Producing Graphs on Excel based testing
Hi I was wondering what the likelihood of the CAS asking us to create graphs / plots are for CBT.
My experience (Exam 5) is that it's not easy in the testing environment and I haven't seen it pop up yet for CBT.
Comments
Also, would the CBT environment restrict graphs completely, similar to the excel files BattleActs provides?
It's difficult to say with any level of confidence what the CAS might do in this situation because of the limits the CAS has placed on discussing the exams.
Looking at the functionality available in the CAS sample on the Pearson website, it seems there's no obvious way to produce graphs. So it's reasonable to assume at most you might be expected to produce a table of data that could be graphed.
Also, it seems that graphs, tables and other exhibits that the CAS want you to use in the exam are placed in pop-up windows in each question. Further, these windows appear to be images so you can't query the data by mousing over data points for example.
BattleActs keeps an eye on the CAS announcements and will let people know if we see any changes in the functionality offered or how the exam is presented. For instance, starting in Fall 2021 the short answer questions will no longer be in the Excel environment!
"For instance, starting in Fall 2021 the short answer questions will no longer be in the Excel environment!"
Wow that's a big change. So it'll be in a word document or something of the sort?
The CAS website says "For Exams 5, 6-Canada, 6-International, 6-United States and 8: pure written response questions (no numbers or formulas) will be asked in a non-spreadsheet form."
They haven't given any other information and the Pearson sample exam doesn't appear to have been updated with the new layout yet. I suspect it will still be in the Pearson environment but basically a giant text box with limited formatting tools such as bullet points.