Monthly Quiz

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Tony Summerfield
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Monthly Quiz

Post by Tony Summerfield »

I thought I would point out to all the regular gamesters who do such a sterling job in this section, that we have just launched our new Monthly Quiz on the main part of the site.

This might well be uncharted territory for some, but if you click on Home at the top of this page and then find Interactive in the menu, you will see the Monthly Quiz sitting underneath it.

At present there are thirty questions for January, and at the end of each month it will roll over to a fresh set of questions.

Keith has worked hard to set up this quiz, so I hope it will provide a bit of fun and get some support from our regular gamesters.

Best wishes
Tony
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Ming
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Post by Ming »

Interesting quiz! It worked fine! I got 21 out of 30. I bet Anita will get them all right!
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Post by Lucky Star »

Crikey, that was a bit more difficult than I thought. I only got 15 out of 30 and am 3rd last on the score chart. Obviously I need to devote more time to reading EB. :wink:
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Keith Robinson
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Post by Keith Robinson »

Never mind, Lucky Star -- at least you were brave enough to have a go and use your familiar moniker. Not everyone does.

And it is a pretty hard quiz, methinks. Tony thought up these questions, and I think it's nice that we can't all breeze through it -- even Anita, who got a good score in the testing but partly because she guessed well on a number of them.

We didn't want to see a load of "30 out of 30" entries -- there's no fun if it's too easy. And we didn't want a load of "1 out of 30" entries either. So I think it's a pretty good level.

By the way, Lucky Star -- sorry, but you're now second from bottom! This is because there was a temporary glitch that added about 32 minutes to two clock times. This has been put right.

Kudos to Ming, though, who is top!
Tony Summerfield
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Post by Tony Summerfield »

Keith Robinson wrote:Kudos to Ming, though, who is top!
Yes, I heartily agree with you Keith - an outstanding effort for one so young. We can spare her blushes for the moment as she should now be soundly asleep, but it was as Keith suggests a tough test and she should be very proud to have done as well as she did.
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Post by HeatherS »

Very, very tricky! You've used so many obscure little names and places, Tony! It doesn't help that I haven't yet read the Secret series, and quite a few questions were based on it. I refuse to read them in paperback, so I've been waiting for decently-priced old hardbacks to come up on ebay in Australia. Doesn't happen often enough! I only have Spiggy Holes so far.

Congratulations to Ming, and to Hari from the Yahoo group with his spectacularly imaginative alias! I noticed Anita hasn't yet attempted the quiz though, so Ming should enjoy the top spot while it lasts.

Thank you Tony for putting together such a difficult quiz.
Heather
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Post by Keith Robinson »

Well done, Heather, even though you weren't overly pleased with your effort. Hey, I've got some old paperbacks of the Secret series if you want some...? No? Still not into paperbacks? Okay then.

Anita did actually have a go -- several in fact, during testing. She scored 50 out of 30, so that's pretty untoppable. Seriously, she did very well as usual, but wanted to be removed from the chart because she felt she'd had an unfair advantage in seeing the questions and answers more than once.

So, people, this is a rare chance for the lead! Will Ming maintain her Number One Spot? Or can someone sneak past her?

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Post by Ming »

Tony Summerfield wrote:Yes, I heartily agree with you Keith - an outstanding effort for one so young. We can spare her blushes for the moment as she should now be soundly asleep, but it was as Keith suggests a tough test and she should be very proud to have done as well as she did.
:oops: :oops: :oops: Thanks, and good morning! I was a bit of a sleepyhead today and woke up at eleven! But then, I was watching the news and was up till two or sometime like that. Lucky it's holidays.
HeatherS wrote:Congratulations to Ming, and to Hari from the Yahoo group with his spectacularly imaginative alias! I noticed Anita hasn't yet attempted the quiz though, so Ming should enjoy the top spot while it lasts.
Thanks. Oh someone will go better than me of course...
Keith Robinson wrote:So, people, this is a rare chance for the lead! Will Ming maintain her Number One Spot? Or can someone sneak past her?
The second choice, no doubt!
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Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Well done Ming! 8)

Anita
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Post by Tony Summerfield »

HeatherS wrote:Very, very tricky! You've used so many obscure little names and places, Tony! It doesn't help that I haven't yet read the Secret series, and quite a few questions were based on it.
I think this is the difference between between a straight quiz and a multiple choice quiz, Heather. I agree that had this been a straight quiz it would have been impossibly difficult, but with multiple choice you are given the correct answer and if you know a series well or have read a book recently bells may well ring. Also if you don't actually know an answer it might well be possible to make an intuitive guess! In your post on the Yahoo site you implied that you would rather have questions on major plot lines, which I think is fine for a straight quiz, but for multiple choice it would not only make it very difficult to think up questions, but it would probably also make the quiz ridiculously easy.

