Copyright: Copyright ©1998 by Macmillan Computer Publishing.  All rights reserved.


Display Properties

Before running Study Cards, check to make sure that the font size property used by your system is set to "Small Fonts", as shown below.  To display this dialog, here's what to do:

a. Press the Start button in the task bar.

b. Select Settings, then Control Panel

c. When the control panel window appears, double-click the Display icon.  The settings tab provides the fonts setting shown below.

"Small Fonts" must be selected in the Font Size combo box.


Start Study Cards

To launch Study Cards, use Windows Explorer to open the directory on the CD-ROM which contains the test.  Study Cards runs directly from the CD, and does not require a setup program.  Double-click STUDYCARDS.EXE to run the program.

Select a Course:

If more than one course is available, Study Cards will lists the names of courses, as shown below.  To proceed, click on the name of a course.  Then press the OK button, to proceed to the Greeting screen.

TestPrep Navigator Note:

If you are running the Practice Exam from the TestPrep Navigator, the Greeting screen will appear automatically.  You do not have to select a course manually.


Study Cards Online Reference Guide

StudyCards is a member of the Top Score application suite, developed exclusively by Macmillan Computer Publishing.  Study Cards is a learning tool that helps you study for certification exams.  Study Cards presents practice questions in multiple-choice format.  You can reveal the correct answer to each question, and link from questions to reference material in electronic books.

The Study Cards user interface is simple, and most functions are easy to understand.  There are only a few screens to learn.  The links below document major procedures and interface elements.

Start Study Cards

The Welcome Screen

The Options Screen

The Questions Screen

The Item Review Screen

The Examination Score Report Screen

Before running Study Cards, or any Top Score application, please check the Display Properties of your video card are set to use small fonts.


TestPrep Navigator
The Top Score Navigator tracks reading assignments, quiz scores, exercises, and exam scores, across multiple course modules.  The Top Score Navigator is normally not included with single-course tests, such as those developed for a book.


TestPrep application suite
Top Score Application Suite

Applications in the Top Score application suite include: Study Cards, Flash Cards, Chapter Quiz, and the Practice Exam.  As a rule of thumb, you should run Study Cards first to become familiar with the questions.  Next, use Flash Cards to enhance your recall, before running the Practice Exam to simulate an actual test environment.  And of course, you should take Chapter Quizzes immediately after reading a chapter.

Study Cards introduces you to the question set, using a multiple-choice answer format.  You can reveal the correct answers and link to the electronic book from within this application.

Chapter Quizzes test your understanding of material recently read.

Flash Cards use a fill-in-the-blank metaphor to present questions.  Since Flash Cards does not present a list of possible answers, it tests your memory and analytical skills.  Flash Cards also reveals correct answers and links to electronic books.

The Practice Exam emulates the look and feel of many certification tests.  Like Study Cards, it uses a multiple-choice format.  The Practice Exam does not reveal correct answers, or link to references within electronic books.  You can not determine the number of questions asked, or limit the number of objectives covered.


The Examination Score Report Screen

This Examination Score Report screen graphs your score against the score required to pass the test, and provides the percentage of correct information by objective.

The Passing Score field displays the score required to pass the actual exam.

Your score is displayed in the Your Score field.  The Grade field indicates the Pass/Fail status of your Study Cards session.

The Objective Analysis report lists each objective, and the percentage of questions you answered correctly for each objective.

Buttons

The Print Button prints a textual representation of this screen.

The Show Me What I Missed button displays on on-screen report listing questions you missed.  This report can also be printed.  It lists each question, the correct answer, your response, and associated cross references.

The Help button opens this file.

The Exit button closes the Study Cards application.


The Item Review Screen

Once you have navigated through all of the questions, the Item Review screen appears.  This screen allows you to jump directly to any question.  The major components of this screen are as follows:

Question List

Review Marked Button

Review Incomplete Button

Grade Now Button

Help Button

Print Button

Review Item Button

Question List:  Each row in Item Review contains the  information about a question.

Question Number Column:
The first column in the list contains a question number.  To jump to a question, type its number in the Review Item text box in the lower right side of the screen.  Then press the Review Item button to jump to the question.  Or double-click on the row which lists the question.

Marked/Incomplete Column:
A yellow M indicates a marked question.  A red I indicates an incomplete, or unanswered question.  If you did not select the correct number of answers to a question, it will be marked incomplete.

Your Response Column:
The answers you selected appear next, indicated by A, B, C, D, etc.

Question Text Column:
The first few words of each question are displayed in the last column to make it easier to match questions with responses.

Review Marked Button

To Review marked questions, press the Review Marked button.  The first marked question will be displayed, along with buttons for Item Review, Next Marked, and Previous Marked.  Use these buttons to return the Item Review screen, or to review questions you have marked.

Review Incomplete Button

To Review Incomplete Questions, press the Review Incomplete button to jump to the first incomplete question.  Then use the Next Incomplete and Previous Incomplete buttons to answer unfinished questions.  You can return to the Item Review screen at any time by pressing the Item Review button.

