Looking for free mock exams with sections...

[Rashi Jain]

Hello everybody!
I am new here so pardon me if this has been asked before. Is there any free mock exam that contains exam objective wise questions? I saw some free ones but they are not objective wise. Also they have few random questions. Well, I can't really complain much because hey...after all they are free...but it takes so much time to jump through all the different hoops for each mock exam provider to get to the questions....is there a place we can find all the free questions in one place?

thanks!
Rashi

[Rashi Jain]

I am interested in collecting all the free mock exam questions in one place in one format. Any suggestions?

[Kenneth Lomvey]

You, me or another one can NOT do this; because some free exams were copyrighted. No one can legally copy/extract questions from copyrighted mock exams. Doing this, will be subjected to the copyright violation.

If you want to use some free exams, click here to see a list of free and commercial mock exams. Remember, don't attempt to violate the copyright laws.

[Rashi Jain]

But most of them I saw were having something like GPL license. So we can use the material as we want, no?

[Ankit Garg]

Rashi how do you want to use these questions. I think you cannot replicate those questions without the consent of the authors. However you can use them for your preparation...

[Rashi Jain]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but if something is GPLed, one can use it however one wants...only thing is one has to make her stuff also open/gpled. Some other licenses such as lgdl, I believe, don't even require one to release their code.

[Deepak Bala]

Originally posted by Rashi Jain:
Please correct me if I am wrong, but if something is GPLed, one can use it however one wants...only thing is one has to make her stuff also open/gpled. Some other licenses such as lgdl, I believe, don't even require one to release their code.

But GPLed to whom ? Authors would not take it kindly if their questions are reused or reposted under other names / software without their consent

[Rashi Jain]

Hello Deepak,
I have only respect for people like you who have spent their time in developing mocks and I definitely don't intend to cause any trouble.
I was only trying to add more value to the stuff that is already available freely. I am sure you will agree that trying to use all these different mocks in different formats is a pain. So I am willing to put my time and effort in collecting them in one place. What's wrong with that?
I am not using any copyrighted material. Once something is GPLed, people are free to use it however they like. GPL is not given to any particular person but to society in general. Again, if that is not true, please correct me.
thanks!

[Ulf Dittmer]

I am not using any copyrighted material. Once something is GPLed, people are free to use it however they like. GPL is not given to any particular person but to society in general.

You're misunderstanding several things about the GPL.

Firstly, putting something under the GPL does NOT mean anyone can use the material as they like. The GPL has quite a few provisions that specify what you can or can not do with GPL'd material. GPL is not at all like putting something into the public domain (where you CAN use it as you see fit).

Secondly, putting something under the GPL does NOT mean a person gives up their copyright. Quite to the contrary, they are asserting their copyright. So even if it's GPL'd, it's still copyrighted.

Furthermore, the GPL is indeed granted to individual persons, not to society at large. Again, you may be confusing this with the public domain. An individual loses their GPL-granted rights if they violate it.

Lastly, using the GPL would be rather odd for written material. I haven't seen very many mock exams, but I doubt that's what most of them are under. Sometimes I see the author's name and a copyright assertion with them, which means they can't be reproduced without permission (fair use notwithstanding).

[Devaka Cooray]

Hi Rashi,

Your ambition is good, but there is a problem you have to understand. Please understand that there is a big different between "free software" and "GPLed software".

You can easily find some free mock exam softwares(just like my Exam Lab simulator), which available for free. But I think that most of them do not give you a General Public License (GPL) to redistribute and/or modify them. You can use them for free, but you can't distribute/modify them. In Exam Lab simulator, I clearly included the "Copyrighted" term. Remember, if you can see this term anywhere, you can not distribute or modify it.

Ok, if you exactly know about any mock exam, which provides a GPLicense (I don't know about any GPLed mock exam), you can copy it, while they are 'copyleft' products. Remember, in this case you have to clearly mention the source, where did you extract the questions from.

Be careful with copyright violations. Because I don't know is their any GPLed mock exam available.

Cheers

[Rashi Jain]

Thank you all for your responses. I will try to collect free questions after asking for permission from the authors.

Meanwhile, what is the best way to collect them? Should I just put them in a word doc or in a mock tool?
So far, I have seen that only Inquisition mock exam engine allows you the insert questions through xml file. Any other ideas?

thanks,
Rashi!