I realise that if you have not read a particular series, questions become impossible and I therefore spent a considerable time planning it out before I worked out any questions. For example the Secret Series that you mention only has five books in it, so there was only one question on that series! Likewise for other series of the same length. Only two series had three questions, Famous Five and Find-Outers, and these were carefully graded so that the Find-Outers had two easy and one difficult, and the Famous Five one easy and two difficult. Apart from series questions, there were five general, three on illustrators (a hot spot for you with your website!) and three on EB's personal life.

As a teacher for many years, I set countless exams and my aim was always to try and get a nice spread in results and I hope I have done the same here. It is fine to have a top mark of 90%, but you don't really want to have a bottom mark of 80% - at the same time you want everyone to be able to achieve something worthwhile. In this case the top mark would have been 93% - Anita is far too modest to say, but she kindly helped me in the testing stage and got 28 out of 30 - but she did make a few shrewd guesses and of course she wasn't up against the clock.

As this is to be a monthly quiz I am sure I will reach a happy balance eventually, but I just wanted to make the point that I did put a considerable amount of thought into this one - and there really was only one question on the Secret Series!

Best wishes
Tony
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Post by booklover »

Hi everyone, I've just taken the quiz, and here are my thoughts.

- it was EXCITING!
- it was challenging!
- it was FUN!

Well done, Tony and Keith - a fantastic innovation!

The ones I knew I ABSOLUTELY knew - but the ones I didn't I had NO IDEA on (but must have had a few lucky guesses).

It seems to me that the breadth of questions rewards the all-rounders who have read everything Blyton, rather than the specialists who have one or two favourite series, or favourite genre (eg mystery/adventure, or school stories).

All Noddy questions should be banned, I say!

There's room for expansion of the concept too. Bring on the Famous Five Blockbuster Brainbuster! Or the Five Find-Outer Knowledge Find-Outer Challenge! Or even a Malory Towers/St.Clares quiz.

PS Just one thing - where are the answers?
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Post by Tony Summerfield »

Delighted that you had a go Booklover. Yes, you are right it is meant to reward those with a broad knowledge of EB and not just the specialists. It is interesting that the board leader, Ming, is a 12 year-old girl and she has topped the charts from the start - a fantastic achievement.

The solutions to January will come at the beginning of February, when the next quiz gets under way - and the good news for you is that it doesn't have a Noddy question in it! The bad news for Ming and others is that I haven't asked Anita to test this one, so it may not be as easy to top the board!!
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Post by Anita Bensoussane »

You know how to put the pressure on, Tony!

It's marvellous to see Ming still heading the board - a true Blytonian indeed!

Good to see you posting again, Booklover. :)

Anita
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Post by Ming »

I don't mind! Anita certainly will get them right, and I am trying to learn from her! And thanks Anita!
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Post by HeatherS »

Tony Summerfield wrote:
HeatherS wrote:Very, very tricky! You've used so many obscure little names and places, Tony! It doesn't help that I haven't yet read the Secret series, and quite a few questions were based on it.
I think this is the difference between between a straight quiz and a multiple choice quiz, Heather. I agree that had this been a straight quiz it would have been impossibly difficult, but with multiple choice you are given the correct answer and if you know a series well or have read a book recently bells may well ring.
Yes, I realise that it could have been too easy without the obscure stuff. And it really is a masterful quiz, I was just amazed at how many of the little details I *didn't* remember. I was rather ashamed at myself, but a little less so when you said that even Anita didn't get them all right! I have no idea how many of my guesses were right and my "proper" answers were wrong either!
Tony Summerfield wrote:In your post on the Yahoo site you implied that you would rather have questions on major plot lines.
Oh, I wasn't complaining! Just making an observation.
Tony Summerfield wrote:For example the Secret Series that you mention only has five books in it, so there was only one question on that series!
Really? It seemed like more. Maybe that's just because there were so many questions I didn't know the answers to. :D
Tony Summerfield wrote:As a teacher for many years, I set countless exams....
You were a teacher! That I didn't know. Or perhaps didn't remember, given my obviously bad memory! :lol:

My six year old daughter's decided to become a teacher. For today, that is. Probably tomorrow she'll want to be an artist and the next day a ballerina. :D Although my older daughter, aged eight, has decided to be a book editor! She wants to read books all day for the rest of her life. That's my girl!
Tony Summerfield wrote:And there really was only one question on the Secret Series!
OK, I believe you! I stand corrected. Everybody, there is definitely only ONE question on the Secret Series. :D

I'm looking forward to the next quiz. Hopefully I can better my score!
Heather
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