Creating a new database, is php for me?

[ironlynxtk]

I am doing a project for my self mainly. Its to help me study for my LSAT exam.

 

Issue:

 

I want to be able to enter my answers into an online field, which will then test my answers vs. the correct ones.

 

Every question type will have a category associated with it, (e.g this question is a Main Point question, or this is a Acceptability question)

 

Once everything is graded, it will show the answers in a table with the following header:

 

PrepTest # |  Scaled Score | Raw Score/Total Score | # Correct | # Wrong | % Percentile

    55 (link)          178                    97/101                    97            4              99.8%    <---- ( example score)

 

 

You can select the Exam, and it will bring you to a new page with the following information:

1. Each section of the exam (4 sections total) and you can see the following:

example:

Preptest 55

 

Most Questions Wrong:

Question Type | # Wrong

Main Point              2

Assumption              1

Weaken                  1

 

Section 1:

My Answer  |  Correct Answer  | Question Type

1. A                        A                    Main Point

2. B                        B                  Must be True

....

This is repeated for each section.

 

how difficult will this be?

 

I am a n00b at PHP but I learn extremely fast. Is this type of project going to take a lot of time (months)? Or does it depend on my own sweat and labor. My exam is October 4th, so I would ideally like this done ASAP, so I can begin studying and using the database. 

 

What else would I need to deploy this? I am going to run this locally on my computer, no webhost or anything, its just for me and my analysis.

 

could I do this in Access and PHP? or is SQL the way to go? Embarrasingly, last time i ran a mysql server on my own computer, I by mistake left open a port and my computer was hacked, and someone stole my account for WoW 

 

thanks in advance.

 

 

[hansford]

if you know php, this could be done in one-two days depending on how fancy you wanted to get, but if you're a newbie it might take weeks. The biggest time would be in setting up the forms with all the questions. The key here would be to create an index.php page for the test and then use includes for each exam page.

[ironlynxtk]

I see, I would have to make separate pages for each exam?

 

I was thinking of creating a page for adding the exam scores, it just has a drop down for which Preptest, and then it shows the correct number of form boxes for the exam, Am I getting to ahead of myself here?

 

I have a tendency to think big

[hansford]

no, you could make the exam all in one page. You select which test from the dropdown menu and the form is set to reload the page and use the $_POST to see which exam was selected and then you'd have to do if conditions so it shows the correct test forms.