Symbol for difficulty?

Question

I am looking for symbols of difficulty (exercices for my students). For instance, a face with a question mark above his head, ... I would put one symbol for an easy exercice, two for a more difficult exercice, ... I suppose there are lots of packages with symbols but I only know pifont. So any suggestion is good

Answer 1

With xelatex/lualatex and using the symbola font:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{wasysym}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{symbola}
\newcommand\dA{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries !!!}}{}$}
\newcommand\dB{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries !}}{}$}
\newcommand\dC{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\leftturn}}{}$}
\newcommand\dD{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries ?}}{}$}
\newcommand\dE{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries ??}}{}$}
\newcommand\dG{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries \lightning\lightning}}{}$}
\newcommand\dF{$\stackrel{\mbox{\tiny\sffamily\bfseries ???}}{}$}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item[\dA] So easy!
\item[\dB] All under control ...
\item[\dC] Hehe, I think I can remember ...
\item[\dD] Ummm ...
\item[\dE] Ummm, uhmmm ...
\item[\dF] Too bad with this question ...
\item[\dG] D'ough !
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Answer 2

A high-school math book I know uses empty, half-filled and filled circles. One possible realization with pict2e:¹⁾

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pict2e,xcolor}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\difficulty@symbol}[1]{%
   \leavevmode
   \begingroup
   \unitlength\fontcharht\font`\A
   @picture(1,1)(0,0)
   \linethickness{.8\p@}%
   #1%
   \endpicture
   \endgroup
}
\newcommand{\easysymbol}{\difficulty@symbol{\put(.5,.55){\color{gray}\circle{1}}}}
\newcommand{\mediumsymbol}{\difficulty@symbol{\color{gray}\put(.5,.55){\circle{1}}\moveto(0,.55)\curveto(0,-.1)(1,-.1)(1,.55)\closepath\fillpath}}
\newcommand{\hardsymbol}{\difficulty@symbol{\put(.5,.55){\color{gray}\circle{1}\circle{1}}}}
\newcommand{\deadlysymbol}{%
   \leavevmode
   \begingroup
   \unitlength1ex
   @picture(3.6,1.8)(-1.8,-1)
   \color{darkgray}
   \put(1.46,.13){\circle{.64}}
   \put(-1.46,.13){\circle{.64}}
   \put(1.3,-.79){\circle{.64}}
   \put(-1.3,-.79){\circle{.64}}
   \linethickness{.5\unitlength}
   \Line(1.46,.13)(-1.3,-.79)
   \Line(-1.46,.13)(1.3,-.79)
   \linethickness{.1\unitlength}
   \roundjoin
   \moveto(-.5,-.75)\curveto(-1.2,0)(-1,.9)(0,.9)\curveto(1,.9)(1.2,0)(.5,-.75)\lineto(.4,-1.2)\lineto(-.4,-1.2)\closepath\fillpath
   \color{white}
   \moveto(-.5,-.75)\curveto(-1.2,0)(-1,.9)(0,.9)\curveto(1,.9)(1.2,0)(.5,-.75)\lineto(.4,-1.2)\lineto(-.4,-1.2)\closepath\strokepath
   \put(.36,0){\circle{.56}}
   \put(-.36,0){\circle{.56}}
   \endpicture
   \endgroup
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item[\easysymbol] simple
\item[\mediumsymbol] more difficult
\item[\hardsymbol] hard
\item[\deadlysymbol] really hard
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

---

¹⁾ The original answer used TikZ. Quite the overkill just to draw a circle. You can still see it in the revision history.

Answer 3

There are of course fonts you could use, but you don't have to use a font. You can use an image and introduce some artistic flare and draftsmanship as demonstrated here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\newcommand\qnface{\includegraphics[height=1em]{qface.png}}
\begin{document}
\begin{itemize}
\item Easy
\item Harder
\item[\qnface] Quite hard
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

with image

Answer 4

You could use replacement character from Steven B. Segletes answer, or just some kind of star symbol.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amssymb,graphicx,stackengine,xcolor}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\usepackage{MnSymbol,bbding,pifont}
\usepackage{marginnote}
\def\ucr{\scalebox{2}{\stackinset{c}{}{c}{-.2pt}{%
  \textcolor{white}{\sffamily\bfseries\scriptsize ?}}{%
  \rotatebox{45}{$\blacksquare$}}}}
\begin{document}
\reversemarginpar\marginnote{\ucr\ucr}\noindent\lipsum[66]
\reversemarginpar\marginnote{\ding{81}}\noindent\lipsum[66]
\reversemarginpar\marginnote{\scalebox{2}{$\smallstar\smallstar$}}\noindent\lipsum[66]
\reversemarginpar\marginnote{$\bigstar\bigstar\bigstar$}\noindent\lipsum[66]
\end{document}

