Online Quizzes by: Dawson Unger

So in one of my classes our formative grades are all made up of these online quizzes. These quizzes are quite the hit or miss for me, especially because they involve quotes straight from a “optional” textbook, that they are all on. The teacher made it seem like if you don’t get it the world wont end, but I soon learned that was not true. This textbook is the basis of 10% of our grade, and I was told it was optional. So now that I have completely understood this, I go in to the library during study hall and take pictures of the textbook pages, since we cant take the library copies home. And if you are wondering why I don’t just read it in the library, I do, I read as much as possible, usually about 10 of the 30 pages, and barely end up retaining any of the information because I get too distracted.


That is only part of the problem with these quizzes. I tended to average about 60% on them until the middle of last quarter. They all are worded in ways it takes me many times of reading it to understand, and then the answers are always so similar and it seems like you are just trying to be tricked. These quizzes are also timed to just a minute or two more than the number of questions, which if you are anything like me, makes them so much more stressful.


My grade on these quizzes have skyrocketed lately since I have begun to work with classmates and take the quizzes together, allowing both of our memorization of the textbook to work together. We both, or however many people we are working with, will all take notes in the textbook to use during our quiz and will use those to study for our tests. I have a pretty strong feeling that this was not the reason for us to have these quizzes, but with these quizzes my teamwork ability has grown and it has made me more motivated to do them, and to read the textbook. Because when I don’t, I feel like I’m letting down my team. My “team” and me also work together to study for vocab quizzes by making Quizlets’s and studying together before tests.



I have implemented this system of a study group into almost all of my classes now and it helps me tremendously, with getting work done, and with growing more friendships. And ill be honest these groups of friends make me like school so much more, in our study sessions we mainly just hang out and just go through all of the notes and problems during it, and it tends to be way more fun than I ever expected.