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"Matchmaker" Matching Quiz Maker

Overview:

This page allows you to submit a very simply formatted text file of paired terms and have it come back as a fully Java-Scripted, self-correcting quiz ready for your web site. The format is pretty self evident. Just type or paste your own questions into the following form, hit "Submit Quiz," and you should be ready to go.

For an example of the format, press the "Insert Sample" buttons (or the master one at the bottom) and hit the "Submit Quiz" button at the bottom.

If the examples are in the way, hit the "clear form" button at the bottom to empty all fields.

The format is not suitable for long entries, which wrap around and do not display nicely. It also does not permit the use of quotation marks ("), which disturb the underlying JavaScript.

The level of difficulty of matching quizzes varies greatly depending on the topic. (Most people will find the example difficult.) This can be modulated to some extent by attention to the number of items included, partly because a shorter list facilitates guessing. ("For example, try deleting some of the example items before hitting "Submit Quiz.)

Save the finished quiz onto your own hard disk and put it into your own web site. Be sure to change the name to something ending in ".htm" or ".html" when you save the quiz. Save it as "HTML only," not "complete." (The latter destroys the code in new versions of IE.) Double-check the downloaded version to make sure it works perfectly.

My program does not keep a copy of your input or of the output it creates, so if you do not save it, it is gone.

(Bug: With a few browsers, the newly returned quiz often is not displayed correctly, although the underlying file is fine. If this happens, use the browser's "back one page" and then the "forward one page," which usually corrects the problem.)

Form to Submit Data:

       
Title of Your Quiz:

Optional Special Instruction:
Example Item:
Use an example that fits with your content.

Quiz Items:

Use the following input format:
Term 1 | Answer 1 %%
Term 2 | Answer 2 %%
  • You can add extra, unused values to the right column. Just enter "zzz" as the left hand value.
  • If two items share an answer, the two answers will automatically be merged and given a single number.
  • Carriage returns are irrelevant; the %% sign ends each entry (including the last).

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(Be sure all non-optional text boxes contain entries before submitting.)

(The example is deliberately difficult for most people in order to show that quizzes in this format need not be trivial.)