LaTeX source file

\AMCtableform[options] is a variant of \AMCform that displays the boxes as a multi-column table.

Declare \usepackage{multicols} in preamble.

To use the automultiplechoice package, one uses the line

where the dots are replaced by a list of options separated by commas. Here are the available options:

The LaTeX source code describing the content of the test sheet has to be included in a call to the command \onecopy, the first argument being the number of distinct realizations to be produced, and the second argument being the code used to generate a realization.

An alternative syntax is available, using the examcopy environment, where the number of realizations is an option (default is 5).

To differentiate between odd and even-numbered copy, use \exemplairepair command.

The command \AMCStudentNumber get the copy number.

You may add an additional option of marking area (see Marks' position) with the package tikz.

Putting questions into groups allows one to shuffle questions inside these groups, in a different way for each realization of the test. Every group of questions must have a name formed solely with plain letters.

One can put questions in a group one by one, as in the following example.

Finally, the group content can be output to the test sheet using command \insertgroup, as in

Group insertion can be controlled by the group mode, that can be set by the \setgroupmode command (called after group creation, once for all, before \onecopy):

where XXX can be one of the following:

Note that a default group mode can be set for all groups that will be created next (a group is created at the first \element call), using the command

Without any mode definition, the fixed mode is used.

Groups of questions can be manipulated more precisely thanks to the following commands:

With these commands, you can for example make a exam taking 4 questions from group GA at random, 5 questions from group GB at random, and all the questions from group GO, shuffling all these questions, with the following code (to be used inside the argument of the command \onecopy, and supposing that the group mode of groups GA, GB and all is withoutreplacement or withreplacement):

The automultiplechoice LaTeX package uses geometry to set the margins and page layout. You can overwrite its settings using the \geometry command just before the \begin{document} - see the geometry package documentation for details. The values initially set by AMC are:

When reducing the margins to gain some space, keep in mind that:

It is also possible to set the paper size as an option to add to the list given as argument to the \geometry command. Available values include a4paper, a5paper, a6paper, b4paper, b5paper, ansibpaper, ansicpaper, ansidpaper, letterpaper, executivepaper, legalpaper.

For small paper sizes, it may also be interesting to change the position of the human readable sheet IDs (like 1/1/53) in the header. This can be done using the \AMCidsPosition command, in the form

where <p> can be none, top or side, and the dimensions <w> and <h> refers to the (invisible) box containing the ID. The default values are

Let us end with an example for A5 paper sheets:

The \AMCboxStyle (new name for the \AMCboxDimensions command which still compatible with the options) allows one to modify one or several dimensions of the check-boxes.

Default values are :

To obtain smaller boxes, one can e.g. use the command

When using separateanswersheet package option, you can also customize the boxes labeling. The default behavior is to use uppercase alphabetical labeling, or arabic numbering if the digits package option is used. To use your own labeling, one has to redefine the \AMCchoiceLabel command which takes as argument the name of the counter used to number the choices. For example, the following code will ask for lowercase letters to label the boxes:

As an other example, when using arabxetex package, the following code may be useful:

One can also change the style of the boxes labels redefining the \AMCchoiceLabelFormat command, as in the following example (here we need bold labels):

One can also change the style of the outside labels redefining the \AMCoutsideLabelFormat command, as in the following example (here we need bold labels):

The way each question is presented can be modified by redefining the command \AMCbeginQuestion, whose default definition is the following:

The first parameter transmitted to this command is the number of the question to be displayed. The second parameter contains \multiSymbole in the case of a multiple question, and is void in all other cases. The \multiSymbole command too can be modified: its goal is to distinguish multiple questions from the others. By default, it displays a club.

It is also possible to modify the layout of the separate answer sheet produced with the separateanswersheet option (see  An example with a separate answer sheet).

Code acquisition can be easily performed thanks to the LaTeX command

for instance to allow each student to enter her/his student number by herself/himself on the answer sheet. The two arguments of this command are a code/question key (identifier), and the number <n> of digits to be used by the code. One can e.g. use the following header

If the separateanswersheet option is used, the \AMCcodeGridInt command has to be placed after the \AMCformBegin command.

Note that the codes rendering can be adapted modifying the lengths \AMCcodeHspace, \AMCcodeVspace representing the horizontal and vertical amount of space between boxes. Default values are set with the following commands:

The command \AMCcodeGrid[options]{key}{description} can be used to handle more complex codes, as codes including letters. Here, <description> is a coma-separated list of character pools to offer. As an example, a client code formed with a lettre from A to E followed by three digits can be handled with \AMCcodeGrid{client}{ABCDE,0123456789,0123456789,0123456789}.

The two commands \AMCcodeGrid and \AMCcodeGridInt accept the following options (coma-separated into the optional <options> argument):

One can modify the seed of the random number generator used to produce the shuffle, thanks to the following command (to be used just at the beginning of the document, and in any case outside the onecopy command):

If the value that is assigned (to be chosen between 1 and 4194303) is modified, then the shuffling will differ. Of course, one must not modify this value after the test sheets have been printed.

For sectioning to be also visible in the separate answer sheet (if any), use \AMCsection and \AMCsubsection instead of \section and \subsection (\AMCsection* and \AMCsubsection* are also defined, for unnumbered sectionning)

Using LaTeX commands \label, \ref and \pageref within questions or answers is problematic since they will be called with the same arguments for every realization of the test, which will alter the numbering of references. To solve this problem, one should use instead the commands \AMClabel, \AMCref and \AMCpageref: they add the realization number to their argument before transmitting it to \label, \ref and \pageref.

One also has to reset counters to zero at the beginning of each realization. For instance, if one wants to include references to pictures that are put together in a separate page, one might write something like

and it is then important to add, just after the command \onecopy the line

so that the numbering of figures starts at 1 for every realization. Without that last command, the numbering of figures would go on from one realization to the next one, which is clearly not desirable.

Use \AMCtext for the following customizations:

AMC identifies each test and the page number of test with the binary code.

To raise the number of tests and/or pages per test modify the commands' default values \AMC@NCBetud, \AMC@NCBpage et \AMC@NCBcheck.

Load those commands below in the preambule (here with the default values).

Thanks to the LaTeX package fp, whose documentation is available at http://mirrors.ctan.org/macros/latex/contrib/fp/README, and which can be downloaded with the command

added before that corresponding to automultiplechoice, one can create exercises with randomized numerical data. Let us start with a simple example.

The \FPeval command is used to perform computations:

Variable names beginning with VQ have been chosen so as to avoid interference with other LaTeX commands.

This package must be declared after the package automultiplechoice.

LaTeX package pgf/tikz (see http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pgf/base) provides mathematical functions that can be loaded with

First of all, you must set the random seed to be sure to get the same result each time latex is run to compile the subject:

LUA language can be used inside LaTeX documents thanks to the lualatex command. If you uses it, your document needs to be UTF-8 encoded, and you must not load the inputenc package. See http://www.luatex.org/documentation.html for some information.

LUA commands are to be given as a \directlua argument. The most useful LUA function is tex.print, which will output results back to LaTeX.

Once again, if you use random numbers, always fix the random seed to get the same results across different compilations:

Here is a very simple sample source file:

Output formatting can be obtained using lua functions, or with the siunitx package.

You must load the following packages after automultiplechoice : fancyvrb, fancybox, pstricks, minted.

To use PSTricks, you have to configure AMC : set Preferences  Project  External commands  LaTeX engine to latex+dvipdf.

The verbatim environment interferes with AMC LaTeX package, so that it is impossible to use it inside question or questionmult environments.

In this section, you’ll find a number of solutions for including pieces of computer code in your subject, for example.