The Program Model in Inspera Assessment automatically simplifies mathematical expressions to optimize computations. However, for Symbolic Math questions, Authors sometimes need to prevent this automatic simplification to ensure exact candidate response matching. 

This article explains the default simplification behavior and how to turn off simplification when specific formatting is required.

Default simplification behavior

By default, the Program Model simplifies mathematical expressions to make computations more efficient. For example, a basic expression like 1+2 is automatically simplified to 3. While this is generally beneficial for calculation, it's important to note that this automatic simplification might change the order or format of terms in more complex expressions.

How to disable simplification

If you require the candidate's answer to maintain a very specific format or order that matches the way an expression is written (e.g., 3*x + y instead of a mathematically equivalent form like y + 3*x), you should turn off simplification.

To disable automatic simplification, include the following assignment statement in your Program Model:

simp: false;

It's crucial to be aware that this setting will affect all expressions throughout the entire Program Model. When simplification is turned off, expressions will need to be matched in the exact order they are written, without any automatic simplification occurring.