Free Test Banks For Textbooks

[Jeannine Lander]

TheRespondus Test Bank Network contains thousands of test banks for the leading textbooks in higher education. Instructors who use Respondus 4.0 can easily create online exams from these official publisher test banks.

Respondus 4.0 is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that can be printed to paper or published directly to Blackboard Learn, Brightspace, Canvas, Moodle, and other learning systems. Exams can be created offline using a familiar Windows environment, or moved from one LMS to another. Exam questions can also be imported from MS Word (including embedded images).

The Respondus Test Bank Network contains thousands of publisher test banks from leading textbooks in higher education. Publisher test bank content is formatted to integrate seamlessly with the Respondus exam authoring tool, making it the fastest and easiest way to create assessments from test banks and publish them to an online course. The Respondus Test Bank Network is free of charge to Respondus 4.0 users who have adopted a participating textbook.

The test banks available through the Respondus Test Bank Network are for use with Respondus 4.0 or Respondus LE. You need to have the software installed and activated on your computer. Refer to the question, "How do I obtain the Respondus Software?" for additional information.

Over 1,000 institutions have a campus-wide license for Respondus 4.0. Check with your institution's Learning Management System Administrator or Instructional Technology Department to find out if your institution has a license. You can also ask us by emailing [email protected].

No, there is no additional cost for the test bank, as long as you are an instructor who meets the adoption criteria of the publisher and you have a licensed copy of the Respondus application. Remember, though, that the test banks are the property of the publisher. Use of this material is contingent upon adherence to the publisher's rules of use.

First, locate the textbook that you have adopted by searching for a test bank here, or from the Test Bank Network Wizard within Respondus 4.0. Once you find the textbook, select "More Information" to submit the request for the test bank. The publisher will send you a File Code and File Password via email within 1-3 days. With this information, you can register the test bank within Respondus 4.0 or Respondus LE.

If you don't receive a response from the publisher within 5 business days of making your request, email us at [email protected] and we can reach out to the publisher on your behalf. When contacting us, provide us with the name and email used in the request, along with the author, title and edition of your text.

This site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; others help us improve the user experience. By using the site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Read our privacy policy to learn more.

But test banks come with one major drawback: Students have found ways to access them. Now, with a quick and easy online search, test takers can anonymously read numerous test questions and, in some cases, can even see their actual exam ahead of time. While some students use test banks as study aids, others look up test questions intending to cheat.

Crumbley conceived of the idea to study test banks after being shocked to learn that the exam questions he helped write for the Forensic and Investigative Accounting textbook were readily available on the web. He looked into the matter and discovered an academic gray area that not everyone will discuss.

The use of PTBs can make it more difficult to evaluate student learning, the authors argued. Faculty who use PTBs, they noted, might not be able to distinguish between students who did well on a test because they knew the material, and those who did well because they memorized answers.

Test-bank usage may also have significant consequences for the profession and for accounting education. Employers expect certain fundamental accounting knowledge from new hires. Students who only memorized test answers may receive poor evaluations or struggle to pass certification exams. This could hurt their chances at promotion and, ultimately, reflect poorly on the schools they graduated from.

Faculty, who are often strapped for time, are unlikely to give up using PTBs altogether, Cheng and Crumbley said. However, there are ways faculty can make it more difficult for students to use PTBs to cheat. Cheng and Crumbley recommend the following:

Cheng and Crumbley also note that the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum section of the AAA has a new committee devoted to creating a multiple choice test bank not tied to a textbook publisher. They invite faculty to contribute questions and answers.

Dawn Wotapka is a freelance writer based in Georgia. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact senior editor Courtney Vien at Courtn...@aicpa-cima.com.

Looking for a little guidance here. Several of my classmates in my BSN program are sharing test banks. I know everyone has their opinion on test banks and I'm not here to debate that. My program has made it clear that test banks are not allowed and said they have dismissed students for using them. The classmates have shared it in our group chat, so we all have access to it. I personally see test banks as cheating and have not tried to access them. But I feel I'm in a tough position. Should I try to report it anonymously? I feel like if I do, they might punish the people who haven't used them but didn't report it, which they obviously don't deserve. If I don't, then I feel like I'm working my a** off studying while some people are getting A's just by memorizing answers.

Should I just put my head in the sand and let it slide? I honestly wish they had just kept it amongst themselves and not said anything. Ignorance is bliss LOL. I really don't want to be a huge tattle tale, but I've worked so hard to be where I'm at and they're making me nervous by doing this.

I assume you mean they are talking about the online review questions that you can purchase from various companies? Does that extend into NCLEX review books? Does that extend into end of chapter review questions?

I think I can answer this. Most publishers create an 'Instructor' only test bank to accompany the textbooks. These test banks, given to faculty by the textbook rep can get into general circulation for sale on eBay etc. Here's the 'how' and 'why':

As a faculty member you often get 'complimentary' copies of books and their accompanying resources to sway you to require that book. There are book buyers who advertise to come to the faculty's offices to buy the 'complimentary' copies to sell on. Amazon has a specific policy that Instructor copies cannot be sold but EBay does not. Some sellers just put a sticker over the "For Instructor's only..Not to be sold". I was on a committee to discuss the price of textbooks we require and was surprised at some faculty who chose a book without reading it or never thought twice about selling it. (I never heard of someone selling 'Instructor copies of test banks'.) I just assumed since a textbook and resources were sent to us as members of an institution (a college) the books belonged to the college. (Just an aside, a college library can only hold so many 'complimentary copies' I believe as an accreditation standard.

What to do with so many unwanted but received books as a faculty member? The book company says to save them to give to the book rep when they come. Frankly I did not need another job. I didn't ask for the book. When I retired I put some out for students to take (no selling and no test banks) and took the rest to the incinerator.

Edited to add: whenever I got an email from a book seller "we're going to be in your office building and are looking to buy books" I called the Academic Dean who let Security know to try to get them tossed out.

The basis of the publisher's test bank is they are designed to be quality questions. I have had numerous questions in nursing school that were poorly written and ended up being thrown out because the instructor wrote them.

I love using the Saunders NCLEX review book practice questions and EAQs to study, and these are encouraged by my professors. But those questions aren't exactly what's showing up on the exams. My classmates use test banks to memorize the answers to questions. Basically, it's having access to the answer key.

I am not sure of the quality but if may be more than one set of eyes looked at them they might be better. Maybe, maybe not. Our faculty instituted a process for new questions to be reviewed by 3 faculty (different levels) before use. It was wieldy but at least more than one pair of eyes looked at the question.

These questions are usually not the best in determining quality of the students learning. ...do you think some backroom publisher's writer is writing the best analysis level questions? They would go to NCLEX and get better pay! No they are usually knowledge/comprehension based for the first semester or two of nursing school. Writing a test question that no one can read into it is very hard. I took graduate courses in test writing and many workshops. Multiple choice questions are the hardest to write. The easiest to write are essay questions. But basic nursing does not operate in the essay world.

This happened in my cohort several years back. They MADE a huge deal about it. The person that turned the group in was just like you, he, along with about 6 other people, got sent the document without having asked. EVERY person copied in the email were reprimanded, had to take an ethics course, write a paper and had their permanent record flagged for 1 year (whatever hurt that'll do). When it all went down, we were brought into a large theater, told we couldn't having books or phones while we waited to be taken one at a time and interrogated. The top student in our class, who wasn't part of the group actually self reported that she too used test banks to study.

3a8082e126