Quizzes

Choose File->Quiz from the main menu to create a new Quiz tab. A Quiz tab can be used to create quizzes to increase your word knowledge and anagramming skills.

Creating a Quiz

A quiz creation window will appear when creating a new Quiz tab, clicking the New Quiz button on an existing Quiz tab, or right-clicking on a word table and selecting Quiz from list. The quiz creation window includes a search definition area that is exactly the same as the one on the Search tab. Please see Searching for Words for more details about creating a search. The specified search will select a list of words to be used in quiz questions.

Quiz Type

Once the list of words is determined, there are various ways they might be presented as quiz questions. These options are known as Quiz Types.

Anagram Quiz: In the Anagram quiz type, each unique combination of letters is used as a quiz question, with each question requiring anagrams as an answer. Each unique combination of letters will be presented with the letters in order as specified in the Quiz Question Display preferences.

The Anagram quiz type is most useful for improving one's anagramming skills, since each question will be a jumble of letters to be unscrambled. For example, with an Anagram Match condition of SATIRE?, the quiz questions will consist of AAEIRST, ABEIRST, ACEIRST, etc. With the randomize option checked, the questions will appear in random order.

Anagrams With Hooks Quiz: The Anagrams With Hooks quiz type is very similar to the Anagram quiz type. In an Anagrams With Hooks quiz, both anagrams and hooks are required as answers. To enter an anagram with its hooks, type the front hooks first, then a space, then the anagram, then a space, then the back hooks. As you do so, space characters will be replaced by colons to easily distinguish them visually. For example, if the quiz question is EPS, then in NWL2020 there is one correct answer, AO:PES:OT. This represents the word PES with its front hooks forming APES and OPES, and back hooks forming PESO and PEST. If all the correct hooks are not provided with the anagram, the response will be counted as incorrect.

Word List Recall: In the Word List Recall quiz type, the quiz has just one question, requiring the full list of words as an answer. This quiz type is useful when trying to recall a specific list of words from memory, such as the list of all three-letter words.

Hook Quiz: In the Hook quiz type, each word is used as a quiz question, with each question requiring hooks as an answer (all words that can be formed by adding a single letter to the front or back of the word).

Quiz Method

There are currently two quiz methods available: Standard and Cardbox. In a Standard quiz, the quiz consists of all questions matching the search specification. In a Cardbox quiz, the quiz will only consist of questions matching the specification that are in the cardbox system and ready for review. For more details about Cardbox quizzes, see the section about Cardbox Quizzes.

Question Order

Quiz questions can be presented in various orders, which can be chosen from the Question Order dropdown menu.

Random: Questions are presented in random order.

Alphabetical: Questions are presented in alphabetical order. In the case of Anagrams or Anagrams With Hooks quizzes, questions are alphabetized according to their alphagrams.

Probability: Questions are presented in probability order.

Playability: Questions are presented in playability order. In the case of Anagrams or Anagrams With Hooks quizzes, each question is presented according to the playability of its single anagram with the highest playability value.

Schedule: Questions are presented in cardbox schedule order. This question order can only be used for Cardbox quizzes.

Schedule (Cardbox 0 First): Questions are presented in cardbox schedule order, except that questions in cardbox 0 are always presented first regardless of when they are actually scheduled to be seen. This question order can only be used for Cardbox quizzes.

The Restore progress checkbox is used when loading previously saved quizzes. See Loading and Saving Quizzes for more details.

A timer can also be configured for any quiz type to add extra challenge to the quiz. Activating the Timer checkbox will allow you to specify a time limit on a per response or per question basis. If the per response timer is chosen, you will have the specified amount of time to enter each individual response to a question. The timer will reset itself each time a response is entered. If the per question timer is chosen, you will have the specified amount of time to enter all responses to a question. The timer will not reset itself after each response is entered.

When the quiz has been specified, click the OK button in the quiz creation window to begin taking the quiz.

Taking a Quiz

Each quiz question requires a list of words as an answer. Enter each word by typing the word in the input box near the bottom of the Quiz tab and pressing Enter. If the word is a valid response, it will appear above the input box with the word "Correct", and it will also be added to the response list. If the word is not a valid response, it will appear above the input box with the word "Incorrect".

Once all the response words have been entered, click the Check Answers button or press Enter in the empty input box. This will submit the current word table as the final response to the quiz question. If any valid responses were missed, they will appear in the word table with a green background color. The number of correct words entered and the total number of valid responses will also be displayed above the input box. For example, if the quiz question is ACEIRST and the valid responses ATRESIC, RACIEST and STEARIC were entered, then the forgotten word CRISTAE will appear in the response list, and the message "Correct: 3 of 4" will appear above the input box.

After clicking the Check Answers button and reviewing the judgment of your response, click the Next button to continue to the next quiz question.

