MATH AND SCIENCE · NEW QUIZZES

Math and science quizzes in Canvas

Numeric answers with a tolerance, Formula questions with different numbers for every student, a shared data set, and math that renders. Match the pictures, then match the exam.

↓ Build it, step by step ↓ Match the exam ↓ Your first quiz ↓ Let AI write it ↓ Look it up

Giving this as a test that counts? Check the six test-security musts: close the window, access code, hidden results, LockDown Browser, extra time, leaving the room. See all six →

THE ONE-MINUTE VERSION

Build in New Quizzes. It has the three question types math and science need and Classic does not: Numeric with a tolerance or significant figures, Formula that gives every student different numbers, and Stimulus — one data set or graph shared by several questions.

Typing math is the equation editor, and it takes LaTeX. Six patterns cover almost everything a high school quiz needs. They are in the fold below.

You do not have to click every question in. Write the quiz in a Word doc or a text file with simple markers, and the Raider Quiz Builder turns it into a Canvas import. Draft with AI if you like — then check every key yourself.

Match how they will be tested. Every AP exam is in Bluebook now. From 2027, AP Statistics and Environmental Science are fully digital — free response typed on screen. Calculus, Precalculus, Chemistry, Physics and Biology are hybrid: multiple choice on screen, free response handwritten. The table below turns that into question types.

Short on time? Let AI do the typing. Paste the Canvas New Quizzes brief into ChatGPT for Teachers or Claude for Teachers, then ask for your questions. It hands back the settings for each one, or a Raider Quiz Builder file you import in one step. You check every key before a student sees it.

Build it, step by step

A Numeric question in New Quizzes. The Requirement menu is circled (1), and its four choices, Exact response, Margin of error, Within a range and Precise response, are circled (2).

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Insert Content → Numeric. Type the stem with the unit and the rounding in it. Open Requirement (1) and choose how close counts as correct (2).

Exact response: the number only (7.40 is accepted for 7.4). Margin of error: plus or minus an amount. Within a range: anything between two values. Precise response: to a number of decimal places or significant digits. The answer box takes digits, a sign and a decimal point, nothing else.

Margin of error chosen. The Answer box with 1.14 is circled (1), the +/- margin box with 0.01 is circled (2), and the Type menu, open on Percent with Absolute below it, is circled (3).

2

Margin of error: type the Answer (1) and the margin (2). Then change Type (3) from Percent to Absolute.

Type starts on Percent, so 0.01 means 0.01 percent and right answers are marked wrong. This is the most common mistake on this page.

Precise response chosen. The Precision box with 3 is circled (1), the Type menu with Significant digits and Decimal places is circled (2), and the Show on-screen calculator box under Options is circled (3).

3

Precise response: set Precision (1) and choose Significant digits or Decimal places (2).

It starts on Significant digits: the sig-fig rule, graded for you. A calculator for this question only? Tick Show on-screen calculator (3). Leave Allow Calculator in the Settings tab off, or every question gets one.

A Formula question. The stem with `a` and `t` between backticks is circled (1), the variable rows with Min, Max and Decimals are circled (2), and the Formula Definition box with 0.5*a*t^2 is circled (3).

4

Insert Content → Formula. Put each variable between backticks in the stem (1). A row appears for each: set Min, Max and Decimals (2). Type the rule in Formula Definition (3), no backticks.

Pick ranges that never produce an impossible case: no dividing by zero, no negative lengths. Checked in Canvas: sqrt, sin (radians), log (base 10), ln, pi, e^a and fractional exponents such as 2^(t/d) all compute. Classic used square brackets; New Quizzes uses backticks.

Generate Possible Solutions. Number of solutions, Decimal places, Margin type Absolute and the margin are circled (1), the Generate button is circled (2), and the table of generated values and results is circled (3).

5

Set Number of solutions, Decimal places and the margin (1). Click Generate (2). The results table (3) is your key: check a row or two by hand.

Click Done only after Generate. Changing a variable afterward empties the table. Every student gets their own numbers.

A Stimulus titled Hours of sleep, five students, with its data, circled (1). The Attach Question button beside it is circled (2).

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Insert Content → Stimulus. Give it a Title and put the data, graph or passage in Content (1), then Done. Click Attach Question (2) for each question that uses it.

Students see it beside every attached question, which is the shape of an AP free-response set. A Stimulus can only be built here, not imported.

