Timed quizzes

It's about that time of year where I start to give my first-year students timed quizzes on fundamentals: key signatures (major and minor), intervals, and triads (all identification--not spelling). The conventional wisdom is that these quizzes build speed and increase recognition. My rationale is that if you're taking ten minutes to identify a key signature, ten minutes to figure out how to spell a minor sixth, and ten minutes to identify a D-major triad, then part writing is going to be a nightmare for you. Kris Shaffer posted this yesterday morning, which prompted a robust discussion on Twitter among he, I, and a number of other theory professors.

After a good deal of back-and-forth, and a discussion with my class, we're going to try the following new and improved version. On Friday, during their quiz sections, I'm going to give them a sheet that contains a whole pile of key signatures and features the following instructions:

Identify the major key associated with each key signature below.

This quiz will be timed: your instructor will tell you when to start, and it is up to you to complete the quiz as quickly and accurately as possible. When you have finished, please bring the quiz to your instructor, who will note your finishing time in the space provided.

To pass this quiz on the first attempt, you need to achieve 90% accuracy in two minutes or less. If you do not meet this standard, you will have additional attempts to re-take the quiz during future quiz sections. I would ask you to make a note of your improvement goal (time and accuracy) for the next attempt in the space provided, and to indicate steps that you will take between now and then to improve your score.

If you do not pass on the first attempt, you will need to improve to 90% accuracy and less than two minutes, or a 50% reduction in both time and errors--whichever is lowest--over subsequent attempts.

A score below 30% accuracy and/or longer than 10 minutes will result in the attempt not being counted toward improvement: you'll need to re-take the quiz as though it was a first attempt.

Notes on each paragraph:

• I'm envisioning about 30 key signatures (I know there are only 15 possible).
• Having the instructor note the time will minimize students self-reporting falsely short times and will give him/her a chance to look at the work.
• Students are forced to reflect on their performance and start thinking ahead to how they might succeed in future attempts.
• The two possibilities here account for students who come in at 89% or 2:10
• This prevents students from "gaming the system" and deliberately doing poorly on the first attempt so that the required improvement is minimal.

Thoughts? Comments? Feel free to post below or find me on Twitter (@professor_berry).