If the response was completely correct, but you would like it to be counted as incorrect, click the Mark as Missed button. This may happen if, for example, you guessed the correct answer but weren't sure of it. Marking the response as incorrect will allow it to be noted for later review. If the response was not completely correct, but you would like it to be counted as correct, click the Mark as Correct button.

During an Anagram quiz, the letters of the quiz question can be rearranged by choosing a letter ordering from the Letter order dropdown and clicking the Reorder button. If tile images are being used, they can also be rearranged by dragging the tiles with the mouse.

If the quiz is using a timer, the timer can be paused at any time by clicking the Pause button. Unpause the timer by clicking the Unpause button. If the timer runs down to zero, the correct responses will be displayed automatically, as if the Check Answers button were clicked.

Flashcard Mode

Flashcard Mode is a special quiz mode that is enabled when the Flashcard Mode checkbox is activated. In Flashcard Mode, responses are not typed; in fact, the input line is not even present. Instead, hitting the Check Answers button reveals all answers as if they were correctly entered. Responses are never counted as incorrect unless the Mark as Missed button is clicked.

Flashcard Mode is a very efficient way to review words, especially words you may already be familiar with. The normal course of studying with Flashcard Mode only requires hitting Enter repeatedly, because the keyboard focus will toggle between the Check Answers button and the Next button. Whenever you realize you wouldn't have been able to answer a question correctly, just click the Mark as Missed button to mark the question incorrect.

Analyzing Your Quiz Performance

At any time while taking a quiz or after a quiz is completed, you can analyze your performance by clicking the Analyze Quiz button. A quiz analysis window will appear. At the top of the window is a summary of the current quiz, along with some statistics about your performance so far.

Performance statistics are presented as Recall and Precision. Recall represents the number of correct response words that were actually given as responses. For example, if there were a total of 60 valid response words throughout the course of a quiz, and you correctly identified 45 of them, your Recall performance is 45/60, or 75%. Precision represents the number of response words you provided that were actually correct. For example, if you provided 50 responses and 45 of them were correct, your Precision performance is 45/50, or 90%. The numerator of both Recall and Precision will always be the same, since in both cases it represents the number of correct responses you have given over the course of the quiz.

The quiz analysis window also provides a list of Missed words and a list of Incorrect words. The Missed list contains the valid response words that were not provided by the quiz participant. This list generally consists of words you may need to study a bit more. The Incorrect list contains the incorrect responses provided by the quiz participant. This list generally consists of invalid words you should try to forget.

If you would like to save the list of missed words, or start a new quiz using only those words, please see the section about Working with Word Tables.

When you are done analyzing your quiz performance, click the Close button to close the quiz analysis window.

Loading and Saving Quizzes

Some quizzes are too long to be completed in a single session. For this reason, Zyzzyva allows you to save your progress in the middle of a quiz, and resume the quiz later where you left off. When taking a quiz, you can click the Save Quiz button at any time to save your progress. If the quiz was originally loaded from a saved quiz file, the quiz will automatically be saved to that file. Otherwise, a window will appear to allow you to save the quiz to a new file.

Later, if you want to resume the quiz, choose File->Quiz from the main menu, and click the Load Quiz button within the New Quiz window. A window will appear to allow you to select the saved quiz file. After choosing the file, the saved quiz will appear in the quiz specification area. By default after loading a quiz, the Restore progress checkbox will be activated. To start the quiz from the beginning instead of resuming where it was left off, deactivate the Restore progress checkbox. The checkbox will also become disabled if the quiz specification is modified after loading it. After clicking OK, the quiz will begin.

Cardbox Quizzes

The Leitner Cardbox System

Zyzzyva comes with a Cardbox Quiz mode that implements the Leitner cardbox system, an effective method of studying for long-term retention. In the Leitner system, each quiz question is assigned to a certain cardbox. When questions are first added to the system, they are placed in cardbox 0.

Every time a question is answered correctly, it is moved to the next higher cardbox. For example, a question in cardbox 0, if answered correctly, will be moved to cardbox 1. If answered correctly again the next time it appears, it will be moved to cardbox 2, and so on.

Every time a question is answered incorrectly, it is moved back to cardbox 0, regardless of the cardbox it is currently in. For example, if a question in cardbox 4 is answered incorrectly, it will be moved to cardbox 0, even though it had previously been correctly answered four times in a row.

As questions are moved to higher cardboxes, Zyzzyva schedules them to be seen at longer intervals. For example, questions placed in cardbox 0 are scheduled to be seen within about a day, whereas questions placed in cardbox 5 are scheduled to be seen approximately 30 days in the future. In this way, when a question is answered correctly many times, it will be seen less often than more difficult questions. If a question is always answered incorrectly, it will be seen every day.

Here is the full list of default schedule intervals for Zyzzyva cardboxes:

Adding Words to the Cardboxes

To add words to the cardbox system, do a search to find all the words that should be added. Right-click the word list and choose "Add list to Cardbox". A window will appear, containing the list of words. Select the quiz type for which the words should be added to the cardbox system (Anagrams, Anagrams with Hooks, or Hooks).

