AMC used in a DRY way

Version 1 (Pieter Van den Hombergh, 04/06/2014 05:37 pm)

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h1. AMC used in a DRY way
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An old colleague once turned the often used phrase _copy and paste_ into *copy and waste* which is true in many cases.
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My experience with LaTeX and making exams with LaTeX is to put each question into a file on its own and then
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reuse it in other exam. That way, adding 25\% of questions per year will give you an ever larger base of questions.
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Combining that into a AMC exam is a s simple as pie. Just input the files in a AMC \element.
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I have several courses (topics) for which I have to prepare exams.
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I keep all the questions organised in a directory per topic.
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To not to pollute the MC-projects directory (as in copy and wast), In my exam I add 
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something like a QuestionBaseDir and use that to input all questions as well as inside questions 
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to for instance fetch pictures.
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<pre>
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\newcommand\QuestionBaseDir{/home/hom/fthv/hi/sen1/examquestionsmk2}
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</pre>
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In a question I would use the same like this: (For a UML horizontal extends symbol inline).
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<pre>
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\newcommand\extends{\includegraphics[height=1.5ex]{\QuestionBaseDir/figures/extends.pdf}}
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</pre>
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Same for including tables, code listings for programming courses, my institutes logo etc.