Hi Hon-Kie,
> I like to able to use the student's submitted answer so that I can use that 
> to provide an appropriate hint, etc. What is the variable name of the 
> submitted answer?
$submission=&EXT("user.resource.resource.$partid.$responseid.submission");
should get it for you.
-- 
guy@albertelli.com  LON-CAPA Developer  0-7-4-7-