Dynamic Testing Program Development

[Mephisto]

I am currently developing a program which will possibly make it easier for those clans who need to deploy tests to their member candidates or other organizations who require giving tests.  The program has you put your questions in a file called questions.dt and corresponding answers in answers.dt.  Each follow a specific format in how you need to write out the questions and answers.  The program will consist of two major control areas.  The first is the administrator panel.  This area has the functionality of adding, modifying, viewing, deleting, setting, or clearing the commands and answers.  In addition is has the functionality to set the administrator and tester passwords.  The second area of control is the testing.  This is where those who are taking the test go.  This part loads the test into memory, administors it, calculates a score, and puts runtime documentation and results in results.dt.  The results are also placed in an encrypted file called resultsx.dt which is then sent to the administrator's e-mail.

The bottom line is, it will make it easier depending on how you use it to give people tests that you've come up with.  Now, some downsides to using this is that it provides an easy way to cheat.  But future additions are planned to add time limits on questions set by the administrator as well as other things.

The program will be released sometime in June complete with a user-friendly GUI.  Compatability is planned for only Win32/64-bit.

If you have any ideas or suggestions to put into this project you can post them here, or send an e-mail to [email protected].

[Grok]

How are the answers scored?

Is spelling allowed to deviate?  How much?  Configurable?

Are words allowed to be substituted when synonyms are available?

Is the order of words important?

Can word groups be combined into concepts and assign the concept to the question's required answer?

Are hints available?  Just one or any number?

If they use hints, can the score be adjusted for each hint taken?

[Mephisto]

How are the answers scored?

A points variable is incremented or decremented each time they either get one right or get one wrong.  That points variable is then multiplied by 100 and divided by the number of questions there are.
DWORD score = (points * 100) / questionnumber;

Is spelling allowed to deviate?  How much?  Configurable?

The way it's currently set up is that questions are yes or no, true or false, or multiple choice.  Those questions which require explanation are not scored and sent to the admin who then determines if the question is right and calculates his final score, then he can be responsible for sending the final score to the client who got tested.  Spelling counts for yes/no, true/false, or multiple choice, yes.

Future plans for the program are to install a dictionary and set certain modes for spelling deviation and make it configurable.  But this implementation will not be functional in the first release.

Are words allowed to be substituted when synonyms are available?

Can you explain what you mean here?

Is the order of words important?

In the release with the added functionality, order of words will likely not be important for some questions and important for others.  For instance, "What does BNLS stand for?" could be the question, and in this case, order would count (or with other questions that ask to answer abbreviations).  Questions which require a personal explanation will likely not depend on ordering of words.  The program will search for keywords in the explanation and try to determine a right or wrong from it.  This will be where spelling ultimately counts.  However, it will be mostly up to the admin to determine if these types of questions are right, the program can only go so far...

Can word groups be combined into concepts and assign the concept to the question's required answer?

Like if a certain group of words means something?  And they can just use that to substitute for the answer?  I'm not sure if this is what you mean, so please explain this.

Are hints available?  Just one or any number?

Hints will likely be avaliable in the second release, possibly the first.  The way they will be setup is the administrator can set hints in a file called hints.txt which correspond to the question/answer.  There may also be functionality allowing hints to be displayed after a certain amount of time, and questions where they have more than one chance of getting it right and the test will automatically determine if it was right or wrong on the spot.  If after the 2nd time they get it wrong at that point, a hint can be displayed.  All the implementation for hints isn't completely figured out, however.

If they use hints, can the score be adjusted for each hint taken?

Not as of now, mostly because the hint system is far from complete.  However, if you'd like to see this, then yes.

[cipher]

What makes this different from an HTML form that gets sent to the administrator's email at completion? Especially since you have basically eliminated the need to do pattern recognition and synonym lookups, and all those neat things--by not grading essay-based questions. In terms of administration, you could liven things up with some php interface in which the forms can be adjusted etc, but this doesn't seem like anything revolutionary. Sorry, you basically just attempted to give HTML forms a complicated name, and are not even attempting most of what the name implied...

EDIT:
had to touch on this:

Spelling counts for yes/no, true/false, or multiple choice, yes.

hrm, do you really think people are going to spell yes/no wrong, or are going to forget how to spell the letter A when the M.C. answer is A? Something is wrong here.

That points variable is then multiplied by 100 and divided by the number of questions there are.
DWORD score = (points * 100) / questionnumber;

Believe me, as much as you just love to string words together to make it sound good, I'm sure Grok can figure out the code corresponding to what you said, jeez dude.

Are words allowed to be substituted when synonyms are available?

Can you explain what you mean here?

Meaning, if the answer was supposed to be BNLS is good, and I put BNLS is terrific, would I still get it right? This would of course assume that you were actually making a good application, in which a human did not have to intervene to check the responses via email.

Can word groups be combined into concepts and assign the concept to the question's required answer?


Like if a certain group of words means something?  And they can just use that to substitute for the answer?  I'm not sure if this is what you mean, so please explain this.

Using meta keywords would probably be neat here, sort of like what google does. e.g. the answer involves +bot +bnls -hash, what have you.

I would get you on other points that you've made here, but I think I've basically made my point.

[Moonshine]

I agree with ciph; silly prog idea.  For one, using your system, people could get into the clan easier without the personal experience of a one-on-one test.  (You could even try to join fe under a different name again!)


I definitely would want to have a more controlled and personal test.  I mean, if the person is going to be joining the clan, you want to at least get a feel for how they answer to tests & questions.  Also, making a programme like this would barely save any time, which is why I'm guessing you're trying to make it in the first place.  It'll take more time trying to tweak the bloody thing to read in answers correctly (synonyms, etc) than it would to just give the guy a test yourself (which will take a max of 20 minutes, oh no).

[Mephisto]

Ok, point made, it may be stupid.  But I'm making it anyways, and I will further develop it as I get more ideas to make it more practical, deal with it.  I don't mind taking ideas and implementing them, but you don't have to be a total asshole about it (cipher).  But thanks for pointing those things out...

[MyndFyre]

but you don't have to be a total asshole about it (cipher).  But thanks for pointing those things out...

I didn't think he was a total asshole.  But I'm about to be.  

Ok, point made, it may be stupid.  But I'm making it anyways, and I will further develop it as I get more ideas to make it more practical, deal with it.  I don't mind taking ideas and implementing them, But thanks for pointing those things out...

Okay, the idea might be completely useless and only lamer newbs would probably want it, and get sick of any kind of problems that they might have when realizing that it doesn't have the l33t features.  But I'm going to waste my time and effort on this project and then bitch and moan when people complain about it.

I'm sorry, it's late and I had to do it.  ;P

[Naem]

I think it'd be useful, especially for larger clans, and it will obviously  go beyond Battle.net.