Navigation buttons such as Previous and Next Incomplete are disabled whenever there is no additional data to display in a given direction.

Grade Now Button

When you have finished reviewing questions press the Grade Now button.  This will display the Examination Score Report screen.  The Examination Score Report screen will be displayed automatically when time runs out.

Help Button

Press this button to open this help file.

Print Button

To print a report of items in the Item Review Screen, press this button.

Review Item Button

The textbox next to this button can be used to enter a question number.  Pressing this button takes you directly to the question.


The Options Screen

The Options screen allows you to set default parameters for the test, including:

Which objectives will be covered.  Questions are selected only for the objectives you select.

The amount of time you will have to complete the test.

The total number of questions which will be asked.

Start the Test

Select Objectives will be Covered

The left side of the screen lists major objectives for the test.  Objectives are the major topics covered by the exam. Study Cards selects questions only for objectives which are checked.

By default, all objectives are selected, which means that questions will be chosen at random from all objectives.  The checkbox next to each objective name indicates whether the objective will be selected.  At least one objective must be selected from the list.  The Select None button unchecks all objectives.  The Select All button checks all objectives.  By selecting only a few objectives, you can focus on specific areas of study.

Set the Amount of Time Allowed to Complete the Test

By default, the Time Limit field is preset to the number of minutes you have to complete the actual certification exam.  To change this, enter another number into this field, to specify the number of minutes allowed for the test.

Set the Total Number of Questions which will be Asked

To change the number of questions that will be selected from the database, enter a number into the Number of Questions field.  By default, this field displays the number of questions that are asked on the actual exam.

The maximum number of questions you can enter into this field varies depending upon the number of obectives selected, and the total number of questions in the database.  If Study Cards can't select the number of questions you want, it will select as many as it can from the objectives you have selected.  Feel free to experiment.

Start the Test

When you are ready to proceed, press the Start Test button, at the bottom right of the screen.  A dialog box will appear, containing the message:  "Selecting a random set of questions from the database.  This may take up to a minute."

The amount of time needed to select a random set of questions from the database depends on the number of questions in the database, the speed of your computer, and the speed of your CD-ROM drive.  On most systems, this process takes approximately 20 seconds, but may take up to a minute.


The Questions Screen

The Questions Screen appears once you have set options for the test, and have pressed the Start Test button.  The major components of this screen are as follows:

Question Area

Answer Area

Mark Question Checkbox

Show Answers Button

Show References Button

Exhibit Button

Previous Button

Next Button

Status Bar

Question Area

Questions are displayed against a green background at the top of the screen.  A scroll bar appears next to questions that do not fit entirely within the display area.   Be sure to read each question carefully, since some questions have more than one correct answer.

Answer Area

Possible answers for the current question are listed in the middle part of the screen, against a white background.  To answer a question, check the radio button or checkbox that appears to the left of each answer.  Radio buttons are used when only one answer is appropriate.  Checkboxes are used when more then one answer is correct.

Mark Question Checkbox

Marking a question allows you to return to it later.  To mark a question, check the Mark Question checkbox at the bottom left of the screen.  Marking a question allows you to return to it from the Item Review Screen.

Show Answers Button

Pressing the Show Answers button paints a yellow background behind correct answers to the current question.  Pressing this button may also display additional feedback text to tell you why a particular answer is correct.  If you're not sure how to answer a question, press Show Answers to reveal correct responses.

Show References Button

The Show References button displays a reference that tells you where to look in the book for background information.  For example, "See Chapter 1, Planning".  If electronic reference materials are available, pressing the Show References button will display a list of topics that you can link to in an electronic file, and a new button, Goto, will be displayed.  To jump directly to a reference in the electronic book, select a topic in the list, and press the Goto button.  Or just double-click on the topic cross reference.

The Show Reference button is not available if the exam databases does not contain cross-reference information.

Exhibit Button

Some questions may refer to an Exhibit.  Exhibits are external files, such as text files or bitmaps, which Study Cards opens in a floating window.  To open an exhibit, press the exhibit button.  Exhibits are most often used to display code fragments, diagrams, and other visual elements. The Exhibit button is greyed unless an exhibit exists for the current question.

Previous Button

Pressing this button takes you to the previous question asked.  You do not have to answer to current question before pressing this button.

Next Button

Pressing this button takes you to the next question selected from the database.

Status Bar

When answering questions, take note of the status bar at the bottom of the screen.  It displays a prompt indicating the type of response you should make to answer the current question.  Sample Status Bar prompts are:

Select all that apply.

Select the best answer.

Select 1 Answer

Select 2 Answers

Select True or False

The text may vary from question to question, so be sure to read this information carefully.


The Welcome Screen

The first screen which appears in Study Cards is the Welcome screen.  Its presents information about copyrights, and displays the name of the test.  This screen contains 3 buttons:

The Help button opens this help file.

The Exit button terminates the program.

The Next button advances to the next screen.