Preparing an Exam

Note

This page of documentation is incomplete. For now, see https://plomgrading.org/docs/walkthrough/create.html

Designing your test

What software should I use?

Its up to you. Plom will need a PDF file of your test (PDF files if you are using multiple versions). Plom came out of the mathematics community where LaTeX is commonly used, and we provide a template. But you can use any software you like.

What should each “question” be?

Tip

Plom defines a question as the smallest unit of independently markable material.

So if 5(a) and 5(b) can be marked by TAs Jane and Austin simultaneously and independently, then those can be separate questions. You can use the label field in the test spec (see Creating a “spec file”) to display the two questions as “5(a)” and “5(b)”.

Currently there is an additional constraint: each question must begin on a new page. We anticipate relaxing this requirement in the future.

Note that questions can span multiple pages, even in a multi-versioned assessment.

Creating a “spec file”

For now, see https://plomgrading.org/docs/walkthrough/testspec.html

Technical docs

The command-line tool plom-create is the current front-end for most tasks related starting a new test.
For scripting or other advanced usage, you can import plom.create in your own Python code. See plom.create module.