Free Exam is an application designed to create and run practice exams you make yourself. A practice exam is a useful tool in preparing for many types of exams you may be taking, such as for school, university or certifications.
You create an exam by adding questions and answers to a file that you then run in the program to test yourself. There are four types of questions in Free Exam:
• Multiple Choice - Multiple answer choices with only one correct answer
• Multiple Answer - Multiple answer choices with multiple correct answers
• Fill in the Blank - Type the answer out
• True or False - Read the statement and determine if it is true or false
After you have created your exam, test your self by running the exam. Questions will appear in random order to keep the experience fresh. Once you have complete the exam, you may view your results and save your history for later comparison of your progress.
When you have created an exam, go to www.freeexamproject.net and submit it to the site to share with others. You can also download exams created by others to test yourself with.
Download the zip file from the website www.freeexamproject.net . You will need a utility to unzip the files. If you don’t have one, download WinZip at www.winzip.com.
Unzip the files and run setup.exe. Follow the instructions to install the program.
To run Free Exam, go to your start menu and go to Programs -> Free Exam.
1 . To create an exam , click on the “New” option on the main screen.
2. You will be asked to name the exam file and pick the location of the file.
3. Next, You will be asked to enter the exam’s properties. Below are the explanation of each of the properties.
• Exam Name - The name of the exam as presented to the user
• Author - The name of the person who created the exam
• Version - Use this field to define which version of the exam is loaded
• Description - Add detailed information about the content of the exam
• Passing - What is the passing percentage (1-99)
• # of Qs - The number of questions shown during the exam.
• Time Limit - How long the exam should take defined in minutes
Once you have completed adding the properties of the new exam, select “save”.
Now your exam is ready to be edited.
At the main screen, select “Edit” to enter the edit exam screen
New Question
To create a new questions, select the “new” button. This will clear the screen for you. First, determine what type of questions you wish to create by selecting one of the four options in the top right corner.
Multi C
Select “Multi C” to create a Multiple Choice question. This will give you 5 choice fields (A-E) and 5 radio buttons. Enter the question, then enter up to five selections, with one being the correct answer. Select the radio button to the right of the correct selection to tell the program that is the answer to the question. Then, type an explanation to the answer below. The user can view this explanation in the exam review if they want to know more about the answer. When you are done, select “Add” to add the question to the exam, or “Edit” to change the current question with the data you have just typed.
Multi A
Select “Multi A” to create a Multiple Choice Multiple Answer question. This will give you 5 choice fields and 5 check boxes. Enter the question, then enter up to 5 selections with one or more selections being the answers. Select the check boxes beside the choices that are correct for that question. Then, type an explanation to the question below. The user can view this explanation in the exam review if they want to know more about the answers. When you are done, select “Add” to add the question to the exam, or “Edit” to change the current question with the data you have just typed.
*Note* In Multi C and Multi A questions, between the first and last choice that you have typed, you cannot leave a choice blank. For example, you have type a choice for A and C, but not B. The program will not allow you to save the question until you add something for B.
Fill Blank
Select “Fill Blank” to create a fill in the blank question. This will present a single blank choice field. Enter your question, then enter the answer into the choice field. The answer is case sensitive during the exam, for example “BOOK” and ”book” are considered to be two different answers. Then, type an explanation to the question below. The user can view this explanation in the exam review if they want to know more about the answer. When you are done, select “Add” to add the question to the exam, or “Edit” to change the current question with the data you have just typed.
T or F
Select “T or F” to create a True or False question. This will present the choices “True” and “False” below the questions. Type your question, then select true or false to determine the answer. Then, type an explanation to the question below. The user can view this explanation in the exam review if they want to know more about the answer. When you are done, select “Add” to add the question to the exam, or “Edit” to change the current question with the data you have just typed.
Edit
If you have changed anything on a existing questions and want to save those changes, select “Edit” to apply them. If you do not, the changes will not be added to the exam
Add
If you have created a new question, or changed an existing question that you want to make into a new questions, select “Add”. This will add whatever is on the screen into a new question in the exam
New
Select “New” to clear the screen and create a new question. Once you have finished creating the question, select “Add” to add it to the exam.
