# Free Multiple Choice Test Maker: printable template | Papeez

> Paste your questions and get a printable multiple choice test, its answer key, and up to eight shuffled versions. Free PDF and Word, no sign-up.

Source: https://papeez.com/en/tools/multiple-choice-test-maker/
FR version: https://papeez.com/fr/outils/generateur-sujet-qcm/
ES version: https://papeez.com/es/herramientas/generador-examenes-opcion-multiple/
ES-ES version: https://papeez.com/es-es/herramientas/generador-examenes-tipo-test/
PT-BR version: https://papeez.com/pt-br/ferramentas/gerador-prova-objetiva/

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## Multiple choice test maker

Paste your questions, get a printable paper, an answer key, and up to eight shuffled versions.

## Multiple choice test maker: printable template and shuffled versions

Paste your questions in plain text. Out comes a question paper laid out for printing, its answer key, and as many shuffled versions as there are rows in the room. Free, no sign-up, PDF and Word.

Everything is worked out in your browser. Your questions, the paper and the answer key are sent to no server, and nothing is kept when you close the tab.

## How to make a multiple choice test

### Paste your questions

One question per block, the answers under it, a star on the right one. The box opens with a worked example so you can see the shape before you replace it. Anything the parser cannot read is reported with its line number, never dropped in silence.

### Ask for as many versions as you need

From one to eight, lettered A to H. Each version shuffles the order of the questions and the order of the answers, and carries its own key. Two neighbours no longer have the same paper in front of them.

### Print it, or take the PDF or the Word file

Print sends the papers alone, without the rest of this page. The PDF is laid out at the exact size of the paper you chose. The Word file is there for the paper you still want to edit: a letterhead, a figure, a question moved.

## A worked example: three questions, four versions

The syntax is a dash for an answer and a star for the right one. Nothing else is required: numbering, letters and blank lines are all optional, and a letter you typed yourself is thrown away, because each version re-letters its own answers.

```
Which of these is a prime number?
- 9
* 17
- 21
- 27

2) In which year was the Treaty of Rome signed?
A. 1949
B. 1951
* C. 1957
D. 1963

Which two of these are noble gases?
[x] Argon
[ ] Nitrogen
[x] Neon
[ ] Chlorine
```

| Setting | Value | What it does to the paper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Questions read | 3 | Three blocks, the third with two correct answers |
| Versions | 4 (A to D) | Four papers, four keys, one sheet each |
| Shuffling | Questions and answers | No two versions share an order |
| Answer key | On | A last sheet, one block per version |
| Paper | Letter, one column, 11 pt | Eight one-line questions to a sheet |

The third block shows what a checkbox marks: two correct answers, and a key that reads B/D on the version that lettered them that way.

### The syntax the box expects

A block is a question. The first line is the stem, the lines under it are the answers, and a blank line ends the block. That is the whole format, and everything else is a tolerance rather than a rule.

An answer opens with a dash, a star, a plus or a bullet. A star or a plus marks it correct; so does a checkbox with an x in it, and so does a star at the end of the line, which is how most people annotate a printed key. A letter in front of an answer is read and then discarded, because the letters are re-assigned on every version and a `C)` you typed would contradict the `A)` printed on version B.

The parser is forgiving on purpose, because a teacher pasting out of a word processor is not writing code. A missing blank line still closes a block. A stem that wrapped over two lines is still one question. A `12)` at the head of a stem is stripped, since the numbering is re-assigned too. What it never does is guess: a question with no marked answer is printed and reported, so you find out here rather than in the corridor.

A single question can have more than one correct answer. That is a [single-answer versus multiple-answer question](https://papeez.com/en/glossary/#single-vs-multiple-answer) and the tool makes no distinction between the two: mark one star or mark three, and the key names whatever you marked.

```
Question text on one line, or on several.
- a wrong answer
* the right one
- another wrong answer

The next question starts after a blank line.
```

### How to print the paper: scale, paper size, sides

One setting decides whether what comes out of the printer is the paper you laid out, and it is wrong by default in a great many drivers. In the print dialog, set the scale to 100 percent rather than Fit to page. Automatic fitting shrinks the sheet by a few percent, which on a question paper costs you nothing visible and on the answer sheet you print alongside it moves the corner marks a scanner needs.