Answer 5

Perhaps not a useful answer, but this from Knuth's Texbook:

You can probably find TeX for the glyph in the TeX source.

Answer 6

I repurposed David's beautiful plane in picture mode and added some mountains (the idea being that, when flying a plane, avoiding a tall mountain at close range is difficult).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\newsavebox{\easyquestion}
\newsavebox{\mediumquestion}
\newsavebox{\hardquestion}
\savebox{\easyquestion}{%
\scalebox{0.1}{%
\begin{picture}(400,100)
\put(30,40){\line(1,0){150}}
\put(30,40){\line(0,1){60}}
\put(30,100){\line(1,0){20}}
\put(50,100){\line(1,-4){10}}
\put(60,60){\line(1,0){100}}
\put(160,60){\line(1,-1){20}}
\put(100,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(130,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(100,-30){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(100,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(130,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(100,110){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(0,-50){\line(1,0){400}}
\end{picture}%
}}
\savebox{\mediumquestion}{%
\scalebox{0.1}{%
\begin{picture}(400,100)
\put(30,40){\line(1,0){150}}
\put(30,40){\line(0,1){60}}
\put(30,100){\line(1,0){20}}
\put(50,100){\line(1,-4){10}}
\put(60,60){\line(1,0){100}}
\put(160,60){\line(1,-1){20}}
\put(100,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(130,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(100,-30){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(100,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(130,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(100,110){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(0,-50){\line(1,0){400}}
\put(200,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(201,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(202,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(203,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(204,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(205,-50){\line(3,4){80}}
\put(280,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\put(281,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\put(282,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\put(283,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\put(284,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\put(285,60){\line(3,-4){80}}
\end{picture}%
}}
\savebox{\hardquestion}{%
\scalebox{0.1}{%
\begin{picture}(400,100)
\put(30,40){\line(1,0){150}}
\put(30,40){\line(0,1){60}}
\put(30,100){\line(1,0){20}}
\put(50,100){\line(1,-4){10}}
\put(60,60){\line(1,0){100}}
\put(160,60){\line(1,-1){20}}
\put(100,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(130,50){\line(0,-1){80}}
\put(100,-30){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(100,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(130,61){\line(0,1){49}}
\put(100,110){\line(1,0){30}}
\put(0,-50){\line(1,0){400}}
\put(200,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(201,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(202,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(203,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(204,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(205,-50){\line(1,3){60}}
\put(265,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\put(266,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\put(267,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\put(268,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\put(269,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\put(270,130){\line(1,-2){90}}
\qbezier(230,20)(250,100)(270,20)
\qbezier(270,20)(290,-40)(320,20)
\end{picture}%
}}
\begin{itemize}
\item[\usebox{\easyquestion}] I can see my house
\item[\usebox{\mediumquestion}] I wish I had a weapon
\item[\usebox{\hardquestion}] You're making me seasick!
\end{itemize}
\end{document}

Answer 7

The symbols used for ski runs—green circle, blue square, and then increasing numbers of black diamonds—are very widely known, standardized internationally in their basic concept, scale well to any resolution, don't need to be in colour, and will have resonance for people who may find little faces to be too cutesy or ambiguous. And the scheme can be extended upwards, to arbitrarily high difficulties, by adding more diamonds, without having to represent increasing frustration by subtle facial expressions.

I would probably consider scaling them so that a student who masters most of the squares can expect a passing grade, and those who want a "good" grade need to make sure they can succeed at most of the diamonds.

I'm having a hard time finding explicit references to a TeX face that includes them, but these are really generic shapes that could be found in any set of bullets or dingbats.