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Importing test bank in microsoft word into Testgen

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/16/2008 - 10:36

I have some questions in word format and wish to have a way to import the test bank to be available from Testgen software. Can you suggest me way to do that? Thanks for your help.

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cschultz Mon, 11/17/2008 - 10:32

The best way to get questions from Word into TestGen is to use copy and paste.

  • First, open the testbank for editing in TestGen so the chapters and questions appear on the right side of the screen, in the testbank editing window.
  • Also start Word and open the document that contains the questions you want to import.
  • Now, in the TestGen program, go to the chapter or section where you want to put a new question. From the Insert menu, insert a blank question of the type you want to insert.
  • Go to the Word doc and copy the question. Then paste the question into the question field in TestGen. Repeat the copy/paste process for the answer choices (if multiple choice) and the answer.
  • You might want to set up the Word doc with 10 pt. Palatino Linotype font with text all flush left and no special paragraph formatting before using the copy/paste procedure, so that the questions you paste in will match the style of the existing testbank questions.

 

Eugene Williams (not verified) Fri, 01/09/2009 - 13:43

Isn't there a way to do it faster and more automated? This method will take forever with a test bak of seeral hundred multiple choice questions.

cschultz Wed, 01/14/2009 - 08:04

Yes, it is a tedious process to copy the questions from Word, and this is why we encourage instructors to type their questions directly into TestGen. Currently, there is no utility or tool to assist end users with importing questions, but we do provide this service to publishers for a fee, so you might want to see if your textbook sales rep can provide any assistance.

L. Lee (not verified) Tue, 10/27/2009 - 14:00

You folks REALLY should FIX this. Almost all teachers have legacy type questions (we've got about 1000), and the complete lack of import capability coupled with difficulties importing graphics have made this program extremely frustrating to use, and we've wasted a huge amount of time. I would have thought it would be in your best interest to make it EASY for instructors to move to your program rather than hard. I wish we had never used it and had stayed completely with ExamView. THEY allow import from RTF which works fine once you get your file properly formatted.

cschultz Tue, 11/03/2009 - 12:54

We appreciate your comments and are aware of the challenges of moving questions from one platform to another. We will consider your suggestions as we plan for future enhancements to the TestGen program. In the meantime, we'd be happy to assist in getting your questions from Word into a TestGen testbank file so that you can make use of the many features TestGen has to offer. Please contact me at your convenience at cschultz@tamarack-software.com to work out the details.   C.S.

Peter (not verified) Fri, 10/15/2010 - 08:19

I would have to second the lack of ability to import questions as a problem. But, even more so, the lack of ability to edit or resize a graphic image is hard to believe. I really want to use this program, but I feel like it takes me too long to be worth it.

Jacalyn Newman (not verified) Tue, 10/19/2010 - 17:39

I agree this is a huge problem. I'm part of a group of faculty looking at moving from a customized exam database we hate to something else. We want to import our existing exam questions into the new database and the inability to do this with TestGen is a huge deterrent. I guess we'll keep looking, because this feature is too important to do without.

cschultz Wed, 10/20/2010 - 07:36

Tamarack would be happy to assist you with the task of moving questions into TestGen. Please contact me at cschultz@tamarack-software.com and provide your contact information so we can discuss your needs and set up a plan to complete the task.

Regarding the resizing of graphics, new feature is on our "wish list" and we are investigating what is needed to incorporate it into a future version of TestGen. Thanks for your feedback.

Jacalyn Newman (not verified) Tue, 01/25/2011 - 20:19

Importing is not a one-time issue for the group I'm with. We have many faculty teaching different sections of the same course who all use a common test bank. We get submissions of questions from UTAs, we write our own new questions, and we want to update our common test bank regularly with these changes. That is something we should be able to do easily ourselves and that is not possible with the current software you offer. For us, that is a deal-breaker. We'll keep looking until we find a package that has all of the features we want, including easy import of new questions.

mcb (not verified) Mon, 06/01/2015 - 15:44

I agree with the person above. You guys really should fix this. DITTO DITTO DITTO!!!

yeast (not verified) Tue, 02/15/2011 - 01:42

This post is over 2 years old. Any updates? Lack of portability and product updates will encourage me to suggest that we migrate to another product.

We are in the process of evaluating which texts and resources to purchase for the next semester, and like most of the other commenters on here, I want/need something that is flexible enough to work with Microsoft Word such that multiple questions can be imported quickly.

Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/19/2011 - 20:47

Add me to the list of individuals who will be looking for a new product ... one which is more flexible and has an automated import feature. I've been hoping for it, but after three years I don't think it will ever come.

Venkat (not verified) Tue, 10/09/2012 - 01:52

Hi All,

Is the problem of importing Quesions into Word files got resolved in the TestGen or we need to use the same old method of adding the questions manually from word to TestGen.

Regards,
Venkat

TSI Support Tue, 10/09/2012 - 12:41

We are actually working on a solution right now, but it isn't ready for release yet so you will need to continue to use the copy/paste method.

I will update this thread and send a note through the mailing list when it's available.

Jeff

Christina (not verified) Wed, 04/03/2013 - 01:05

Please do update the list when more information comes to hand. I am currently preparing exams for a large course and would very much appreciate assistance on this topic. Many thanks in advance.

William (not verified) Thu, 10/24/2013 - 06:02

It's been another year ... has this feature been added yet? PLEASE make this a priority. This is a feature that will drive some to choose other products over TestGen.

Anonymous (not verified) Sun, 01/19/2014 - 13:46

It's 2014, and we're STILL WAITING for a basic function to make the software user friendly. I have a slew of questions my undergraduate teaching assistants wrote that I'd like to add to my test bank. What I don't have is a slew of time to copy and paste them all one by one. PLEASE make this update happen.

Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 01/30/2014 - 15:35

I agree. It is very surprising and telling that after all these years Tamarack still hasn't responded to a basic need of its users. I'm taking my case to Pearson. They need to provide their textbook adopters another option for exam generation software.

Larry Scfhmidt (not verified) Tue, 07/22/2014 - 19:01

Why haven't Tamarack fixed this problem
Answer: they do not care about the user
they protect there property this way
wake up it is all $$$$$$ for them and a pain in the ___ for us.
so stop complaining they don't care about you or your opinions or the would have fix this problem and made it user friendly years ago (but that would take integrity and cost $).

Greg (not verified) Wed, 12/10/2014 - 16:21

It's December 12th, 2014, I'm making my final exam and Testgen has the same problem that everyone has described here, no way to import questions.

rick bennett (not verified) Wed, 09/30/2015 - 11:56

Still no support to import your own questions as of 9/30/2015?

NMBioguy (not verified) Sun, 12/06/2015 - 17:27

More than three years have passed since this posting and still no way of assisting people with this issue? I have thousands of old questions in word files (that could easily be saved as .TXT files) that I'd love to use again. This is THE ONE thing that annoys me about this program and it still has not been dealt with!

John Doe (not verified) Fri, 01/18/2019 - 10:40

It's been 8 years since the original posting. And there is still no ability to import. I've been a long user of this software, 15 years, but am finally moving on. I will be sure to express my distaste with other teachers at conferences and meetings, and will be clear with publishers that I will not buy materials from them if they use TestGen.

Karl Ulrich (not verified) Thu, 05/09/2019 - 11:29

I was very surprised and disappointed that while TestGen can easily export files that can be imported into other test generators, it cannot take any of the exported file types back in. I no longer use TestGen for most of my courses. They must charge publisher's a significant amount of money to convert question banks to TestGen files and do not want to give up that revenue stream...

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