The Equation Editor. The LaTeX box with the quadratic formula is circled (1), the Directly Edit LaTeX switch turned on is circled (2), the rendered preview is circled (3), and Done is circled (4).

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In the question box, click Insert Math Equation (√x). Not there? Click ⋮ at the end of the toolbar. Turn on Directly Edit LaTeX (2), type the LaTeX (1), check the preview (3), then Done (4).

Six patterns cover most of a high school quiz; they are in Look it up below. Or skip the editor and type the LaTeX straight into the question box between \( and \).

Match the exam: how they will be tested, and the question type that fits

Exam	How students will see it	Build it in Canvas as
Digital SAT and PSAT	Fully digital in Bluebook. Multiple choice plus student-produced responses — a number typed into a box. Built-in Desmos, graphing or scientific, on the whole Math section.	Multiple Choice for the four-option items; Numeric with an exact answer or a small margin for the typed-response items. Calculator toggle on for every question, or Desmos through LockDown Browser.
AP Calculus AB and BC, AP Precalculus	Hybrid. Multiple choice in Bluebook, with calculator and no-calculator parts; free response viewed on screen and handwritten in a paper booklet. Desmos graphing in the calculator parts only.	Multiple Choice with the calculator toggle on for some questions and off for others. File Upload for free response — students photograph their handwritten work. Or they write right on your PDF in OneNote and upload one clean page: Writing on a PDF in OneNote. Formula for practice sets where everyone gets different numbers. For any worksheet (Word, a Canvas annotation, or a PDF), the setup is on Assign a Worksheet: Word First, or a PDF They Can Mark Up.
AP Statistics	Fully digital from 2027 — new this year. Multiple choice and free response both in Bluebook; free response is typed. Desmos graphing with statistics. Non-graphing handhelds not allowed.	Stimulus holding the data table or graph, with several questions attached. Numeric with a margin for computed values. Essay for the typed free response — that is the new skill to practice. Desmos through LockDown Browser for the graphing.
AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1, 2 and C	Hybrid. Multiple choice in Bluebook; free response viewed on screen, handwritten in a booklet. Built-in scientific and graphing calculators, both available.	Numeric with precise response by significant digits — the sig-fig rule is graded for you. Formula with units in the stem. File Upload for free response. Calculator toggle set to scientific.
AP Biology	Hybrid. Multiple choice in Bluebook; free response handwritten. Scientific calculator only.	Stimulus with the data or figure; Numeric for chi-square and Hardy-Weinberg values; Hot Spot to click a region of a graph; File Upload for free response.
AP Environmental Science	Fully digital. Multiple choice and typed free response in Bluebook. Scientific calculator only.	Stimulus plus Multiple Choice; Numeric for the math; Essay for the typed free response.

Exam modes from College Board's 2027 administration pages, checked September 11, 2026. Bluebook offers a test preview in April, and College Board says full-length sample free-response booklets arrive in early 2027. Every AP exam still lets students bring up to two permitted handhelds.

Your first quiz

1 · THE FIRST QUIZ

Five questions, three types

Two multiple choice, two Numeric with a margin, one Formula. Twenty minutes, and you have touched everything the rest of the year uses. Ask me and we will build it together in one sitting.

2 · THE CALCULATOR, PER QUESTION

Mirror the calculator and no-calculator parts

Each question has a Show on-screen calculator option — basic or scientific. Turn it on for the calculator part, off for the rest. Need graphing? That is Desmos through LockDown Browser: Desmos →

3 · THE BANK

Put questions in an Item Bank, not just a quiz

A bank is reusable across sections and years, and a quiz can pull a random set from it. A question typed straight into a quiz lives and dies there. Two extra clicks now; hours saved in May.

Look it up

The mechanics below are tested. What a good question is in your subject — that is yours, and you are right and I am not. Nothing here is required and nobody is checking. If you want the first quiz built with you rather than from a page, that is a twenty-minute sit-down; ask.

The clicks — where every setting on this page lives in Build

Every setting named on this page and on the Desmos page, with the labels as they read in New Quizzes today. Each row was built and checked in a model quiz in this course on September 11, 2026. Start in the quiz: Build tab → the blue + between questions → Insert Content → a question type. Inside a Stimulus, use its own Attach Question button instead of the +.

