The MCQ Project is being developed by George Stetten to aid in testing several required undergraduate courses in the Bionegineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh, including BioE 1310 and BioE 1330.
A standard format is being developed for Multiple Choice Question (.mcq) files and Multiple Choice Test (.mct) files, each of which contains LaTex components and special comments interpreted by custom programs being developed in Java that produce tests as .pdf files in which multiple choice questions are printed in randomized orders.
A simple example of a .mcq file can be downloaded and edited here.
Related software is being developed to print and read simple "bubble sheets," in particular using a one-page format for daily quizzes containing 3 multiple-choice questions, randomized in the order of the answers to discourage copying from your neighbor. The quizzes are printed on ordinary 8.5 x 11" paper and can be fed through a standard scanner to be interpretted and scored.
If you don't have a LaTex compiler installed on your computer, you can see how your questions look by going to the website
cutting and pasting the text from
into the window, and then adding your .mcq file text in the indicated place in that text.
Then push "submit" and a .pdf should come your way. It won't have the formatted question numbers, etc., but is sufficient to see that your text and equations are working. Attached illustrations can't be tested this way.