The second is the paper size. The paper is produced at the size chosen in the options, Letter or A4, and the printer tray has to hold the same. Printing a Letter document on A4 works, but the margins are no longer the ones the columns were measured against, and a two-column paper is where that shows first.

Print single-sided if the papers are going to be scanned back. A double-sided paper has to be fed twice, and a pile of thirty fed twice is a pile of thirty in which one sheet ends up the wrong way round. If you are printing several versions, keep them in separate stacks: the versions are only useful if you know which one you handed to whom.

| Print setting | Set it to | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Scale | 100 % | Automatic fitting changes every measurement on the sheet |
| Paper size | The one chosen in the options | Repositioning changes the margins the columns were measured against |
| Colour | Black and white | The paper has no colour fills |
| Sides | Single-sided, if it will be scanned | A double-sided paper is fed twice |
| Copies | One stack per version | A version you cannot identify is a version you cannot grade |

### How many questions fit on one page?

It depends on how long your questions are, which is why the tool measures the text rather than promising a number. The arithmetic is worth knowing all the same, because it is the arithmetic that decides whether you set the paper in one column or two.

A question of one line with four answers takes five lines of the column, plus the gap that separates it from the next: about five and a half. At 11 pt an A4 column holds around forty-five of those lines under the header, so eight such questions in one column and sixteen across two. Longer stems eat into that quickly, which is the whole reason the font size is an option and not a constant.

The tool never squeezes: past the point where a question does not fit at the foot of a column, the whole block moves to the next column or the next sheet rather than being split across the fold. A stem at the bottom of column one whose answers open column two is a question people answer wrong, and no amount of paper saved is worth that.

| Question shape | A4, 11 pt, one column | A4, 11 pt, two columns |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One-line stem, 4 answers | about 8 per sheet | about 16 per sheet |
| One-line stem, 5 answers | about 7 per sheet | about 14 per sheet |
| Two-line stem, 5 answers | about 6 per sheet | about 12 per sheet |

Counted on the first sheet, which carries the title and the name line; the sheets after it hold about one question more per column. Letter is shorter than A4 and holds about one fewer.

### How shuffled versions stop copying

The oldest answer to a crowded room is to sit people further apart, and the room is rarely big enough. [Shuffled papers](https://papeez.com/en/glossary/#shuffled-versions) answer it differently: the person next to you has the same questions in a different order, and each of those questions has its answers in a different order too, so the letter they wrote in box seven is the answer to a question you have not reached yet.

That is why the shuffle happens on two axes and not one. Reordering the questions alone leaves the answers where they were, and anyone who notices that the right answer is B four times in a row has learnt something about both papers. Reordering the answers alone leaves the numbering intact, which is the thing a neighbour reads fastest. Both together, and a copied column of letters is worth nothing.

The shuffle is drawn from a number, not from chance, and that matters more than it sounds. Reprint version C tomorrow because you fixed a typo in the title, and you get the same version C, with the same key, which is what lets the pile on your desk still match the sheet in your hand. The button next to the versions is the only thing that draws a new one.

Version A is shuffled like the others. A run in which one paper is the source order is a run in which whoever saw the file has an advantage, and the point of the exercise is that no two papers in the room are the same. The one exception is a single version: with nothing to differ from, shuffling would only scramble the paper you just wrote.

### How to grade the papers afterwards

Shuffling solves one problem and creates another: four versions mean four [answer keys](https://papeez.com/en/glossary/#answer-key), and grading by hand now means picking the right one for each paper before you start. Thirty papers across four versions is thirty decisions nobody should be making at eleven at night.