The setting as the page names it	The clicks, with the labels you will see	Guide
Numeric → Exact response	Insert Content → Numeric. Type the Question Stem. The Requirement box already says Exact response; type the key in Answer. Trailing zeros are forgiven — 7.40 is accepted for a key of 7.4.	Numeric question →
Numeric → Margin of error, Absolute, ±0.01	Requirement → Margin of error. Three boxes appear: Answer, +/- margin and Type. Type starts on Percent — change it to Absolute, or a margin of 0.01 means 0.01 percent.	Numeric question →
Numeric → Within a range	Requirement → Within a range, then the low and high values. Anything between them, inclusive, is correct — the setting for a simulated or measured value that differs for every student.	Numeric question →
Numeric → Precise response, 3 decimal places (or significant digits)	Requirement → Precise response. Boxes: Answer, Precision (a count) and Type: Decimal places or Significant digits.	Numeric question →
More than one accepted answer (both roots, either sign)	+ Possible Answer, under the first answer. Each one gets its own Requirement.	Numeric question →
Multiple Choice (and Hot Spot)	Insert Content → Multiple Choice. Type the Question Stem, then one choice per Answer box (Add Answer for more) and click the circle beside the correct one. Each choice has its own Edit Answer Feedback. Under Options: Shuffle Choices (with a lock for a choice that must stay last), Vary points by answer, Show on-screen calculator. For a click-on-the-graph question, Insert Content → Hot Spot, upload the image and draw the region that counts.	Multiple Choice → Hot Spot →
Formula — different numbers for every student	Insert Content → Formula. In the Question Stem put each variable between backticks: `a`. A row appears per variable with Min, Max and Decimals. Type the rule in Formula Definition — `0.5at^2`, no backticks. Set Number of solutions, Decimal places, Margin type (this one starts on Absolute) and +/- margin of error. Click Generate and read the Generated Results table — that is your key. Then Done. Checked today: `sqrt`, `sin` (radians), `log` (base 10), `ln`, `pi`, `e^a` and fractional exponents such as `2^(t/d)` all compute.	Formula question →
Stimulus — one data set, several questions	The + → Insert Content → Stimulus. Fill Title and Content (the data table comes from the editor toolbar's table button), Done. The Stimulus now shows an Attach Question button — every question you add through it sits inside the Stimulus. A Stimulus can only be built here, not imported.	Stimulus →
A typed algebraic answer (2x + 3 in any order)	Insert Content → Fill in the Blank. In the stem put the model answer between backticks: y = `2x+3`. Below, Answer Type: Open Entry; Text Match: Regular Expression Match; paste the expression into Regular Expression. The other Text Match choices are Contains, Close Enough, Exact Match and Specify Correct Answers (a list — 3/4 and 0.75 both right).	Fill in the Blank →
Calculator on one question / on the whole quiz	In any question editor: Options → Show on-screen calculator. For the whole quiz: the Settings tab → Allow Calculator → Calculator Type: Basic or Scientific. One or the other.	Quiz settings →
Feedback, banking, points, preview	Bottom of every question editor: Edit Question Level Feedback (correct, incorrect, general), Item Banking (file the question in a bank as you go) and the Points box (0 is allowed). Top of Build: Preview takes the quiz as a student and grades it — the two-minute check before you publish.	Feedback → Bank an item → Random set from a bank →

THE MODEL QUIZ. Every row above is a real question in a quiz in this course, and you can take it: the model quiz, as a student sees it → — nothing counts, unlimited attempts, and the answers appear the moment you submit, so type 14/2 into a Numeric box or 3 + 2x into the last question and watch what Canvas does. Each question names its setting in the stem. The settings side is the Build tab, which needs a teacher role; to open the pencils yourself, email Educational Technology and the quiz is sent to your own course (how that works →), where you can open, copy and change it.

Numeric — which tolerance to pick

Exact response	The number, and only the number. Counting answers, integers, SAT-style typed responses.
Margin of error	The answer plus or minus an amount — absolute (±0.01) or a percent. The default for anything rounded. This is what the Desmos test quiz used: 1.14, margin 0.01.
Within a range	Any value between two numbers. Estimates read off a graph.
Precise response	The answer to a set number of significant digits or decimal places. Chemistry and physics: this is the sig-fig rule, graded automatically.

