> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://academy.synap.ac/doc/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://academy.synap.ac/doc/getting-started/creating-your-first-test.md).
# Creating Your First Test
If you are looking to deliver Exams on Synap, then it is important to understand that you need to create a Test first. The difference between Tests and Exams can be confusing at first so it's worth taking a moment to understand what the difference is, and why we treat them as two separate entities:
A **Test** is a collection of **Questions**. It is created by you or your colleagues, and it lives in your Library. You can edit it, add/remove questions and change the settings of it.
An **Exam** is how you deliver a **Test** to **Students**. It takes a **Test** as its source of questions, and lets you define other features on it such as the schedule, the candidate list etc.
There is some nuance to this, for example certain types of Exam can utilise questions from multiple Tests, but for now just have in mind that, "Before you create an Exam, you need to create a Test".
In this Getting Started guide, we are just going to focus on creating a simple test using a handful of question types. Bear in mind that Synap supports over 20 unique question types, and has multiple configuration options for many different kinds of exam. Feel free to poke around and experiment with the platform, or to review our more detailed [Question Types](/doc/quizzes/creating-a-quiz/question-types.md) and [Exams](/doc/exams/create-and-manage-exams.md) guides later on.
### Creating a Test
To create a test, go to your Library and click Create -> Test. This will then take you to the New Test page where you can set a name for your test. There are other fields available here such as Description, and you can also set Custom Attributes but these are not necessary and are beyond the scope of this Getting Started guide.
Give your test a name, such as "My First Test", then click Save. This will unlock the rest of the menu items so you can add questions and configure your test.
### Adding Questions to your Test
Go to the Questions menu item on the left hand side, and click Create a Question. This will open up a menu that lets you choose the type of question. Synap supports 17x question types including Multiple Choice (MCQ), Essays (Free Text), Short Answer and Image Hotspot.
Feel free to experiment with different question types based on your exam requirements. For an overview of the various question types we offer and their capabilities, refer to our [Question Type Library](https://synap.ac/online-exam-platform/authoring/question-types/).
In this Getting Started guide, we will just focus on creating a single Multiple Choice Question ("Single Correct") as this is a common and easy-to-understand type. Other question types are created in a similar way, but will have their own distinct fields.
#### Creating a Multiple Choice Question
From the menu above, choose the Single Correct question type (this is a Multiple Choice Question / MCQ, with a single correct option).
This will open up a modal with a lot of different options - feel free to explore, but we only need a few:
**On the Question tab:**
* Required: Stem: The "question" of your question
* Optional
* **Name:** This is a friendly reference for your question. It is not shown to candidates during the exam, but can be shown to candidates or admins in lists/overviews as a quick reminder of the question,
* **Lead In:** In formal and standardised assessments, the 'Question' is often split into a Stem and a Lead In, with the Stem being the 'context' of the question and the lead in being a short summary of 'what is being asked'. If this is unfamiliar to you, it is likely that your questions to not need this distinction so feel free to ignore it for now.
* **Feedback:** You can use to provide an answer explanation / feedback to the candidate.
**On the Answer tab:**
* Add 2-4 Text Options, these will be the options a candidate can select.
* Make one of them Correct, and leave the others as Incorrect
As you will have seen, on the Stem, Lead In, Feedback and Options input boxes, there are many different formatting options e.g. Bold, Underline, Tables etc. These can be used to add rich formatting to your questions if needed, and support some advanced options such as embedding content or dynamic variables, but that goes beyond the scope of this introductory guide.
**Other Options**
There are many other options available when creating a question, as you will see in the other tabs. Feel free to explore these, we'll outline a few of the options below just so you are aware of them, but they are all optional and not needed in this initial test
* **Tags:** Lets you categorise your questions into different Subjects, Topics and Skills. This can be helpful when generating Dynamic exams with specific weightings, and when displaying results breakdowns to students. Tags require a bit of set-up to begin with but are incredibly useful. For more information, refer to our [Tags](/doc/analytics/tags-and-facets.md) guide.
* **Placement:** Lets you define whether your Question lives in a particular Section - a Section being a discrete part of the Test, or an Extended Matching Group (EMQ), where related questions that share a common introductio are grouped together.
* **Configuration, Media Controls:** Advanced settings and layout options including sequencing/timer rules if your questions incorporate mandatory audio or video passages
* **Marking:** Advanced marking rules e.g. assigning specific points/maximum mark thresholds, marking rubrics or marking strategies to a question.
* **Attributes:** Custom fields you can define on your questions. Not shown to candidates, these are used purely for admin organisation and data management.
#### Creating Additional Questions
If you want to, you can create some additional questions. You can Clone the current question if you wish to keep its settings and make slight adjustments to the next question, or you can create a brand new question from scratch.
For the purposes of this guide, you do not need to create any more questions as the exam we are going to create in the next step only needs one.
### Test Settings
Below the Questions tab on the left hand menu, there are various additional pages which define the Settings for your test.
For this getting started guide, we are not going to go through these as the default values are 'good enough' for what we are trying to do, but feel free to explore them if you want to.
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