[Tex/LaTex] Total number of Questions and Grads/Points in Exam class

exam

I am using the exam template and wonder how to count the total number of questions and the total number of marks to provide the totals on a cover sheet (before declaring them)?

Here is what I have. I am sure it is easy, but was not able to find an example or the right commands in the documentation…

Can anybody help?

\documentclass[11pt]{exam}
\RequirePackage{amssymb, amsfonts, amsmath, latexsym, verbatim, xspace, setspace}
\RequirePackage{tikz, pgflibraryplotmarks}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}

\begin{document} 

% some hearder and student info here, excluded for simplicity

% instructions
\textbf{Instructions:}

% how to count questions and marks to give the totals on a cover sheet?
This exam contains XXX questions, \numpages pages (including the cover) for the total of XXX marks.

\begin{questions}
% Basic question
\addpoints
\question[10] Differentiate $f(x)=x^2$ with respect to $x$.
% Basic question
\addpoints
\question[10] Differentiate $f(x)=x^3$ with respect to $x$.
\end{questions}

\end{document}

Best Answer

Section 4.7 of the exam document reveals that there are some commands as

\numquestions, \numpages, \numpoints amongst others which just print the value of the relevant counter at the end of the document. exam uses a totcounter - like approach.

Note: \numquestions questions will print 2questions, i.e. either use \numquestions{} questions (as proposed by touhami) or \numquestions\ questions to provide the necessary explicit space.

\documentclass[11pt]{exam}
\RequirePackage{amssymb, amsfonts, amsmath, latexsym, verbatim, xspace, setspace}
\RequirePackage{tikz, pgflibraryplotmarks}
\usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}

\begin{document} 

% some hearder and student info here, excluded for simplicity

% instructions
\textbf{Instructions:}

% how to count questions and marks to give the totals on a cover sheet?
This exam contains \numquestions\ questions, \numpages\ pages (including the cover) for the total of \numpoints\ marks.

\begin{questions}
% Basic question
\addpoints
\question[10] Differentiate $f(x)=x^2$ with respect to $x$.
% Basic question
\addpoints
\question[10] Differentiate $f(x)=x^3$ with respect to $x$.
\end{questions}

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Customized bonus questions in exam class

Looking at the source of exam.cls there is a if@bonus that you can use to test if you are typesetting a bonus or a regular question. Hacking a bit you can do something like

\makeatletter
\newcommand\thetotalpoints{%
  \if@bonus
    [\totalbonuspoints\ bonus points]
  \else
    [\totalpoints\ points]
  \fi
}
\makeatother

\qformat{Question \thequestion: \thetotalpoints \hfill}

[Tex/LaTex] Manually setting the total number of points in the exam document class

I don't think that this is possible without changing the class file. Since exams with the structure that you describe are pretty common, it might be worth emailing the author of the class to request that he adds this feature.

In the meantime, here is a horribly crude workaround. Make a new copy of exam.cls, and call it something different; say myexam.cls. In your exam, change your document class to myexam, and add something along the lines of

\newcommand{\mytotalpoints}{100}

Then open the myexam.cls file, and search for the string

\prt@hlfcntr{tbl@points}

Replacing the correct instance of this with

\mytotalpoints

will do the trick. Exactly where the change needs to be made depends on the type of gradetable that you use. A bit of trial and error may be needed.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Customized bonus questions in exam class

[Tex/LaTex] Manually setting the total number of points in the exam document class

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