A Numeric question can carry more than one accepted answer (both roots, either sign). The answer box takes digits, a sign and a decimal point and nothing else — a student who types 1/2, 25% or 4 cm gets “Answer must be a number” — so the unit and the form live in the stem. How do I create a Numeric question in New Quizzes? →

Formula — different numbers for every student

Write the question with each variable between backticks (the key above Tab): A car accelerates from rest at `a` m/s² for `t` seconds. How far does it travel? Canvas then asks for each variable's minimum, maximum and decimal places. Put the formula in the Formula Definition box — 0.5*a*t^2, no backticks, no equals sign, just + − * / and ^ — set the Number of Solutions to generate, and pick an absolute or percent margin. Every student gets their own numbers; the key is computed for each one. (Classic Quizzes used square brackets; New Quizzes does not.)

Where it shines: homework and practice sets that can be discussed openly because nobody has the same problem; retakes; any “plug and compute” skill in physics, chemistry or algebra.

Where it does not: anything where the reasoning is the point, or where a variable range would produce an impossible situation (a negative length). Check the generated solutions before you publish. How do I create a Formula question in New Quizzes? →

Stimulus, File Upload, Hot Spot — the exam-shaped ones

STIMULUS

A passage, data table, graph or image that stays on screen beside every question attached to it. This is how an AP free-response set is shaped — one scenario, several parts. It is also where the Desmos link goes if the quiz is one question at a time. Insert stimulus content →

FILE UPLOAD

Students work on paper and upload a photo. For the hybrid exams this is the format — read the question on screen, write by hand. You grade it in SpeedGrader. Tell students to photograph flat, in light, one page per image. Create a File Upload question →

HOT SPOT

Upload a graph or diagram and draw the region that counts as correct: click where the reaction is at equilibrium, click the inflection point. Auto-graded, and it asks for a kind of reading no multiple-choice item can. Create a Hot Spot question →

The full list, one line each: True/False · Multiple Choice · Multiple Answer · Matching · Categorization · Ordering · Fill in the Blank · Essay · File Upload · Formula · Numeric · Hot Spot · and Stimulus, which is not a question but holds several.

Typing math — the equation editor and six LaTeX patterns

In any question box, the toolbar's Insert Math Equation button opens the editor. The buttons work; turn on Directly Edit LaTeX once you know six patterns, and it is the same LaTeX every AI tool writes. Type it, press Done, and it renders as proper math.

`\frac{3}{4}`	A fraction
`x^{2}` `x_{1}`	Exponent; subscript. Braces around anything longer than one character.
`\sqrt{x}` `\sqrt[3]{x}`	Square root; cube root
`\int_{0}^{2} x^{2}\,dx` `\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_{i}`	Integral with limits; sum
`\pi` `\theta` `\Delta` `\le` `\ne` `\pm` `\times`	Greek letters and symbols — a backslash and the name
`H_{2}O` `\rightarrow` `^{14}C` `2.5 \times 10^{-3}`	Chemistry: subscripts, arrows, isotopes, scientific notation

How do I use the math Equation Editor? → · Equation Editor tips — math with LaTeX → · Equation Editor tips — chemistry →

Teach your AI what Canvas can do — a brief to paste before you ask for questions

Claude and ChatGPT write good questions and then hand you fractions in a Numeric box, dollar-sign math that will not render and a percent margin nobody asked for. This brief tells the AI, once, what New Quizzes can grade, how math has to be written to render, which exam shape to match and what to hand back so you can click it in. Copy the block, paste it at the top of a new chat, fill in the seven lines at the bottom, then ask. Every rule in it was checked in a quiz in this course on September 11, 2026 — including that LaTeX typed between \( and \) straight into a question box renders without the equation editor.

CANVAS NEW QUIZZES BRIEF — paste this into Claude or ChatGPT before your request

You are helping a high school teacher write quiz questions that will be built in Canvas New Quizzes. Everything you write must render correctly and grade correctly there. Follow these rules exactly. Where a rule blocks what I ask for, say so and offer the nearest thing Canvas can do.

1. QUESTION TYPES CANVAS GRADES ON ITS OWN
Multiple Choice (one right answer), Multiple Answer, True or False, Numeric, Formula, Fill in the Blank, Matching, Categorization, Ordering, Hot Spot (needs an image). Essay and File Upload exist but are graded by hand. A Stimulus (a shared data set, graph or passage with several questions attached) exists; it is built by hand in Canvas, so give me the stimulus text and the questions separately.