[Kenneth Lomvey]

Rashi,

Why can't you make your own questions, instead of copying from other exams? :roll:

[Rashi Jain]

Originally posted by Kenneth Lomvey:
Rashi,

Why can't you make your own questions, instead of copying from other exams? :roll:

Thanks for understanding the problem :roll:

The issue is not new questions but increasing the value and reach of existing ones. It just another dimension. I don't want to write new questions because there are thousands available, more than enough, already. What is not there is one place and one way to access them. So I want to focus on that.

[Kenneth Lomvey]

Originally posted by Rashi Jain:
I will try to collect free questions after asking for permission from the authors...

This is a good Idea. However, as I think there are no any author who will give the permission to you for this

Don't worry, just try to ask the permission from authors of WhizLab, PracticeLab, ExamLab, Enthuware....

[Rashi Jain]

Originally posted by Kenneth Lomvey:


This is a good Idea. However, as I think there are no any author who will give the permission to you for this

Don't worry, just try to ask the permission from authors of WhizLab, PracticeLab, ExamLab, Enthuware....

FYI, I am talking about free mock exams, not commercial ones :roll: Do you have anything besides negativity ???

[Paul Anilprem]

Hello Rashi,
It is indeed a good thought to collect all the questions in one place. It is an effort in itself. As you have already mentioned, requesting permission from the authors is definitely the way to go to avoid any copyright issues. Some may not give you permission but do not get disheartened. If you create something really useful for the community, slowly everybody will get along.

If you are interested, we have developed ETS Editor that can help you load questions (as well as any other helpful material) from any format in very little time. A question bank created using ETS Editor can be viewed by ETS Viewer. Both are completely free to use and distribute (though they are not open source). You can contact me at support AT enthuware dot com if you need any help on this.

Good Luck

[Rashi Jain]

Hi Paul,
I have been trying to use your etseditor to load questions as you suggested. I have loaded quite a lot of questions (1000+) but I am unable to sort them by "provider" like I can do in Inquisition. Can you help me with that?
Other than this issue, I must say that it is a really good tool

[Treimin Clark]

Rashi,

Did you get permissions from the respective authors?

[Rashi Jain]

Yes, I got from some.

[Suman Sharma]

Hi Rashi,
I have been trying to create my own java mock questions for some time in PowerPoint. I am glad that I saw your post today and came to know about the ETS and Inquisition tools. Could you please tell me the whole process step by step to go into this business and how you are going to get license and market it.
Thanks a lot.

[Paul Anilprem]

Originally posted by Rashi Jain:
Hi Paul,
I have been trying to use your etseditor to load questions as you suggested. I have loaded quite a lot of questions (1000+) but I am unable to sort them by "provider" like I can do in Inquisition. Can you help me with that?
Other than this issue, I must say that it is a really good tool

Hello,
ETS Editor is meant for content providers to package their certification material. One .ets file belongs to one content provider. It should not contain material from multiple providers.
What you are trying to do is, however, possible in a round about way. ETS Editor allows you to categorize questions in two ways - exam sections and toughness levels. It will be difficult for you to assign toughness levels of the questions anyway, so instead of using Toughness levels categorization for Toughness Levels, you can use it for "Provider Name". You can then sort them by Provider as you intented to do.

If you like, you can mail me the file that you have created (or a subset of it) and I can show this to you by updating the file.

HTH,
Paul.

[Paul Anilprem]

Originally posted by Suman Sharma:
Hi Rashi,
I have been trying to create my own java mock questions for some time in PowerPoint. I am glad that I saw your post today and came to know about the ETS and Inquisition tools. Could you please tell me the whole process step by step to go into this business and how you are going to get license and market it.
Thanks a lot.

Hello Suman,
Creating questions in Powerpoint will be quite time consuming and difficult to license. Enthuware Test Studio is meant for exactly this type of thing.

You can use ETS Editor to create your own question bank (i.e. a .ets file. This .ets file is the entity that you can license/sell) -
0. Download and install ETS Editor from http://enthuware.com/etseditor
1. Using File->New, create an empty ets file.
2. ETSEditor will show the nodes such as Sections(aka exam objectives or topics), Toughness Levels, Questions, etc.
3. Right click on any node to add Sections or toughness levels or questions.
4. If you are writing new question from scratch, use New->Question (or right click on Questions node) to add a new empty question. This will show you a question editor where you can specify problem statement, code, exibit, images, explanations etc.
5. If you already have written questions in some format, you can let ETS Editor import them by writing a simple Java class that reads your questions file, and returns POJOs. Then use Load Questions menu item to specify your class file and your datafile, and ETS Editor will import the questions in its own format.
Send me an email at support AT enthuware DOT _com if you need help with this.

