For users who are not ready to learn LaTeX (if not already speaking this language), AMC includes a filter to process simple plain text files in a particular format, named AMC-TXT. This section is devoted to detail the syntax of AMC-TXT files. If you prefer use LaTeX to gain a fine-control over your questionnaires, skip to next section.
Let us begin with a simple exemple:
# AMC-TXT source file Title: My first AMC questionnaire Presentation: Please answer the following questions the best you can. * What is the capital city of Cameroon? + Yaounde - Douala - Kribi ** From the following numbers, which are positive? - -2 + 2 + 10
![]() | Important |
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The file that contains your questionnaire must be a plain text file, UTF-8 encoded. This is the default encoding of several text editors, like gedit. Don't use a text editor that can format your text with bold, images, and so on, like OpenOffice/LibreOffice, or equivalent: these save your text with a lot of other data, and AMC won't be able to read it. |
![]() | Note |
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The default font that will be used is libertine, an open source font that contains chracaters for a lot of languages. You have to install this font or choose another one (see options below). If you install AMC with a debian/ubuntu package, this font will be install together as a recommended package. |
You already understand AMC-TXT structure: some general options first, and then questions.
You can write some comments inside your AMC-TXT source file in
lines beginning with a `#
'. These
lines won't be considered by AMC.
Here are the options you can use (in any order):
use it to specify a language the questionnaire is written
in. At present, only DE (german), ES (spanish), FR (french), IT
(Italian), NL (Dutch), NO (Norwegian), JA (Japanese, see the section called “Japanese language”) and AR (arabic, see the section called “Arabic language”) are supported. Without this option,
english will be selected. You can also define the localized string
used for another language (see the L-xxx
options).
Sets the paper size. Possible values are A3
,
A4
, A5
, A6
,
B3
, B4
, B5
,
B6
, letter
, legal
,
ANSIA
, ANSIB
, ANSIC
,
ANSID
, ANSIE
.
The exam title, written on top of the sheet.
A text that presents the exam (length, rules...).
If 1 (default), questions will be shuffled so that their order is different from one sheet to the other. If 0, the questions will allways show with the same order as in your file.
Give a positive integer value n
to add boxes so that students will be able to code their student
number on their sheets, with n
digits.
Give a positive integer value n
to get a subject with n
columns.
If 1 (default), for multiple questions (those for which zero, one or several answers are correct), an answer "None of these answers are correct" will be added. Without it, it should be impossible to make a difference between "the student didn't answer for this question" and "the student thinks no answer is correct for this question". If you don't want this answer to be added, set this option to 0.
Give a string to replace None of these answers are correct (see previous option).
If 1 (default), all qeustions will be enclosed in a invisible frame that prevents it to be splitted accross several columns or pages. If 0, questions are allowed to be splitted if necessary: that can save pages at the cost of readability.
Give a translation of Question in your questionnaire, if you need.
Give a translation of Name and surname, a text written in the box where students are to write their udentity.
Small text that asks students to code their student numbers
and write their name, when Code
option is
used.
If 1 (this is not the default value), each subject will consist of an even number of pages, so that the user can manually print the PDF subject for all students in one go in duplex mode.
If 1 (this is not the default value), no blank page will be added between the question and the separate answer sheet, even if the question has an odd number of pages. This mode can be useful when the subjects are printed single-sided, or when it is not necessary to separate question and answer sheet.
Color of the boxes to be filled by the students. This allows
to print the boxes with some color that won't disturb too much the
data capture (for example red, but some light
grey can also be considered). The color has to be given as a valid
xcolor color (see xcolor
LaTeX package documentation for details), such as
red, magenta,
pink, lightgray,
cyan, or in the form #RRGGBB
,
like #FFBEC8
for some light red.
Default scoring strategy for simple questions (questions for which one and only one anser is correct). See the section called “Scoring strategy” for details. The default value gives one point for the right answer, and zero for others.
Default scoring strategy for multiple questions (questions
for which there can be zero, one or several correct answers). See
the section called “Scoring strategy” for details. The default value is
haut=2
, so that a perfect answer gives 2 points, and
each error (ticking a box that should not be ticked, or leaving a
box that should be ticked unticked) takes one point off (keeping
the score non-negative).
Set this option to 1 if you want to use LaTeX commands in
your texts. This allows for exemple to insert mathematical
formulas, like $\sqrt{a+b}$
. If 0 (default), all your
texts will be written unmodified.
Give commands you want to be added to the LaTeX preambule (for exemple \usepackage commands).
Give commands to be inserted at the beginning of the LaTeX document environment (for exemple macro definitions).