2. NUMERIC ANSWERS: the answer box takes digits, a sign and a decimal point, nothing else
Students cannot type fractions, units, %, pi, a square root sign or ±. Put the unit and the required form in the question text ("in cm", "as a decimal to two places"). Every Numeric question must name one of these Canvas settings and its value:
- Exact response: integers and clean values only.
- Margin of error, Absolute, ± a value: for anything rounded. Use half a unit of the last place asked for (two decimal places → ±0.005) unless I say otherwise.
- Within a range, low to high: for a measured or simulated value.
- Precise response, N decimal places or N significant digits: when the rounding itself is the skill (chemistry and physics sig figs).
Never use a percent margin unless I ask for one. If a fraction or an exact form is the answer, use Fill in the Blank with a list of accepted spellings (3/4 and 0.75), not Numeric.

3. FORMULA QUESTIONS (every student gets different numbers)
Write each variable in the question text between backticks: `a`, `t`. For each variable give a minimum, a maximum and a number of decimals. Give the formula using only those variable names with + - * / ^ ( ) and these functions, which are verified to work: sqrt( ), sin( ) in radians, log( ) base 10, ln( ), pi, e, and fractional exponents such as ^(1/2). Anything else must be checked in Canvas's Generated Results table before use. Choose ranges so that no generated case is impossible: no division by zero, no negative lengths, no probability outside 0 to 1. State the answer's decimal places and an absolute margin. A Formula answer is one number.

4. MATH NOTATION
Write all math as LaTeX between \( and \) inside the question text and the answer choices; Canvas renders it. Examples: \(\frac{3}{4}\), \(x^{2}\), \(x_{1}\), \(\sqrt{x}\), \(\int_{0}^{2} x^{2}\,dx\), \(\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_{i}\), \(2.5 \times 10^{-3}\), \(\pi\), \(\theta\), \(\le\), \(\ne\), \(\pm\). Chemistry: \(\mathrm{H_{2}O}\), \(\rightarrow\), \(^{14}\mathrm{C}\). Use \( and \) and nothing else: no dollar signs, no Markdown, no Unicode superscripts or fraction characters. Plain numbers and words stay outside the math.

5. WHAT CANVAS CANNOT DO. Do not write questions that need it.
- Judge algebraic equivalence (it cannot tell 2x+3 from 3+2x). If the answer is an expression, do one of three things: make it Multiple Choice with the forms as choices; ask for the number the expression gives at a stated value; or make it Fill in the Blank with a regular expression, and then give me the regular expression and every form it accepts.
- Partial credit inside one Numeric or Formula question. Split multi-step problems into parts, each its own question.
- Grade a drawn graph. Use Hot Spot on an image you describe for me, or ask for a value read from a graph.
- Show a graphing calculator. Basic and scientific only. Graphing happens in Desmos outside the quiz.
- Randomize anything except the numbers in a Formula question.

6. EXAM SHAPE. Match the exam I name.
- AP multiple choice: four choices, A to D, one correct, distractors built from real errors.
- AP Statistics and AP Environmental Science free response is typed on screen: write it as an Essay question with parts (a), (b), (c) and what a full answer must contain.
- AP Calculus, Precalculus, Chemistry, Physics and Biology free response is handwritten: write it as a File Upload question with the parts and the scoring points.
- SAT and PSAT math: four-choice Multiple Choice, or a student-produced response, which becomes Numeric (or Fill in the Blank with a list, when a fraction is an acceptable form).
- Mark every question CALC or NO CALC. Canvas turns the calculator on per question.
- A shared data set, computer output or figure goes in a Stimulus with its questions under it.

7. WHAT TO HAND ME, FOR EVERY QUESTION
The type. The question text with LaTeX. The answer choices, for Multiple Choice. A Canvas settings line: for Numeric, which of the four settings and the value; for Formula, each variable's range and decimals, the formula, the answer's decimal places and margin; for Fill in the Blank, the accepted answers or the regular expression. The key, with the computation worked to one more decimal place than the question asks for. One sentence of feedback for the most likely wrong answer.
If I ask for a Raider Quiz Builder file, use its format (I will paste its reference) and keep to the types it supports: multiple choice, true/false, multiple answer, numerical written as a range = [low, high], short answer, essay, file upload. Formula, Stimulus, Hot Spot and Matching come as build sheets and I click those in.

