Using MCBuilder

1. First Get Your Facts

You probably have lots of suitable lists of facts already or know where to find them on the 'net.
If not here are a few suggestions that make ideal MCBuilder Quizzes.

• Terms and Definitions
  • any Glossary of Terms - for example:- Medical Terms and Explanations
  • abbreviations and full names - 'wysiwyg : what you see is what you get'
  • Capital Cities and Countries
  • Chemical Symbols and Chemical names
• Translations
  • English words to French words
• Images and Image names
  • Flags and countries
  • Tools and their names
  • Faces and names
  • Paintings and Titles

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2. The Format of Your Fact File

MCBuilder works best when all the facts in a list share a common topic and format.

Here is an example of part of such a list.
'An Apple is Red'
'A Banana is Yellow'
'A Grape is Green'

These facts share a common topic - fruit colour - and format.

Notice that every fact also contains the word 'is' linking the parts of each fact.

MCBuilder refers to the word 'is' as the Link Word/Phrase.

Different lists of facts can use a different Link Word/Phrase
but the Link Word/Phrase must be the same for any one List.

When you build your list of facts, MCBuilder requires you to replace the common Link Word/Phrase in each fact with the symbol ~
For the example above the fact 'An Apple is Red' must be written as 'An Apple ~ Red'

While the word 'is' is the default link word you can use others.

Examples of Facts taken from three different lists and converted into a form suitable for MCBuilder.

Original Fact	MCBuilder Fact	The ~ replaces the Link Word/Phrase
'An Apple is Red'	An Apple ~ Red	the '~' replaces 'is'
'London is the Capital of England'	London ~ England	the '~' replaces 'is the Capital of'
'AU is the Chemical Symbol for Gold'	Au ~ Gold	'~' replaces 'is the Chemical Symbol for'

When you upload your list of facts MCBuilder will ask you what the '~' is to represent in your list.

Sample MCBuilder Lists

List 1. Where the Link Word/Phrase is the word 'is'
Inventory ~ the goods you hold for sale to customers.
A Liability ~ what your business owes creditors.
An Asset ~ an item of value held by the business.
etc

List 2. Where the Link Word/Phrase is 'is French for'
Bleu ~ Blue
Verte ~ Green
etc

With above information in mind you are now ready to create Your Fact File.

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3. Create Your Fact File

Using a plain text editor, such as Notepad, copy or type in your list of facts.

Enter one fact per line.

Replace your chosen link word/phrase with the ~ character.
You can have only one ~ per fact.

You must have a minimum of 8 Facts in a list for the quiz to be produced.

Other things to consider to get the best out of MCBuilder.

• Facts should ideally refer to one area of knowledge - Accounting terms or Chemical Symbols
• Write Facts not Questions - Do not write 'Who is the God of Thunder? Thor' but rather 'Thor is the God of Thunder'
  MCBuilder will turn your facts into questions.
• Facts must be positive - 'Red is the colour of an Apple' rather than 'Purple is not the colour of an apple'
• Lists should not a mixture of singular and plural facts.
  The Facts
  'Cats are cool' and 'A dog is intelligent' - can produce grammatically incorrect statements such as
  'Cats is intelligent'
  It is better to rewrite the offending fact, for example, - 'Dogs are Intelligent'
• Try not to include any key words twice in the same fact. - 'A cat is a cat like creature'
  The resulting question will show the keyword, cat, in both the stem and the correct distractor making the answer obvious.

Save your list of facts to a plain text file.

Now you are ready for the final step of uploading your Fact File to create your Multichoice quiz.

Uploading Your Fact file