Welcome! This is the hub affiliated with my Substack posts/newsletters. You've probably clicked over to this Intro post after clicking an "Intro" link at Substack. If you're here for a specific quiz, you probably zipped over to this site after clicking a link on my Substack to a particular quiz, test, or answers/explanations page. Any explanatory videos I do will likely be over at Substack, so you'll encounter those directly when the newsletter comes by email. Again, what you'll find here:
- quizzes on various smaller subjects and a narrow range of topics
- tests covering a wide range of topics
- explanations for the quiz/test answers, to be found separately
Why keep the explanations separate? Because the quizzes and tests can then be used as a convergent-learning* tool. The quizzes and tests are programmed to tell you what you got wrong, but it'll be up to you to figure out how to get the wrong answers right. So take the quizzes and tests again and again until you get everything right. In that way, the exams also become your teachers.
Quizzes and tests (I'm using the term exams to refer to both) have also been designed to be randomized in three ways to keep your exam-taking experience fresh: (1) the exams will display questions in random order every time you hit your browser's "refresh" button or when you click the "retake quiz/test" button; (2) the order of the answers to each question will also reshuffle randomly to a new configuration; and (3) the questions will be replaced by different questions from a small pool: I've written three questions for every question you see. In other words, the first time you take an exam, be it a quiz or a test, your first question might be 1B out of a pool consisting of 1A, 1B, and 1C. When you hit "retake" do the exam again, Question 1 might have changed to 1A (with its own set of randomly ordered answers).
Grading standards: in the end, this is all on the honor system, so what's the point of cheating? You're only cheating yourself, and for what? To lie to people that you got a 100% when you actually got a 50%? So don't cheat. Have some integrity. Come to think of it, nothing's stopping you, really, from skipping the testing completely (and telling folks you skipped). I'm certainly not going to materialize from some pentagram to lay a curse on you if you cheat, fail, or skip. You paid for the course, so I only want you to get your money's worth. But that's in large part your responsibility: These exams are for you, not me. Back to grading standards: I grew up with the old Fairfax County, Virginia standard, which went like this:
A = 94-100% (no A-minus, no B-minus, etc.)
B+ = 90-93%
B = 84-89%
C+ = 80-83%
C = 74-79%
D+ = 70-73%
D = 64-69%
F = < 64%
As mentioned above, quizzes and tests will show you your score (no partial credit) and offer you a letter grade. Answer explanations will be on another page; you'll have to click a link to see them. Grading is all about performance, not effort, so it's just like how they rate Olympic events like slalom, gymnastics, figure skating, or half-pipes. In those events, the judges don't give a damn how hard you've practiced or what effort you've put into your learning. All they care about is how you do the moment you're called upon to perform. "Having a bad hair day" is no excuse. If you're having a bad day, don't take the exam until you're feeling better and more focused. Who's to stop you? No one. And whatever score you get on a quiz or test is a private thing; nothing is logged anywhere, and I'm certainly not going to know your score, so if you want to keep a record of an awesome score, take a screen shot or a cell-phone pic. How you score is just a private measure meant to hold you to a standard. If you're happy getting C's, then you're good with being mediocre. No one's watching over you. Who cares? But if you're motivated to hold yourself to a high standard, then these exams ought to be helpful.
Quiz/test design: mostly multiple choice, with some fill-in-the-blank. You'll get the answer wrong if you're unable to spell correctly for the fill-in-the-blanks questions, so bring your brain to every quiz and test. Avoid stupid typos. To encourage you to think, most of the multiple-choice questions will require you to select any number of answers, from none to one to some to all. Please read the exam instructions carefully. Frankly, I hate multiple choice as a testing format because, as I explain in my book, it's the worst way to test knowledge and cognition; a person can cheat and "hack" and guess their way through any multiple-choice exam. That's why I've taken the "pick all answers that apply" approach: it's still multiple choice, but you have less chance of getting things accidentally right when you have to think through every answer instead of guessing. All questions on every quiz and test are worth only one point. No partial credit.
I would encourage you to take every quiz and test for every course. Each exam is there for a reason—to check your knowledge in a certain area.
If, however, you encounter any illogical questions, or questions you think are unfair, poorly worded, or just wrong (maybe they're questions that belong with a different section or a totally different course; or maybe I just had a brain fart), let me know in the comments here, and I'll fix the problem ASAP. I'm trying to improve, too.
I wish I could make the system of knowledge-checking more personal—I wish all of this could be more personal—but the best I can do is this automated, interactive system. Maybe on Substack, for people who pay the founding-member subscription rate, I might institute an essay-answer option that I can grade personally, offering personalized (not AI!) reactions. Something to think about for the future.
Is there something more that you'd like to know about quizzes, tests, answers, and explanations? If so, please leave a comment on this post, and I'll either respond to your comment or alter the post by adding an explanation (or both).
Welcome to Test Central!
UPDATE: A question came up about giving learners partial credit. I've put the question in both a Substack Note and a Substack poll, and I've paused the making of my quizzes until I start to see some opinions. We'll know more in a few days.
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*Convergent learning = The class converges on only one correct answer. What is 2 + 2? The only possible answer is 4. Divergent learning = Each member of the class can answer how s/he feels based on reasoning, knowledge, creativity, etc. Answers to divergent-learning questions will diverge in content. Who, in your opinion, is the greatest composer and why?