8. HONESTY
Compute every key. If a data set does not produce the answer you claim, fix the data, not the claim. Never invent statistical output; give me the data and I will compute it in Desmos. Say which settings you are unsure about. I check every key before a student sees it.

MY REQUEST
Course and level:
Exam I am matching (AP course, SAT or PSAT, or none):
Topic, and what students should be able to do:
Number of questions and the mix of types:
Calculator policy:
Output (build sheet, or Raider Quiz Builder file):
Avoid:

Want the file imported rather than clicked in? Paste the Raider Quiz Builder reference → after this brief and ask for the Builder file; the brief already tells the AI which types the Builder cannot carry. Then Preview the quiz as a student: two minutes, and it grades your own attempt.

What goes wrong, what gets overlooked, what Canvas cannot grade — and the hacks, including the AI ones

None of this is about how to teach. It is what goes wrong inside the Build tab, what is hiding in it and what people do when Canvas cannot grade the thing they want to ask — with the parts an AI can safely do for you marked as such. Every claim below was tried in a quiz in this course on September 11, 2026.

THE MISTAKES — WHAT YOU SEE, WHY, THE CLICK THAT FIXES IT

What you see	Why	The fix
Every margin-of-error answer marked wrong, including the right ones.	Type was left on Percent. A margin of 0.01 became 0.01 percent.	Type → Absolute. The Formula editor starts on Absolute; the Numeric editor does not.
A correctly rounded answer marked wrong.	Exact response on a question whose stem never said how to round, so 1.1402 and 1.14 both arrived.	Say the rounding in the stem and use Margin of error or Precise response. Exact response does forgive trailing zeros.
“Answer must be a number. Remove any symbols or units.”	The student typed 3/4, 25%, 4 cm or $12 into a Numeric box. It takes digits, a sign and a decimal point.	Put the unit and the form in the stem (“in cm, as a decimal”). For a fraction, a Fill in the Blank with Specify Correct Answers listing 3/4 and 0.75.
“Link is blocked” on the Desmos link in LockDown Browser.	The link sat in the quiz Instructions, or the allowed domain was typed as a full address.	Link inside Question 1; allowed domain `*.desmos.com`. The recipe →
A Formula question with no key, or twenty copies of the same numbers.	Done was clicked before Generate; or a variable was edited after generating, which empties the table; or 200 solutions were asked of a range with four values in it.	Generate last, read the Generated Results table, then Done.
A calculator on the no-calculator questions.	Allow Calculator in the Settings tab is quiz-wide, whatever each question says.	Leave the Settings switch off and use Show on-screen calculator on the questions that get one — the calculator and no-calculator parts of an exam, mirrored.
The key was fixed after students took it and nothing changed in Grades.	Editing the question does not rescore anything already submitted.	Use Regrade, which offers four ways to award the points; Essay and File Upload cannot be regraded. Regrade → · Quiz recovery →
Equations pasted from Word arrive as pictures, or not at all.	The editor keeps text and LaTeX, not Word's equation objects.	Type the math as LaTeX — the six patterns in the Typing math fold.
The retake needs the same quiz with different numbers, and it is a rebuild.	The questions live only in that quiz.	Item Banking on each question as you write it; the retake pulls a random set from the bank. Formula questions re-roll their numbers on their own.

OVERLOOKED BECAUSE THEY LOOK COMPLICATED — EACH IS UNDER TWO MINUTES

Attach Question on a Stimulus — one data set, one graph or one passage, and every question under it reads from it.
Text Match → Regular Expression Match on a Fill in the Blank — the only place Canvas will accept an algebraic answer in more than one written form. Close Enough forgives a typo; Specify Correct Answers is a plain list.
Precise response → Significant digits — the sig-fig rule, graded.
+ Possible Answer on a Numeric — both roots, either sign of a vector component.

