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Hi Carole I'll tell you what we do. For now, forget XML completely. It's not relevant to this discussion. We've got a web-based MCQ system that pulls MCQs out of a database for delivery via the web and pokes the students responses back in. It's no different that any other MCQ system that uses server-side processing, including all the commercial systems. Because the results are gathered in a results database, the system automatically calculates both the facility and the discrimination. The students receives his/her marks and the question owner(s) receive the stats describing the usefulness of their questions. We've spent a bit of time developing a tidy web interface to this so that the tutor of lead teacher can log in and monitor the performance of their questions at their convenience. Individual questions are coded according to level of difficulty such that there are golden questions that define core learning, standard questions that have been used before and so we have an idea as to their facility and discrimination, and new questions that have been deemed suitable for inclusion, but have not been tested 'in the field'. This utility is for us one of the chief benefits of using computer-based assessment. Cheers, David