Preparing Exam Papers In LaTeX

Presenter: Francis Ting (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Key words: LaTeX; Exams; Questions

In general, exam is a process involving both student and instructor. Exam questions are set by the instructor and students try their very best to give the best answers to printed questions. Now, imagine that questions are not properly typeset; equations are not clear and symbols are not correctly written. This creates a difficulty in understanding a question. The situation is similar to a question which is phrased in a broken language, which is confusing and unclear. Many instructors will just use MS Word that will give a poor outlook of the equations and symbols, which is not professional practice. This situation does not apply to all departments in XJTLU and it is most prevalent especially for Electrical Engineering (EE), Mathematical Sciences (MS), Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE), Biological Sciences, Chemistry, and Civil Engineering departments, whereby exam questions are usually calculations and involving many mathematical symbols. The best tool known so far is the LaTeX tool, which is adopted by a small minority in XJTLU.  In this colloquium, I would like to share how this LaTeX tool can make exam preparation more enjoyable and engaging in an efficient manner. An instructor only needs to work on one document, rather than four separate documents (questions and answers for both Final and Resit). I will also share my LaTeX template that I have used for many years in preparing exam questions. This will definitely increase the quality of exam papers, thereby upgrading the quality of learning and teaching across the University.