Generated Results under a Formula — every version's key on one screen before anyone sees it.
Edit Question Level Feedback — one sentence on the wrong answer, read by everyone who gives it.
Preview at the top of Build — takes and grades the quiz as a student.
Generate with AI in the Insert Content box — Canvas's own IgniteAI writes Multiple Choice questions only, up to five per run, from pasted text (20,000 characters), an uploaded file or a course file, with a Topic Focus line. Fine for concept checks from a reading; it does not write Numeric or Formula. Guide →
Moderate — extra time or attempts for one student without touching the quiz. Guide → Print — the same quiz on paper for the handwritten half of a hybrid exam. Guide →

WHAT CANVAS CANNOT GRADE, AND WHAT PEOPLE DO INSTEAD

Canvas cannot	The hack
Tell that 2x + 3 and 3 + 2x are the same thing. There is no algebra engine.	Three routes. A Fill in the Blank with a regular expression that lists the forms you accept (the model quiz has one: `^\s(2\sx\s\+\s3\|3\s\+\s2\sx)\s$` takes 2x+3, 2x + 3 and 3 + 2x). A Multiple Choice whose choices are the forms. Or ask for a number only the right expression produces: “evaluate your expression at x = 5 and enter the result” → Numeric.
Take a fraction, a unit, a percent sign or a ± in the Numeric box.	The stem carries the unit and the form. A fraction goes to Fill in the Blank → Specify Correct Answers, or the stem asks for the decimal and Precise response sets the places.
Give partial credit on a Numeric or Formula answer. It is all or nothing.	A Stimulus with the steps as separate Numeric questions, each worth its points; or File Upload for the work, scored with a rubric. Those are also the two shapes of the AP free-response section.
Randomize anything except the numbers in a Formula question.	Three or four hand-written versions in an Item Bank, and the quiz draws a random set. Sharing the bank makes it the department's.
Grade a graph a student draws, or read one off a calculator.	Hot Spot on an uploaded image (click the vertex, the intercept, the outlier); File Upload of a photo of the sketch; or the graphing happens in Desmos through LockDown Browser and the question asks for a number read from it.
Import a Stimulus. Neither the Raider Quiz Builder nor a QTI file can create one.	Import everything else; build the Stimulus and the questions under it in Build with Attach Question. Two minutes per data set.
Show a graphing calculator inside the quiz.	Basic and scientific only. Graphing is Desmos through LockDown Browser — the fold above and the Desmos page →.

WHERE AI DOES THE TEDIOUS PART — AND THE ONE RULE

The whole quiz, in the Builder's format. Paste the Raider Quiz Builder's reference for your AI → into Claude or ChatGPT with your topic and level; it writes the file, the Builder turns it into a zip, and Build → the three-dot menu → Import Content brings it in as a New Quiz. Write numerical answers as ranges, = [1.13, 1.15] — the Builder's notes say the ± form does not survive the New Quizzes import.
The regular expression. Tell it the forms you will accept and the ones you will not; paste the result into Regular Expression; run Preview with each form. It is the one part of this page most people should not write by hand.
The Formula Definition and the ranges. Ask for the formula in Canvas's syntax and variable ranges that keep every generated case sensible — no zero in a divisor, no negative length, no probability above one. Then Generate. The Generated Results table is the check, not the AI.
The LaTeX. Describe the expression in words; it returns the code for the equation editor.
Inside Canvas. Generate with AI, above, for Multiple Choice from a passage. The Item Bank Expander → for growing a bank you already have.
The rule. An AI-written key is worked in Desmos or by hand before a student sees it. The machine's math is wrong in ways that look right; AI in Mathematics → says why at length. Preview grades your own attempt in two minutes and catches most of it.

Build it in a file, not click by click — the Raider Quiz Builder

Write the quiz as a Word document or a plain text file with simple markers, drop it on Raider Quiz Builder, and it hands back a file Canvas imports as a New Quiz, a Classic Quiz or an Item Bank. It runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded anywhere. It was built here so nobody has to use an outside converter.

With AI: ask Claude or ChatGPT for twenty questions in the Builder's format on a topic, at a level, with a distractor built from a named misconception — then check every key yourself before it reaches a student. The machine's math can be wrong in ways that look right; the page on AI in mathematics says this at length, and it is the one caution that matters. To grow a bank that already exists, the Item Bank Expander is built for that job.

Already have a licensed engine? DeltaMath grades randomized problem sets and tests on its own and posts to the gradebook — for skill practice it is often the shorter path, and it has its own page. Canvas quizzes are for the exam-shaped items above, and for anything you want inside LockDown Browser.

Calculators inside the quiz

Built in: New Quizzes has a basic and a scientific calculator. Turn it on for the whole quiz under the Settings tab → Allow Calculator → Calculator Type, or per question under Options → Show on-screen calculator. The Settings switch is quiz-wide whatever each question says, so use one or the other. Per question is the one that mirrors the exams.