All the words in the list can be added to a specific cardbox by selecting the cardbox next to the Specify cardbox label. Normally all words are added to cardbox 0. However, if the Estimate cardbox option is checked, Zyzzyva will instead place each word in a cardbox corresponding to your past performance on that word. For example, if you have correctly responded to AEIRSST four times in a row in non-cardbox quizzes, and are adding the word SATIRES to the cardbox system, it will initially be placed in cardbox 4 instead of cardbox 0. This option can be very useful for avoiding unnecessary repetition of relatively easy words, so selecting the Estimate cardbox option is recommended.

After the OK button is clicked, the words will be added to the cardbox system. Any words placed in cardbox 0 will be available for quizzing immediately.

A word of caution: it is not a good idea to add large groups of words to the cardbox system at the same time! If too many words are added to the system at once, then it may take several days to complete a cardbox quiz over all of them. This partially defeats the purpose of the cardbox system, because missed questions will appear only after all the newly added questions are answered, instead of every day. For best results, words should be added to the cardbox system in reasonably sized chunks so that the cardbox quiz can be completed or nearly completed each day.

Taking a Cardbox Quiz

A cardbox quiz can be started in the same ways that a regular quiz can be started. The only difference is that in the quiz creation window, the Cardbox quiz method should be chosen instead of Standard. When the Cardbox quiz method is used, the quiz will only consist of questions that match the search criteria and are ready for review in the cardbox system. The questions will be presented in order of their scheduled time.

Normally, Zyzzyva takes care of assigning questions to their appropriate cardboxes throughout the course of a cardbox quiz. However, at any time during a cardbox quiz, the current question can also be manually assigned to a cardbox. This can be done by selecting the desired cardbox next to the Cardbox label, and clicking the Move button. For cardboxes 1 through 10, a shortcut for this action is to hold down the Ctrl key and press the number of the cardbox to which the question should be moved. For example, to assign the current question to cardbox 3, press Ctrl-3. To assign the question to cardbox 10, press Ctrl-0. To assign the question to cardbox 0, click the Mark as Missed button. When manually assigning the current question to a cardbox (other than 0), the question will also be marked as correct.

Rescheduling Cardbox Questions

If the number of cardbox questions available for review is getting too large, or if there is a lapse of several days between study sessions, then rescheduling the cardbox questions may help. To do this, choose Tools from the main application menu, then choose Reschedule Cardbox Contents. A window will appear, asking which words should be rescheduled, and in what way the rescheduling should happen.

The most common way to reschedule is by choosing the button that says Shift words so this many are ready now. This will leave all scheduled words in order, but will delay them or hasten them appropriately, so only a certain number are ready for review at the present moment. The benefit of rescheduling in this way is that words in higher cardboxes will remain in order, so they can still be seen relatively soon after the rescheduling.

The other way of rescheduling can be done by choosing the button that says Reschedule words according to their cardbox. By choosing this method, words in the cardbox system will be rescheduled according to their current cardbox. For example, words in cardbox 4 will be rescheduled to appear in 15-25 days, regardless of when they were previously scheduled to appear. Words in cardbox 0 will be available for quizzing immediately, and they will be the only words available immediately after the rescheduling operation.

By default, all words in the cardbox system will be rescheduled, but a limited set of words can be chosen by activating the button labeled Reschedule only words matching search specification and specifying a search.

Removing Words from the Cardboxes

In general, words should not be removed from the cardbox system once they are added. Zyzzyva will automatically take care of scheduling each question appropriately. However, if too many questions have been added to the system, and rescheduling does not help, removing words from the cardbox system may be a useful option.

To remove words from the cardbox system, do a search to find all the words that should be removed. Right-click the word list and choose "Remove list from Cardbox". A window will appear, containing the list of words. Select the quiz time for which the words should be removed from the cardbox system, then click OK. The words will be removed from the cardbox system, but quiz statistics about them (number of times correct or incorrect, last time correct, etc.) will remain intact. If the removed words are ever added to the cardbox again with the Estimate cardbox option selected, it is likely that they will be added to the same cardboxes they were removed from.

Importing Words from Other Cardboxes

Experienced cardbox users may want to bring their cardbox data forward from an older lexicon to a newer one. These data are stored in .db files in your data directory. For your convenience, Cardbox tabs include an "Import" button, so you can select another lexicon from which to import cardbox and quiz-statistics data.

After importing words to a cardbox, you may want to push the new words back up to Cardbox 0 for immediate study. The easiest way to do this is to do a search in the new lexicon to find just those words that are new to this lexicon and that fit your personal criteria for cardbox study, then right-click the list of found words and choose "Remove list from Cardbox", then right-click again and choose "Add list to Cardbox"; this will move all the found words to Cardbox 0 without destroying any of the quiz-statistics data that you imported.


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