Excel tools

• Retrieval Roulette
  • Instructions
• MCQ Machine
  • Instructions
• Extensible Exercise

Retrieval Roulette

The roulette is a bank of questions used to automatically construct a random quiz.

It supports retrieval practice and spaced repetition: questions from previous and current topics are mixed up randomly (at your control).

The model is simple and flexible.

• Questions sheet holds all the questions and answers
• Options sheet selects which topics to include
• The following sheets quiz in both directions
• Print Q sheet designed to fill A4 paper for homework or test

For more information about roulettes, see Adam Boxer’s blog. Links to many different examples at the bottom.

Instructions

Written and video instructions to follow.

MCQ Machine

The MCQ machine generates five multiple-choice questions from a list. You turn individual questions on or off in the Questions sheet and Excel will randomly choose five. The order of the responses are also randomised.

Instructions

1. Type a new question and up to four responses. Correct answer goes in final column. If not spelled identically, this will fail.
2. Type Y to include that row in the pool of possible questions.
3. You can leave rows blank or add headings to organise topics/weeks etc.
4. Select a number of the yellow cells, then press Ctrl+Enter to type ‘Y’ into many cells at once (for example to select questions for an entire topic).

Thoughts on writing high-quality MCQs.

Extensible Exercise

An adaptation to a Roulette based on single-word KS4 glossary.

In the Glossary sheet, toggle single terms on and off with ‘Y’.

Optional ‘extra’ questions can be specified with ‘X’. These appear as the final 3 questions of a 10-question quiz.