U. alum develops 'user-friendly' test maker

After 13 years of teaching, Drexel University Statistics Professor Lalit Aggarwal said he was tired of spending five hours to prepare each of his exams. So, the 1976 University doctoral recipient decided to do something about it. In 1992, Aggarwal set out to develop a "user friendly" computer program that would improve, facilitate and expedite the exam-writing process. "I wanted to give students a fair exam that was responsive to what went on in the classroom," he said. "An exam that was error free and would help to keep students from cheating because some exams get circulated. With this program I could create new exams quickly." In August, Aggarwal released his test making computer program, called X-AMS, through Hands-On Computer, the computer company he and his wife own. Run through Macintosh and IBM computers, the time it takes to create a complete exam depends on the exam's length and content. "For 25 questions, it takes less than 30 minutes," Aggarwal said. "It takes about one minute a question." Because X-AMS requires a minimal amount of programming, first- time users only need to take a few more minutes than those with experience, Aggarwal added. In the first session with the program, users must enter the test questions. Then X-AMS will customize tests by topic, format, length, level of difficulty, graphics and print style. "In political science, take the subject of American politics since World War II," Aggarwal said. "You want a question set on the United Nations. You type in United Nations and all the questions about the United Nations will pop out at you. Then you select the questions you want to incorporate in your test." Sanjay Bhasin is one of twelve Drexel University professors currently using X-AMS. He praised the program's ability to evaluate students' performance on individual test questions. In order to use the program's evaluation functions, the professor must enter students responses to questions into the system. Although imputing students' answers to questions is time-consuming, the program is useful to "check out different [tests] because professors often teach courses repeatedly," Bhasin said. He added that this aspect of the program helped him create exams that more accurately test what students have learned in class. Bhasin, however, criticized the program's limited application and said some of its options such as graphs and tables are "difficult" to use. The program is most useful for multiple choice-type tests, Bhasin said. Although the program can be used for essay exams, he added that he could not find a way of incorporating it in his written exams. According to Aggarwal, some professors complain that the program does not come with a prepared set of questions. "I believe [question lists] take away from exams," he said. "They should reflect what goes on in class, not what someone has made in a set of questions." Nevertheless, Aggarwal said he expects X-AMS to be successful in the national market.