By hand, the way that works is to sort the pile by version first, then grade each stack against its own key with the key beside you rather than in your head. The tool prints the keys on their own sheet, one block per version, in the order the questions appear on that version, precisely so that stack and sheet can sit side by side.

The other route is to have the paper read back. Papeez prints each copy with a unique barcode, which is what identifies the copy at the moment it is scanned, and shuffles at four levels of its own: choices, questions, exercises and sections. You scan the pile on the office copier or with a phone; it reads the marks, applies your marking scheme and returns the grades and the per-question statistics. Nothing to buy beyond the copier already down the hall.

### How to take this paper into Papeez

The Word file is the bridge. Papeez imports an exam from Word, Excel, PDF, an image or XML, so the document this tool hands you is a document the next step takes as it is: download the .docx, import it, and the questions arrive as questions rather than as a picture of a page.

What changes once it is in Papeez is what happens on either side of the printing. The exam is structured into exercises and sections, several teachers can write it together, and every printed copy comes out with its own barcode. The shuffle you set here becomes a setting there, on four levels instead of two.

You do not have to. This tool is finished on its own: paste, print, grade by hand, close the tab. The bridge exists because most people who print a shuffled paper eventually have to read it back, and reading thirty papers back is the part that does not get faster with practice.

#### And the answer sheet?

This tool makes the question paper, not the grid the answers go on. If your candidates mark their answers on a separate [bubble sheet](https://papeez.com/en/glossary/#bubble-sheet) rather than circling letters on the paper itself, the sheet is the neighbouring tool, and the two are meant to be used together: the same number of questions, the same number of answers per question.

## The papers are printed. What about the marking?

Scan the completed papers: Papeez reads the marks, applies your marking scheme and returns the grades and the per-question statistics.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do I make a printable multiple choice test?

Paste your questions into the box at the top of this page: one question per block, the answers under it, a star on the correct one. The paper lays itself out straight away. Set how many shuffled versions you want, add a title, then print it or download the PDF or the Word file. No account is asked for and nothing is sent to a server.

### What format do the questions have to be in?

Plain text. A block is one question: the first line is the stem, the lines under it are the answers, and a blank line ends the block. A dash opens an answer and a star marks the correct one. Letters such as A) or a., question numbering and checkboxes are all accepted and then ignored, because each version renumbers and re-letters its own paper.

### How do I make two versions of the same test?

Choose the number of versions, from one to eight. Every version shuffles both the order of the questions and the order of the answers within each question, carries its letter at the top of the paper, and comes with its own answer key. The shuffle is drawn from a fixed number, so reprinting a version later gives you the same paper and the same key.

### Can I export the test to Word?

Yes. The Word button produces a .docx assembled in your browser, with the same layout, the same versions and the same answer key. It is a real Word document, so you can move a question, add a figure or put your institution's letterhead on it before printing. Papeez also imports an exam from Word, so the same file is what the next step takes.

### How many questions fit on one page?

It depends on how long your questions are, which is why the tool measures the text rather than promising a number. A one-line question with four answers takes about five and a half lines of a column; at 11 pt an A4 column holds around forty-five of them, so about eight such questions in one column and sixteen across two.

### Does shuffling the answers change the answer key?

Yes, and that is the point. Each version letters its answers in the order they are printed on that version, so the same question can be answer B on one paper and answer D on another. The key printed for each version reads that version's letters, which is why the papers have to be sorted by version before grading.

### Does the tool store my questions?

No. Everything is worked out in your browser: the questions, the paper, the answer key, the PDF and the Word file are sent to no server. The layout settings are kept in local storage, in your own browser, so the page reopens as you left it. The questions and the title are not kept.

### How do I grade the papers afterwards?

By hand, sorting the pile by version first and grading each stack against its own key. Or by scanning them: Papeez prints each copy with a unique barcode, reads the marks from a scanner, an office copier or a phone, applies your marking scheme and returns the grades and the per-question statistics.