. The marking out and encoding each word separately was the most time consuming part (each chapter had its vocab stored in a single track on the accompanying CD, annoying).
posted by Grod at 6:16 PM on January 3, 2004

Moodle is web-based, and php, but will do this and much more that you probably don't need. It's open source, free courseware.

Moodle.org
posted by mecran01 at 6:38 PM on January 3, 2004