Randomising questions

Page status: Outline

This is a rough outline of an article. It might not use full sentences everywhere and probably won’t make much sense at the moment.

Problem

Want to randomise questions, so that some aspects are different for each student.

Randomised mathematical expressions can look odd.

Many common patterns:

  • scenarios

  • “random except for x”

  • random distinct values

  • generate a set of values satisfying a condition

Solution

Define a list of variables, with implicit references between them.

Try to provide functions for common tasks.

Often, working backwards from a randomly-chosen result works better.

Instant preview of generated values is helpful.

Difficulties

Some people prefer to work in a single plain text document, rather than the graphical interface. Is it possible to support them?

Picking fairly from all possibilities, e.g. pick a random prime number, would require calculating the whole set first.