Exam Paper Header

Question

I would like to recreate something like this

To make my students' papers are realistic and true to the real thing as possible. How would a header like that be achieved, would it be with the \maketitle command? And how are "MAT1511 Analytical Geometry" and the date aligned separately?

Answer 1

You can set the title in a center environment, with the necessary formatting (perhaps \large\bfseries). Spacing for the subject and date could be via inserting a horizontal space (like \qquad, or \hspace{2em}).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsfonts}

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
  \bfseries\large
  UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

  FACULTY OF SCIENCE

  Department of Mathematics

  B.SC.(Hons.) Year I

  January 2013 Examination Session

  MAT1511 Analytical Geometry \qquad \today

  \bigskip

  \normalfont\normalsize
  11.45a.m.~--~1.45p.m.
\end{center}

\noindent
\begin{tabular}{p{\dimexpr\linewidth-2\tabcolsep}}
  Answer THREE questions \\
  \hline
\end{tabular}

\begin{enumerate}
  \item
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item
    Define the \textit{scalar triple product} $[\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}, \mathbf{z}]$ for vectors $\mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}, \mathbf{z} \in \mathbb{R}^3$, and show
    \[
      [\mathbf{z}, \mathbf{x}, \mathbf{y}] = [\mathbf{y}, \mathbf{z}, \mathbf{x}].
    \]

    \item
    \ldots
  \end{enumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

Answer 2

I would never go for document class article. Much beter, with predefined questions is \documentclass{exam}

Depending on what you want, you can find

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper,addpoints]{exam} 

\noprintanswers
%\printanswers

\pointsinmargin 
%\pointsinrightmargin
%\bracketedpoints
\boxedpoints
%\noboxedpoints

\parindent=0pt 
\title{UNIVERSITY OF MALTA\\FACULTY OF SCIENCE \vspace{-1em}}
\author{Department of Mathematics\\B.SC.(Hons.) YEAR 1\\January 2013 Examination Session\\MAT1511 Analytical Geometry \qquad January 25, 2016}
\date{11.45 a.m. - 1.45 p.m }

\begin{document}
\maketitle
Answer THREE QUESTIONS
\hrule
\begin{questions}
\question[1] 
    \begin{parts}
        \part lqkjfmlk
        \part mlqkjfsmd
        \part qdsfq
    \end{parts}

\question[5] qdslfkjq m
    \begin{solutionordottedlines}[2cm]
    Here comes the answer
    \end{solutionordottedlines}

\question[2] Multiple choice
\begin{checkboxes}
    \choice qdsf
    \choice dsfq    
    \CorrectChoice If you delete the \% before the printanswers, the document will show you the answers \ldots
    \end{checkboxes}
\end{questions}

\end{document}

End to learn some more: http://www-math.mit.edu/~psh/exam/examdoc.pdf

So I adapted my answer... with the title of the exam. Therefore I think you should use the \maketitle command that is build in a class.

In the preamble you can change those things, depending on the exam.

(off topic: you really should test the print answer on and off mode, so you can see that you can put every answer in your examination or tests. Just switch to on and off and you are done)

Answer 3

There are probably some more elegant LaTeX structures for this, but I'd just use a center environment with \obeylines, something like this:

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
    \Large\obeylines
    UNIVERSITY OF STACK
    FACULTY OF EXCHANGE
    Department of TeX Questions
    D.Phil. \quad Year IV
    January 2016 Examination Session
    \medskip
    \hbox to \textwidth{TEX3142 Advanced Typesetting \hss 25 Jan 2016}
    \medskip
    \large
    16.15 p.m. --- 17.45 p.m.
\end{center}
\bigskip

\noindent
Answer as much as you can.
\hrule

\end{document}

Notes

I've used a few old fashioned bits of plain TeX here:

• \obeylines makes each line end behave like a paragraph end. Its effect is contained within the center environment here.

• \quad puts in a "quad"-sized space

• \medskip adds a medium amount of space between paragraphs

• \hbox to \textwidth{...} gives you a box that is set to the \textwidth. The \hss inside it does a "horizontal stretch or shrink" to give you the right amount of space in the middle.