Save
When you have finished editing your exam file, you need to select “Save” to add the changes to the exam file. You will be prompted when you select “Close”, incase you forget.
Picture
You can add a picture to the question by selecting the “Picture” button. Here, you can type in the name of the picture file, or select “Find” to select the file from the directory. You can select “View” to look at the picture to see if it is the correct one. Select “Close”, then “Edit” or “Add” to add it to the question.
*NOTE* The picture file must exist in the same location as the exam file. Pictures cannot be in different folders as the program only looks at the same location as the exam.
Properties
Select “Properties” to change the exam properties you added when you created the exam. Refer to section 3 “Create an Exam” to learn about the exam properties.
<< and >>
Use these buttons to more back and forward through the exam questions.
Go
The Go button allows you to go to a specific question in the exam quickly. Type the number of the question you want to view, then select “Go” to jump to it.
To load a pre-exisiting exam, select “Load” from the main screen. You will be prompted to locate the file. Find the file and select “Open”
When the exam is loaded, a new option window will appear on the main screen.
These options represent the number of questions and the time limit for the exam. If you want to change the default options defined for the exam, change them here. If you want to change the options back to their defaults, select “Reset”.
You can also change how the exam runs using the options in the top menu. Go to “Options” at the top to see them. Also, select the Function key listed beside the option to activate it from the keyboard. They are:
Allow “Show Answers” (F2)
If this option is checked, the “Show Answer” button during the exam will be active. The user will be able to see the answer during the exam and it’s explanation.
Show Question Numbers (F3)
Select this option to show the actual question number beside the question text during the exam. It will appear in brackets beside the first word of the question. This is useful for troubleshooting the exam. Go to the “Edit” screen and type that number into the “Go” field to edit that question incase of errors.
Turn Off Clock (F4)
If you want to turn off the clock during the exam, select this option.
Once you have configured your options, you are ready to run the exam
After you have loaded an exam and configured the options, select “Run” to test yourself.
The exam test screen will appear.
When the exam starts, you will be presented with the first question and either the selection of answer to choose from, a blank space to type the answer, or the options true or false. Select or type the answer you believe is correct for that question, then select “Next” or “Previous” to go to the next or previous question in the exam. When you are done answering questions, select “End Exam”.
Any question not answered is considered wrong.
Options
Below are the explanations of the option buttons on the screen.
Previous and Next
These two buttons allow you to navigate back and forth through the exam.
End Exam
When you have finished answering your questions, select this button to end the exam and review your score.
Show Picture
If this button is shown, you can select it to view an image included with the question. A new window will open that displays the image. Select “close” when you are done viewing it.
Show Answer
If this button is active, you can select it at any time to view the answer and explanation.
Pause
If you need to step away from the exam and do not want to lose time, select Pause to pause the exam. The screen will go blank with instructions on how to resume the exam. Select Pause again to resume the exam.
When you end the exam, you will be brought to the results screen.
Your results will appear above, showing how many questions you got correct and the percentage.
Below , in the Exam Summayr window, you can scroll through questions to see which you had right and wrong. By clicking on a question, you can review your answer and the correct one in the exam review screen.
The Exam Review screen looks like the Run Exam screen, except for a few differences.
• The correct answer will appear on the screen in bright green
• You cannot change your answer
• There is no time limit or pause button.
You can move back and forth reviewing the questions, as well as see images and show the answer and explanation. When you are finished, select “close” to go back to the review screen
Back at the results screen, you can also add your results to a history file that is created with the exam. To add the current results to this file, enter your name in the field above the “Add History” button, then select “Add History”
To view your history, go back to the main screen and select the “history” button at the bottom near the exam properties. Here you can see how you have progressed on this particular exam.
You can share your exam with others by giving them the .dat file created when you made the exam. You also will need to provide the images shown during the exam. The easiest way to do this would be to add the exam file and pictures to a folder of their own. To share the files, zip the folder up using a program such as winzip ( www.winzip.com). Then, give your friend the zip file. They can unzip the files to their computer and load them into their copy of Free Exam
Also, you can submit your exam to the Free Exam Project website to share with everyone at www.freeexamproject.net . There, you can share and download exams on may subjects to run in Free Exam.