Gives a comma-separated list of features to disable. Current
implemented features are images
(see the section called “Images”), embf
(see the section called “Bold, italic”) and local_latex
(see the section called “Pieces of LaTeX code”).
To use separate answer sheets for your questionnaire, consider the following options:
If 1, a separate answer sheet will be added.
Title of the answer sheet.
Presentation of the answer sheet. For exemple, remind the students that the answers are to be given on this sheet only.
Number of columns for the answer sheet.
Simple questions (questions for which one and only one anser is
correct) begin with a *
at the beginning of the line, and
multiple questions (questions for which there can be zero, one or
several correct answers) begin with a **
. Insert then the
question itself, and the choices, introduced with a +
for
correct ones and with a -
for wrong ones.
Some options are available for questions. They must be separated
by commas and enclosed by square brackets just after the leading
*
's, as in the following exemple:
*[ordered,horiz,name=sum] How much are one plus one? - 0 - 1 + 2
Available options for questions:
present choices horizontally, not on separated lines.
n
make n
columns for the
choices.
don't shuffle the choices, keep the same order as in the description file.
xxxx
Give a name to the question, so as to locate the
corresponding results easily in the exported spreadsheets. This
name must contain only simple characters, without accents and
LaTeX special characters such as _
, ^
,
%
...
You can set the scoring strategy for a particular question or
choice enclosing it with braces just after the leading characters
(*
, **
, +
or -
)
and the possible options, as in the following exemple. See the section called “Scoring strategy” for details about the scoring strategy
syntax.
*{b=2,m=-1} What is the capital city of France? + Paris - Lille - Marseille - Ouagadougou -{-2} New York **[ordered,horiz,name=positive]{haut=1} From the following numbers, which are positive? - -2 + 2 + 10
You can define open question giving options (see the section called “Open questions”) enclosed with <
and
>
, as in the following example:
*<lines=4> Describe the moon. -[O]{0} O -[P]{1} P +[V]{2} V
You should also consider using the following global options:
Text used to tell the student to write the answer on the separate answer sheet (if relevant).
Text to be written along the open questions boxes to tell the student not to consider these boxes.
You can always continue some text on the next lines (even if some of them are empty), provided that these following lines cannot be considered as the beginnig of an option definition, of a question or of a choice. As an example, consider the following question:
* How much are 2 + 2? - 0 + 4 - 10
This is a correct AMC-TXT question. However, it won't be treated as you'd like to, because here the second line is not considered as being the following of the first one, but form the first choice of the question!
A similar problem arises from the following AMC-TXT question,
where `Gershwin:
' is considered as a general option
definition...
* You all know Georges Gershwin: he is a composer. When was he born? + in 1898 - in 1892 - in 1902
This is a correct way to write it:
* You all know Georges Gershwin: he is a composer. When was he born? + in 1898 - in 1892 - in 1902
Note that line breaks can be inserted leaving an empty line, as:
Presentation: Title Description of the exam. ** Difficult question. How many stars in the sky? - one - two - ten millions
To get bold text, enclose it between
[*
and *]
. To get italic
text, enclose it between [_
and _]
.
* What is the [*capital city*] of [_France_]? + Paris - Lille - Marseille
You can add images in your document using the following syntax:
![height=2cm]images/bird.png!
Here, the image images/bird.png
that is
located in the project directory will be appened with 2cm height.
Options that can be used inside the square brackets are those from the
\includegraphics LaTeX command
(width=3cm
or
keepaspectratio
for example). To get a centered
image that is three quarters of the line width, use
!{center}[width=.75\linewidth]images/map.pdf!
You can include some small parts of LaTeX code in your document, including it in double square brackets, as in:
Questions with a [[\multiSymbole{}]] may have zero, one or more right answers.
Writting a questionnaire in arabic is a little special. Use of course option
Lang: AR
You can also consider the following global options:
This is the font used for arabic text. Default value is Rasheeq, a font from the project ArabEyes (you can find it on debian/ubuntu in the ttf-arabeyes package).
![]() | Warning |
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For better working and portability, give an explicit value for
|
![]() | Note |
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To insert texts with non-arabic characters, you must turn on
|
Japanese language questionnaires can be produced with option
Lang: JA
AMC will make some adjustments on the produced LaTeX source to allow Japanese characters to be included.
![]() | Warning |
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In this case, AMC will use pTex to process the LaTeX file made from your AMC-TXT source file. AMC needs a recent version of pTex to work. Versions of pTex from texlive 2009, that can be found on old versions of some linux distributions, are not compatible. |