Question Pooling in Exams

About Question Pooling

Question pooling allows you to create a group of questions from which a specified number can be drawn for an exam. When pooling is used, each learner receives a different set of questions for the same exam. Question pooling forces your learners to master concepts tested, rather than mastering the exam through memorization and is an effective safeguard against answer-sharing.

All questions on exams are either Required or Pooled. When a question is Required, it will always be on that exam. When a question is Pooled, it is one of the questions that might be on that exam.

Creating Exams with Pooled Questions

To create Pooled questions, simply select Pooled in the Include in Exam dropdown at the top of the screen. You can do this when creating a new question or editing an existing one.

In the list of questions on the left side of an exam, pooled questions are shown in normal text and required questions are shown in bold text. Question that are in review (not available to be used in an exam) are shown in ghosted/light gray text, this applies to both required and pooled questions.

Once pooled questions are created, the Questions in Exam dropdown in the exam properties is activated:

For comparison, here is an exam that does not use pooled questions:

From this dropdown, select the total number of questions you want included in the exam. For example, if the exam has three required questions and 17 pooled questions available, and you want each learner to answer 10 questions, select 10 in the dropdown. Each learner will then have to answer the three Required questions plus seven randomized questions from the pool. A different randomized group of seven questions will display for each person taking the exam.