h1. AMC used in a DRY way

An old colleague once turned the often used phrase _copy and paste_ into *copy and waste* which is true in many cases.

My experience with LaTeX and making exams with LaTeX is to put each question into a file of its own and then

reuse it in other exams. That way, adding 25\% of questions per year will give you an ever larger base of questions.

Combining that into a AMC exam is as simple as pie. Just input the files in an AMC \element.

I have several courses (topics) for which I have to prepare exams.

I keep all the questions organised in a directory per topic.

To not to pollute the MC-projects directory (as in copy and waste), in my exam I add 

something like a QuestionBaseDir and use that to input all questions as well as inside questions 

to for instance fetch pictures.

<pre>

\newcommand\QuestionBaseDir{/home/hom/fthv/hi/sen1/examquestionsmk2}

</pre>

In a question I would use the same like this: (For a UML horizontal extends symbol inline).

<pre>

\newcommand\extends{\includegraphics[height=1.5ex]{\QuestionBaseDir/figures/extends.pdf}}

</pre>

Same for including tables, code listings for programming courses, my institutes logo etc.