Graphing: nothing built in. Use Desmos through LockDown Browser — one setting, one link in Question 1. The recipe →

The honest limit: the built-in calculator is not the Bluebook one, and neither is the full Desmos site. For the last weeks before an AP or SAT date, send students to desmos.com/testing for the exact trimmed calculator their exam uses.

What teachers do with Canvas quizzes — and the research behind it

The practices below are ones you likely already run — retrieval, spacing, feedback that says something. What is worth having in one place is the evidence, with its limits named, and the specific Canvas feature that runs each one without extra work from you.

The practice	The evidence, and where it stops	What runs it in Canvas
Practice testing — low-stakes quizzes as study, not just measurement	Dunlosky and colleagues, 2013 → rated ten study techniques; practice testing and spaced practice were the two with the highest utility across ages and subjects. The APS page is the summary; the full report sits behind SAGE. The Washington University retrieval-practice guide → (Agarwal, Roediger, McDaniel, McDermott; free PDF) is the teacher version, and their 2011 classroom study → ran in middle school — the mechanism transfers, the numbers do not.	A New Quiz worth few points, multiple attempts, built from an Item Bank so a fresh set can be pulled each time. Results released after everyone has taken it.
Spacing — coming back to October in December	Same source: distributed practice is the other top-rated technique. The Red/White rotation already spaces class meetings; the lever you control is when material is retrieved again, not how often class meets.	A quiz that pulls three questions from last unit's bank alongside this unit's. Formula questions keep the numbers fresh on the second pass.
Feedback with information in it, not just right or wrong	Wisniewski, Zierer and Hattie, 2020 → (open access): 435 studies, an average effect around d = 0.48, and high-information feedback well ahead of simple reinforcement. Limit the authors name themselves: the variability is enormous, so the average is not a promise.	Every New Quizzes question has feedback fields — for a correct answer, an incorrect one and general. On a Multiple Choice item, write the incorrect-answer feedback to name the misconception, once, and every student who makes it reads it.
Sharing the work across a department	Not research — logistics. New Quizzes and their Item Banks now travel through Canvas Commons →, so one teacher's bank can become the level's.	Share the bank to Commons, or ask Educational Technology to copy it between courses.

TEACHERS ON WHAT THEY DO WITH CANVAS

mathgrrl — Using LaTeX with the New Canvas Quiz Engine → — a math professor's trick: type LaTeX straight into the question box between \( and \) and skip the equation editor entirely.
UW–La Crosse — multi-step Formula questions → — building a standard-deviation question as a chain of intermediate formulas, each labeled, so the randomized question grades the whole computation.
Instructure — Equation Editor tips, math → and chemistry → — the vendor's own worked examples.

PAIR IT WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE

AP Classroom → — every AP teacher's progress checks, question bank, practice exams and AP Daily videos, in the exam's own format. Canvas is for the practice you want inside LockDown Browser, with your own numbers, on your own schedule.
DeltaMath → — licensed, auto-graded skill practice with grade passback. For drill, the shorter path.
Desmos → — the classroom side: activities, teachers' voices and the research, in its own fold.
STEM tools — what we pay for, what is free, and what the research says → — the whole shelf for math and science: licensed, free, newest, and the approval step.

Who to ask, and every link

WHO TO ASK

Building the first quiz, importing a file, anything Canvas
Jason Beyer · jbeyer@regisjesuit.com · Teams is fastest

What a good question is
Your department.

Who to ask →

CANVAS GUIDES

Create a quiz using New Quizzes →
Numeric question →
Formula question →
Stimulus content →
File Upload question →
Hot Spot question →
Quiz settings, including the calculator →
The math Equation Editor →

THE EXAMS, AND RJ PAGES

College Board — how each AP exam is administered →
College Board — hybrid digital AP exams →
College Board — AP calculator policy →
Bluebook for students — AP exams →
RJ — Desmos →
RJ — LockDown Browser setup →
RJ — DeltaMath →

New Quizzes, three question types, the calculator toggle per question, and a file you write once instead of forty clicks. Build the first one with me if you want — twenty minutes, and the rest of the year is copy and paste.

Jason Beyer · Educational Technology · Regis Jesuit High School · A.M.D.G.

HelpDesk@regisjesuit.com · 303.269.8080 · LAST VERIFIED — 23 SEP 2026