You can set up scoring for that particular question. And then setup branch logic to ensure the maximum is 3.

Can you possible provide some more details on how this would work? I'm assuming I do something like 'if selected count x then...' but what comes next? I don't want to branch the survey in any way (which is a linear marking rubric for an assessment), or even limit the number of options that are selected, just limit the score that that question contributes to the overall form score.

Click on the gear icon below your question number. Select scoring. Create a new category, call it "Choices". Scroll down to the relevant question. Click "Auto". Ensure no other question is "Green".
Come back to the survey editor. Select the option to insert piped text, go to "Scoring", go to "Choices", select "Items". You'll get something like "${gr://SC_5bb475yezJxCHCl/Items}" copy this.
Go to survey flow. After your question block, create embedded data, call it "myscore". Click set value now, paste the copied text. Click on "Add Below", select branch. In the condition, choose the relevant question. Select "If selected count is greater than", enter 3. In the branch, select add embedded data, give it the same name as earlier, set its value as 3. Nothing else in the branch. Fin.

Thanks a heap - will give this a go. Wasn't aware of the score category stuff and haven't even used embedded data all that much so there is no way I would have been able to nut this out by myself :)

Ok - got that to work and it gives me a sensible value in the exported data (in the myscore column) but it's not reflected in the scoring summary that is displayed when the form is submitted (our examiners need to see this). Is there any way for myscore to be substituted for the question 'regular' score in this summary (and the overall score)?

I can't understand your question.

Ok, probably wasn't as clear as it could have been. I want to show an accurate scoring summary at the end of the survey, so I select 'Show scoring summary for Category' and 'Score' with 'At the End of the Survey' in the scoring options dialog. But that includes the actual score for the item (lets say I select 5 of the 6 options, then that means I see a score of 5/6) rather than the adjusted value in the myscore variable. What I really want to see is 3/3 (which is the real maximum score for this item). If I choose 'Choices' as the scoring category I want to see in the summary then I'll only see the score for those questions that this category applies to, which isn't what I'm after.
Is there some other way to do this? For example could I somehow take the myscore value and use it to set the value of a hidden question - say a slider type question that has a single option with its scale set from 0 to 3 with a score of 1. Then if I don't set the scores of the original question only the slider score would be included in the score summary total?

Store your original number of choices as another embedded variable. call it original_score, and display that at the end.... I'm really not sure what your confusion is here?

Let's say I have 10 multi answer questions, each with 3 options worth 1 marks - that gives me a score out of 30, which I can display in the score summary on submission. Now, I modify one of the items so that it has 6 options (each still worth 1 mark) but I only want it to contribute a maximum of 3 marks towards the total score, so that I see a score out of 30 instead of 33 (which is fundamentally what I'm trying to achieve with all of the stuff in my preceding posts). I still not seeing any clear way of achieving this.
I'm sure there is some solution to all of this but in the end it's likely to be just too complex for the staff (who have no scripting experience) that are building these marking rubrics on a regular basis.
Anyway, really appreciate your help but I think we'll just have to stick with our existing method of limiting the number of options that the examiner can select. That still gives us the wrong maximum score in the score summary (ie 33 not 30 in the example above) but at least we are able to limit the calculated score to our desired maximum score.
Cheers,
Terry...

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/32568#Comment_32568I may be wrong here, but it appears you are not comfortable with using embedded data fields and branch logic. I recommend taking a look at them (Embedded Data Branch Logic) and you'll see that what you are trying to achieve is not very complicated. In fact you'll realize that you've already done most of the work and are just one or two steps away from your goal.

Thanks, that's probably a fair comment. I'd only characterise myself as an occasional Qualtrics users and I've only really been using embedded fields to bring in additional parameters from survey form link url (eg examiner name, group etc) when in conjunction with some simple display logic. I'll have a look at the embedded data branch logic documentation though and see where that takes me. Thanks again for all your help.

Terry...

I made this ppt for you as a demo. It explains exactly what you need to do: Download Link.
You can also preview the survey if you want to. But I'll delete it by Saturday. Preview Link
I'm sorry if I was rude. Didn't mean that. Just couldn't understand your perspective. Then I remembered how my Dad would struggle whenever a new technology would be introduced at his office. :-)
Hope these help.

Yeah, so I get the idea of embedded data (I'm successfully using this to populate some user fields based on parameters in the link url) and branching logic (although I've not used this previously as all our forms are linear) but trying to combine the two in a way that would help continues to elude me. I'm still incapable of making the conceptual leap required to take the embedded data value (myscore) based on the number of options selected in one element and apply it in a way that it sets/triggers the scoring of another element - which in my mind is the only way to have it form part of the automatically generated scoring summary that is produced on submission. I can sort of see how you might create your own scoring summary using a text element and a bunch of piped text but given the length/complexity of our forms I really don't want to do that.
Anyway, time to concede defeat and perhaps I'll revisit this if they ever see fit to add score restriction as a built-in scoring option ;)

https://www.qualtrics.com/community/discussion/comment/32580#Comment_32580Sorry - sent that last post before I saw your response. Thanks for going to so much trouble BTW, really appreciate it. I didn't think you were at all rude, I was just having trouble conceptualising what was required.
In the end I think I'd come around to getting what you were hinting at, which was having to create my own summary information in the final section of the form rather than relying on the automatically generated score summary. If it was a single form that was used repeatedly then that would be a great option, the issue is that we generate quite a few of these at a time (for mid and end of year assessments), they are long (tens of items, some with a dozen or more options) and include a range of element types. Moreover, the staff who are responsible for creating them much have less experience with Qualtrics than even I do (which isn't saying much).
I actually built an entire bespoke system to deliver these assessments a few years ago but decided to shift across to Qualtrics so that I wouldn't have to maintain it and do all the marking up of the rubrics myself (done with simple XML files, but the other staff involved didn't want to know about it because they thought it was too much like programming).
Anyway, thanks again. I'll put this info to good use, perhaps just not for the forms that I was thinking about when I started this thread.
Best regards,
Terry...

Fantastic demo BTW :)