Math Is Fun Forum

cesarcesar

Member

Registered: 2008-07-06

Posts: 2

Scoring a Quiz

I making a personality quiz that goes like the following.

User takes a test to determine which type of person they are more like. So there will be say 5 types, each given a percentage of 100 that they are closest to at quiz end. The test has 50 questions, plus a age question and a gender question. Each test has 5 possible answers. The user clicks through radio button to fill out the quiz. No sweat so far.

My issue is in the test scoring, this is were i get confused. When making a test, each answer is weighted to fit a specific personality type. The weights are shown on screen as +6 thru 0 thru -6. (In code as 1-13, zero the default get 7 points). I have tried a few different scoring algos but non seem to be accurate. One other thing, I have to assume that a value other than zero WILL NOT be chosen when building a quiz.

1st try - Multiple count of all questions times 7 (7 is middle or 0 on scale), then divide by total points gotten from weighted answers. This ends up being something like 350/372 = 94%. This is all good till you get a score like 350/352 = 99%. In percentage you can assume that the second score is higher, but in reality the first score had the greater point spread.

2nd try - Add the highest value (up to 13) from each questions answers together for each personality type, then divide by total points gotten from weighted answers. This ends up something similar to the above try, but with higher percentages going to those personality types with answers that have no weights attached to them.

OK so now that i have written this Im really thinking that the quizzes will not work if weights are not set to other than zero (aka 7 points). Am I totally off here? Can anyone lead me in a proper direction. Thanks much for helping my keep what hair is left on my head.

Cesar

John E. Franklin

Member

Registered: 2005-08-29

Posts: 3,588

Re: Scoring a Quiz

Keep track of each personality type with a score that keeps going up.
So you have five running totals.
At the end, tell them that they are the highest one, with
some of the 2nd highest type mixed in.

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igloo myrtilles fourmis

cesarcesar

Member

Registered: 2008-07-06

Posts: 2

Re: Scoring a Quiz

franklin -

thanks for your reply. I am keeping score as the test is taken. my question is to how to create a percentage score based on the max score that can be given to a particular personality type. Please re-read my post to see what im talking about.