1. Download the latest Tester zip file(s) to your
computer. (If
you have a previous installation, delete the lot and replace with this
one)
2. Unzip it to any place on your computer drive or USB memory
stick. Make sure you extract them!
The file structure below should be loaded onto your drive during
the unzipping.
3. To run Tester, double click
on Tester536LE.exe
(Or a later version...)
4. You can repeat this process to download each subject you want to do.
Login
There is no Student ID number or login number required. As usual, press
Get Test to choose from list of tests.
Comparing Study Mode to Exam Mode.
Study Mode is for home use and college practice, Exam Mode is for
assessment and can only be done at the college.
In Study Mode you can quit at any time, but Exam Mode running a
'compulsory' test requires all questions to be attempted.
As
the name implies, you are supposed to study the notes, not just write a
list of answers to copy.To encourage this, TesterLE provides
the
following: Multiple
choice questions and
their pictures are displayed, but the answer options are
hidden. These questions are intended to point the student to
appropriate topics to help prepare for the test. No marks are
counted for these questions during Study Mode. Maths
questions are fully
featured but have a wider margin in the answer given. TesterLE will
mark the question to the usual tolerance (typically +/- 1%). If the
user fails to enter a number within this range an error
message displays the answer in a wider range, with random
limits
between 10 and 25% above and below the correct solution. Unit
multipliers are tolerated. Marks are tallied.
Tester provides
correction hints for wrong answers. In this
example, the exact solution was 1.91295 kN.
Since Tester allows 1% tolerance, anything from 1.893821 kN to
1.93208 kN is considered correct.
However, the exact solution is not simply midway between the 10-25%
limits. In the message given above, the average value is
actually
1.8065 kN, which is outside the 1% range..
During EXAM MODE, the correct solution is displayed AFTER the user got
it wrong.
Is it possible to
run TesterLE in Exam Mode?
TesterLE cannot run in Exam Mode because the functionality is missing.
Exam mode is only available in the college because
the student
results and ID data are kept on the network.
What is the pass mark?
The passmark can vary depending on the test and the demands of
the
subject. For most tests, a pass will be in the range
from 65%
to 85%. Each test has a specified pass mark which appears on the top
bar during the exam. Check the rules for whether you may repeat the
test. Here are some examples;
No repeats
allowed
A certain number of repeats is allowed
Repeats
require a higher pass mark
A
certain number of repeats is allowed with marks being averaged (this is
the default rule unless teacher specifies otherwise. Usually maximum of
2 or 3 attempts)
Unlimited repeats allowed with
marks averaged from earlier tests
Rules for
Multiple Choice tests:
Students are not permitted to copy down the question options
displayed on the screen during the test. Negative
marking is usually applied, multiple, which means a typical 4 choice
question will lose
approx 1/3 marks for wrong answers. This is because that
question has 75% chance of wrong answer and 25% chance of correct
answer - by pure guessing.
Rules
for Maths-based questions:
There
are no rules for maths-based questions, unless stated by the teacher. For
some tests, certain software (e.g. Excel) is detected by
Tester and must be shut down to continue.
Negative marking does not apply to maths questions. 80% of
marks are allocated to the correct numerical answer.
20% of marks are for correct base units according to the
chosen multiplier. (The number must correspond
to the multiplier) About the Program
Specifications
Multiple choice: 2-5 distractors, randomized
question order
and distractor order from a Blowfish encrypted text file and image
folder.
Mathematical questions: Parsed
maths text string and randomised variables
and units, unit multiplier and tolerance with weighted marks for
numerical answer & unit choice.
Multi-select
questions: Multiple selection (tick) boxes corresponding to
alphabetical labels on an image.
Also:
Auto-generated css/html results webpage,
practice modes and test mode
with student login, test bank navigation, text file encryption
&
validation. Associated images/animations,
score statistics – mark prediction & time monitoring,
graphical feedback. ).
The teacher writes the test in a text editor
(Notepad), then runs
Tester to encrypt it. The encrypted files and pictures are saved in
student accessible folder.
Student can run "Study
Mode" to practice the test. OR...
The
student can log into Tester with their ID number. This
brings up their previous test records for viewing. They then select a
test.
Or student can run in
"Exam Mode". The teacher gets a fresh password number (expires
every 5 minutes).
Student runs the test and
results are saved.
Encryption;
Encryption is essential because the students download test files that
contain sensitive information (i.e. the correct answers and
formulas). The Blowfish algorithm (128 bit) is a recognised secure
cipher that is in the public domain. Blowfish
is a keyed, symmetricblock cipher, designed in
1993 by Bruce Schneier
and included in a large number of cipher suites and encryption
products. Blowfish provides a good encryption rate in software and no
effective cryptanalysis
of it has been found to date. Compared to the early versions of Tester
(before Nov 15, 2008), the decryption take a little longer -
typically up to several seconds for a 50 question multiple choice test.
(Mathematics tests tend to be a lot shorter since there is less text).
No decryption occurs
during the running of test. Tester
LE Update History
'Get rid of testlist file (auto folder search to get test
names)-----------------------DONE 20081104 510 'Alternative units -
degs/radians, Nm/Nmm (both ways)----------------------------------DONE
20081108 511 'Recently used units
------------------------------------------------------------------DONE
20081110 511 'If units are wrong,
ignore prefix. Correct units given in exam mode only -------------DONE
20081112 512 'Better encryption:
Blowfish 128bit, saved as Radix64 to avoid LF etc -----------------DONE
20081115 514 'Test(ReadData.frm)
faster: Read only headers, then whole test on "Run Test" ----------DONE
20081117 515 'Merged Radix64, Pallete
colors, pretty icon, a bug or 2 ------------------------------DONE
20081124 517 'Generate html full report
------------------------------------------------------------DONE
20081129 520 'Modified results file
(extra comma), Reports in student number & surname
order--------DONE 20081201 521 'Added Multi-Select
questions. 77 selection labels to suit matching images-------------DONE
20090221 525 'Disable x_ images in
study mode ------------------------------------------------------DONE
20090223 525 'Fixed login bypass bug
and test list not displayed in login page----------------------DONE
20090226 526 'New header with passmark,
alphabetic results string (gotit$)--------------------------DONE
20090228 527 'Bug fixes: Login results,
Quit after save, Number units, new Shuffler-----------------DONE
20090306 529 'Atan2 (Inverse Tangent in
360 degree notation), Excel detector------------------------DONE
20090307 530 'Continuous result saving,
picture label, Report average div by 0 bug------------------DONE
20090314 531 'Fixed negative answer bug
in SigFigs sub, added Debugger form-------------------------DONE
20090320 532 'Resizable DoTest form
down to 800 px. Removed TAG/UNTAG. Fixed Predition bug----------DONE
20090403 534 'Added units: km/h
--------------------------------------------------------------------DONE
20090406 535 'Fixed zero answer bug, more units, backup AFTER
display of next question (faster)-----DONE 20090411 536