Quizzing Culture Should Make A Comeback
If you’re a 90’s kid, you’ll definitely remember a time when shows like the Bournvita Quiz Contest and ESPN School Quiz dominated after-school viewing. While participating was one thing, even pretending that Derek O’Brien’s and Harsha Bhogle’s questions were directed at you made you feel the thrill of being on a quiz show. And oh, the elation you felt when you got the answer right was a whole other thing.
But you must be wondering why we’re reminiscing them.
Quizzing is making a remarkably big comeback during the Pandemic.
As we write this, Maharashtra is in the midst of a state-wide lockdown. Schools, unsurprisingly, are shut and schoolchildren are probably going have extended summer vacations at home.
Last year’s academic rigour and probably this year’s too have been quite compromised. Students of several state board schools have been promoted to the next grade without exams. Traditionally, exams allow children to dig into everything that was taught in the academic year. Exams compel children to read their history books thoroughly, solve a multitude of math and Physics problems, and practice drawing the digestive system at least 5 times. Cancelling exams means none of this is required While a few children may celebrate this, most parents and teachers worry that children will forget a lot of what they learnt this year.
Now, making children write full-length, 3-hour home exams for no curricular reason is definitely a terrible idea. But making them participate in and even conduct quizzes might actually be the perfect solution.
The Key Benefits Of Quizzing
Unlike conventional exams for which each student prepares like a Lone Ranger, quizzing is inherently social. Quizzing with teachers, classmates, parents, siblings, and friends is far less stressful than appearing for an exam alone. Quizzing is hence an ideal home activity for parents and children to do together.
Quizzes improve concentration, identify gaps in knowledge, build confidence and help children retain information. Quizzes allow children to consolidate what has been learned without memorising dates, formulae, and figures by rote. Let’s explore this in detail.
Quizzing for improved concentration
For children who are easily bored reading textbooks and find their mind wandering, quizzes are a boon. Interactive quizzes are usually timed, making it important for children to tune out all distractions and focus on getting the answer, even if it means for just a minute. But doing this repeatedly for multiple quiz questions improve concentration levels in the longterm.
Quizzing for better understanding
Studies suggest that quizzing helps understand fundamental concepts of a subject. The normally indirect nature of quiz questions compels children to revisit known concepts, examine their relevance, and then apply those concepts to provide an answer. This builds a strong conceptual foundation in the subject.
With concepts well-embedded in the brain, children can now apply them in more complex problems as they grow older. For example, if a child fully understands basic 2D geometry well, she will find it easier to grasp 3D geometry as an extension of the same subject matter. If she gets the answer wrong, she’ll know exactly which part of her syllabus she hasn’t understood. Consequently, quizzing also highlights learning gaps when a child fails to identify and/or apply a concept.
Quizzing for critical thinking
A well-crafted quiz question is multi-layered with hints embedded in the wording. In most exam questions, children either know the answer or don’t. A quiz question, however, can be seen more like a puzzle. Since quiz questions are more application-oriented, they encourage children to use logic, probability, and critical thinking to arrive at the answer.
Quizzing for retention
Retrieval of information aids retention. While reading from a textbook or learning from a video introduces study material to the child, quizzing allows him/her to reflect on that information and try to retrieve it.
For example, in one study that tested a group of students on new information they had learned one week earlier. Students who were tested on the new information immediately after learning it outperformed students who were not tested after learning.
Practicing retrieving information regularly ensures that it becomes embedded in the brain for future use. It also improves the cognitive health of the brain.
“Forcing your brain to retrieve data ensures that it becomes ‘embedded’ for use in the future. So, yes, quizzes do help us retain information.”
— educationquizzes.com
Quizzing for a good time!
IXL, a K12 learning app, promotes its quizzing-based user experience as “Practice that feels like play.”
Quizzing allows children to have fun while being tested. It also disassociates learning from marks, presenting knowledge to the child as independent of curricular consequence. If a child gets an answer wrong, she doesn’t need to worry about the marks she’ll lose. Instead, she’ll know what she needs to brush up on. Instead of inducing stressful thoughts of poor scores, quizzing creates an environment conducive to curiosity-based learning.
Making quizzes to test school curriculum is fairly simple with the sheer number of apps and websites dedicated to this. Here are a few we recommend.
- Beano
Beano has a large collection of pre-designed school quizzes across multiple subjects. Though they are categorized according to the American school curriculum, it’s fairly easy to draw parallels to the India system. Beano’s school quizzes use mostly multiple-choice questions to make it easier to play as a group.
- Quizlet
Quizlet is a great tool for academic quizzing. From learning Math to practicing French, Quizlet uses flashcards and games to help students learn, retain, and retest things they have learnt in school. Quizlet also has study sets and short lessons associated with the quizzes. This is of great help to students who get a few questions wrong, as this allows them to learn the concept immediately.
Quizlet also has a large library of quizzes made by educators across the globe. This means, educators and parents needn’t spend time building their own quizzes, but can use the pre-created ones instead.
- Quizizz
With over 50 million users, Quizizz is one of the most successful quizzing tools in the market. Quizizz combines live interaction, asynchronous learning, and insights for educators and parents to make learning fun for children. Like Quizlet, Quizizz already has a massive library of quizzes created by teachers and parents across the globe.
For older kids, Quizziz can be used to study for competitive exams as well. Since Quizzis offers a leader board, teams, and friends and family participation, it almost behaves like an academic version of the immensely popular QuizUp.
- Gimkit
One of the most interesting tools for quizzing is Gimkit because of its “earning” feature. On Gimkit, parents and teachers can create quizzes while Gimkit provides add-on experiences like powering up and new modes. Almost like a live game show, children can earn money for their correct answers and even reinvest the money.
Quizzes are an evidence-based instructional strategy. Quizzing itself is fun for all age groups making it the perfect fit for interactive learning. Quizzing helps alleviate stress and makes learning and revising fun. Now, who wouldn’t want that?
