The exam-n class

Format exam papers

Version 1.1.4, 2016 December 19.

• Download: tarball or zip file
• You may want to look at a sample exam. See the sample/ directory in the distribution for the source of this. That demonstrates the final version of the paper, as opposed to the ‘draft’ and ‘compose’ versions; there’s also a version with this layout but showing the solutions.
• If you're a question author, you probably don't want to read the full documentation. Stick to the shorter notes for authors.
• See the documentation for fuller discussion.
• The package's 'home page' is http://purl.org/nxg/dist/exam-n, and the repository is available at bitbucket.

Overview

Other exam styles

There are already multiple ‘exam’ LaTeX styles on CTAN, including the (original?) exam class, the extensive AcroTeX bundle, the examdesign and exams classes, and a variety of other packages which mention exams in some way. Some of these are more focused on generating quizzes (even doing things like randomising answers) or on having a highly customisable layout. Several (including ‘exam-n’) have support for generating versions of the exam document which include answers, for the benefit of markers.

The exam-n style

What the ‘exam-n’ class can bring to this particular (rather crowded) party is:

• Direct support for collaborative development of an exam, using a model in which a departmental ‘exams convener’ or ‘exam chair’ coordinates multiple authors writing individual questions. This includes various completeness checks to avoid embarrasing mistakes. The class file and associated process is in regular use within a physics and astronomy department, and this work-flow is discussed in a little more detail within the class file documentation.
• Designed to have all of the ‘traditional’ exam paper features such as sectioning, per-part running marks, ‘Question n continued’ catchwords, and so on.
• Designed to be locally adaptable.
• The class file is freely adaptable (LPPL). The author can provide the usual basic free-software support, or potentially more elaborate support with a different arrangement.

The focus of the ‘exam-n’ class is on the careful collaborative process of assembling an exam, and many of the features are to do with checks to avoid mistakes. The result has, in effect, been validated by practice.

Releases

With the version 1.1 release, the interface should now be regarded as rather stable. However version 1.1 was the first to be released outside Glasgow University, so there may be some changes to the interface which will emerge with broader use, as well as some bug fixes. The interface may, therefore, yet change. If you use this class to produce exams, you should therefore include a copy of the class file locally, rather than relying on a central version. If you need an earlier version of the class, let me know.

The class was called exam until release 0.14, and guexam until release 1.1. In the first case, it was renamed to avoid a conflict with a pre-existing LaTeX class with the same name; and in the second it was renamed to make it more generically useful to other institutions.

1.1.4, 2016 December 19

• Documentation: add notes about use of pdfpages.
• Added [largefont] option. Note: option [hugefont] has replaced [bigfont]; the latter is now deprecated, and may be removed in v1.2.
• Use of the \part macro is now supported within solutions (it produced the wrong numbers before), and there is a new \StylePartNumber customisation macro.

1.1.3

• Version 1.1.3 was never released

1.1.2, 2015 November 26

• Handled trailing floats at end of document (generated by packages such as rotating.
• \label within question environment now refers to the question number.
• Work around a problem when a paragraph starts with {\bf ...} rather than (post-1995) \textbf{...}.
• \begin{questiondata} now starts a new paragraph.
• Some documentation adjustments.

1.1.1, 2014 November 27

• Adjust \partmarks* behaviour; now behaves differently within display maths (addresses issue 1).
• Various documentation and release fixes.

1.1, 2014 May 3

Converted to a generic class, exam-n, ready for wider distribution. Available on bitbucket and at CTAN.

...

Earlier release notes are available