Exam class: start true/false questions with "True False"

Question

I'm using the exam class and I would like to write questions like this:

1. True False  This statement is false.

2. True False  This statement is true.  It's a long, though, so it 
               goes on to the second line.

Then the students can circle "True" or "False" depending on their mood, etc. Note the indentation for the second question. I would probably also put "True" and "False" in bold, with suitable spacing before, after, and between them.

I can see how to use \qformat to make it look like this:

1.  True False  
  This statement is false.

2.  True False  
  This statement is true.  It's a long, though, so it 
  goes on to the second line.

but then it's a little harder to distinguish the answer choices from the question.

I could also use the oneparchoices environment, but that doesn't handle the indentation, and it also would insert "A. True B. False", which I don't think looks good.

Gonzalo Medina · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-10T01:18:42.480

10

You could try something like this (feel free to make the necessary adjustments):

\documentclass{exam}

\newcommand*\TrueFalse{\bfseries True\hspace*{10pt}False\hspace*{10pt}}
\newlength\mylena
\newlength\mylenb
\settowidth\mylena{\TrueFalse}
\newcommand\MyQ[1]{%
  \setlength\mylenb{\linewidth}
  \addtolength\mylenb{-\mylena}
  \parbox[t]{\mylena}{\TrueFalse}\parbox[t]{\mylenb}{#1}}

\begin{document}

\begin{questions}
\question\MyQ{text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text text.}
\question\MyQ{How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck
wood?}
\question\MyQ{Compute $\displaystyle\int_0^1 x^2 \, dx$.}
\end{questions}

\end{document}

edited Mar 10 '11 at 01:18

answered Mar 09 '11 at 23:03

Gonzalo Medina

505,128

Lovely, but when I test it, \mylenb seems to be wrong. You can correct it by moving the computation of \mylenb inside the definition of \MyQ, so that it will start with the correct value of \linewidth. – Phil Hirschhorn Mar 10 '11 at 00:23
@Phil: (Hi, Phil!) So inside the definition of \MyQ, I think I should put \setlength{\mylenb}{\linewidth} and then \addtolength{\mylenb}{-\mylena}. This is not quite what Gonzalo has: I changed the first "addtolength" to "setlength". – John Palmieri Mar 10 '11 at 00:47
@John: {Hi John! I didn't notice this was from you until after I'd answered.} Anyway: Yes, or else the later questions would look pretty funny... – Phil Hirschhorn Mar 10 '11 at 01:18
@Phil: You are right. I've edited the code to reflect your suggestion. – Gonzalo Medina Mar 10 '11 at 01:20

score 4 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:34

I think Gonzalo's answer is lovely, and I almost saw no reason to suggest an alternative, but if (1) You don't want to have to type the \MyQ and enclose the question in brackets, and (2) You're willing to have all of your questions be formatted in this way, you can also do the following:

\renewcommand{\questionshook}{%
  \settowidth{\leftmargin}{10.\hskip\labelsep\TrueFalse\hskip\labelsep}%
  \labelwidth\leftmargin\advance\labelwidth-\labelsep
  \renewcommand\questionlabel{\thequestion.\hskip\labelsep\TrueFalse}
}
\newcommand*\TrueFalse{\bfseries True\hspace*{10pt}False\hspace*{10pt}}

(Note that I used Gonzalo's definition of \TrueFalse here.) Of course, this changes the formatting of all of the questions, which may not be what you want.

Exam class: start true/false questions with "True False"

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