Regarding Licensing -
1. ETS uses publickey-private key encryption. It has inbuilt facility to let you can encrypt your .ets file using your own keys.

2. Once the file is encrypted, it cannot be opened by ETS Editor without access to the keys and it cannot be opened by ETS Viewer without a license that is given by you. So regular users can only view your questions, that too with a valid license (if you so desire). They cannot modify it.

3. You can either charge for a license or give it out for free. If you cannot generate individual licenses (like we do for our question banks, see http://enthuware.com/alletsbanks.html), you can disable the license validation. You do not have to pay us anything even if you charge for your question bank.

Again, let me know if you need any help on this.

ETS Editor and ETS Viewer are both free to use. But they are not open source and they are not copyleft.

[Suman Sharma]

Paul,
Thank you very much for your kind response. I will try to follow the steps suggested in your post. If I have questions, I will let you know.
Thanks again.

[Matt Russell]

Originally posted by Rashi Jain:
But most of them I saw were having something like GPL license. So we can use the material as we want, no?

In Inquisition, the bundled exams are either in the public domain or provided under a variety of Creative Commons licences (for example, the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5) chosen by their authors. You can use the questions as long as you comply with those licenses.

[Bert Bates]

This is all making me very, very queasy. At the least I think that if you publish some sort of collection of mock questions, you must include, with every question, the source of that question. It could well be that more will be necessary, but at least that much is critical!!!

I think that I speak for all authors when I say that it's just not ethical (and in many cases it's illegal), to republish an author's work without his permission. You must remember that us poor authors gotta eat too - this is how we make our living, so republishing our stuff without permission is a really bad idea. For sure, you don't have permission to republish my mock questions, and frankly I'd guess that a lot of the other mock question authors feel the same way. I don't think I'm being cranky here, and of course I'm always open to feedback.

Bert

[Devaka Cooray]

Originally posted by Bert Bates:

You must remember that us poor authors gotta eat too - this is how we make our living, so republishing our stuff without permission is a really bad idea. For sure, you don't have permission to republish my mock questions, and frankly I'd guess that a lot of the other mock question authors feel the same way.

Yes Bert Bates, I totally agree with you on this.

Devaka

[Paul Anilprem]

Well, this affects us as well because we are one of the most popular commercial mock exam providers and I agree with Bert.

From my brief interaction with the OP, I gathered that she has only used stuff that is freely available on the net. I didn't see any commercial material such as ours or Bert's book's. She said she has gotten permission from some providers. I hope she stays away from violating any copyrights.

[Treimin Clark]

Originally posted by Paul Anil:

I gathered that she has only used stuff that is freely available on the net. I didn't see any commercial material such as ours or Bert's book's.

Did you mean that it is legal to extract questions from any FREE mock exam, even without getting permission? Remember, that the copyright law is valid for BOTH free and commercial mock questions, if they are copyrighted by the law. Devaka's responds in this thread represents this, while his mock exam is free.

[Paul Anilprem]

Originally posted by Treimin Clark:


Did you mean that it is legal to extract questions from any FREE mock exam, even without getting permission? Remember, that the copyright law is valid for BOTH free and commercial mock questions, if they are copyrighted by the law. Devaka's responds in this thread represents this, while his mock exam is free.

No, I didn't mean anything to that effect. All I said is that I saw only material that is freely available (based on whatever she shared with me for the purpose of learning how to use ETS Editor). This comment was in reference to Bert's comment, "You must remember that us poor authors gotta eat too ...". As I said before we are also in the same category.

Copyright certainly applies to material that is available for free as well. She claims she's got permission from some providers of the material that she is using. Whether she's got the permission or not, I don't know.

I am guessing that commercial providers will most certainly not give any permission, while people who have already made their material available for free, may give the permission (possibly after due acknowledgement). I, personally, would give the permission if I were the copyright holder of a free set of questions. But that's just me.