Each section of an Intertwined course ends with a short multiple-choice quiz. Quizzes are graded automatically, so there's nothing for you to mark, and the results flow into your Gradebook, your class Overview, each student's page and the Reteach page. This article explains how a quiz runs for a student, how the score is worked out, what "mastery" means in Intertwined, and what students see when they finish.
Available on: Students can take quizzes on every plan. You see quiz scores and answers on Intertwined Solo and school plans. On the Free plan you can see who has finished each section, but scores are blurred.
Where quizzes sit in a course
Courses are organized into units, units into sections, and sections into lessons. Each section has one quiz, listed in the course as Section quiz. Students unlock it by finishing every lesson in the section; until then it shows "Complete all lessons to unlock the quiz."
The OpenStax textbooks in the Library are for reading and don't include section quizzes, so the rest of this article is about Intertwined's own courses.
The section quiz is the only graded quiz. There are no separate unit tests or final exams: a student's unit score is built from the section quizzes inside that unit, and their overall score from all of the section quizzes they've finished. For more on how courses fit together, see How courses are organized: units, sections, lessons, and quizzes.
What a student goes through
The student opens the quiz and sees a start screen titled Quiz for the section name, with the number of questions and a short list of rules: they can retry a question they get wrong (the wording may change), their progress saves as they go, their time on each question is recorded for you, and the question hides if they switch tabs. A line in red reminds them that every answer counts toward their score, retries included.
They click Start quiz, or Not yet, back to lessons if they want to review first.
Questions appear one at a time, with a progress bar and "QUESTION 1 OF 8" at the top. The student picks an answer and clicks Submit answer.
If the answer is right, they see Correct! and move on with Next question.
If it's wrong, they see Not quite and a Try again button. Only the option they picked is marked; the right answer isn't revealed. When they try again, the question often comes back in different words, so they have to think it through rather than pick the next option down.
They keep going until every question has been answered correctly. Then the quiz is complete.
Progress saves after every answer. If a student closes the tab, loses their connection or refreshes the page, the quiz picks up at the first question they haven't answered correctly yet, and the wrong tries they made before still count. Refreshing is not a way to start over.
There's no time limit. Intertwined records how long each question takes, and that time shows up in your analytics, but nobody is cut off.
Question variants
Many questions come in two or three versions that test the same idea in different words or with different numbers. These are called variants. They do two jobs:
A retry is a fresh look. A student who gets a question wrong usually sees a reworded version next, so guessing through the options doesn't work.
Neighbors see different screens. Each student gets their own order of answer choices and their own order of variants. Two students side by side will often see the options in a different order, or a different wording of the same question.
Variants don't change the scoring. Each question counts once, whichever version the student answered.
Want to see the questions yourself? Open the quiz from the course while signed in as a teacher. Instead of the student view you'll see every question, every variant and the correct answer marked (Correct), which is handy for planning a review or checking a student's claim. See Previewing a course as your students see it.
How the quiz score is calculated
Because students keep going until every answer is right, the score has to measure how they got there. It's worked out like this:
Quiz score = questions answered correctly ÷ (questions answered correctly + wrong tries)
For example, a 10-question quiz finished with 2 wrong tries along the way scores 10 out of 12, or 83%. A student who answers every question right the first time scores 100%. A student who needed 10 wrong tries on the same quiz scores 10 out of 20, or 50%.
A few details that matter:
Each question counts once on the "correct" side, no matter how many versions the student saw.
Every wrong try counts, including several wrong tries on the same question.
The student sees the same number you do. Their finish screen shows it as Score (83%) and Raw Score (10/12).
From there, the bigger numbers are averages:
A student's overall score (called Overall in the Gradebook and Quiz score on the student's page) is the average of their section quiz scores, with each finished section counting equally whatever its length.
A class average is the average of the students who have finished at least one quiz. Students who haven't finished one are left out rather than counted as zero, and are shown as "No quiz yet."
Quiz time adds up the time the student spent on each question, from the moment it appeared until they answered.
Mastery, Developing and Needs support
Intertwined sorts scores into three bands, and uses the same lines on every teacher screen: the Gradebook, the Overview tab, each student's page, Reteach and reports.
Mastery: 80% and up.
Developing: 55 to 79%.
Needs support: under 55%.
Scores are rounded to a whole number before they're banded, so 79.6% counts as Mastery. A student who hasn't finished any quiz yet is shown as No quiz yet rather than placed in a band. The lines are fixed for every class and can't be changed.
One thing that confuses students: the finish screen also shows Topics Mastered, and it always reads every question (for example 8/8). That's because a quiz only finishes once every question has been answered correctly. It isn't the same as the Mastery band. The number to talk about with a student is their Score.
What students see when they finish
When the last question is answered correctly, the student sees a QUIZ COMPLETE screen with a little confetti, "Nice work on" the section name, their Score, Raw Score and Topics Mastered, and three buttons: Celebrate!, Back to course and Next section. If they open the quiz again later, they land on this same screen with the same score.
Students can also follow their scores over time on their own Reports page, which shows a score for each section and unit. On the Free plan, that page says scores are "Not shown for your class." See Your Reports page for the student's view.
Can students retake a quiz?
Not at the moment. Each section quiz is taken once. After a student finishes, opening the quiz shows their results screen, and there's no button for them to start over. There's also no control for you to reset a quiz or give a student another attempt.
What students do get is the retry built into every question: a wrong answer never ends the quiz, it costs a little on the score and they try again. If a student finished a section with a low score and you want them to revisit it, the lessons stay open for them to reread, and you can reteach the topic in class. The Reteach page shows which sections the class missed most and exactly which questions each student got wrong.
Where quiz results show up
Gradebook: every student's score on every section, with the class average on top. See Using the Gradebook.
Overview tab: the class average, score spread and who needs support. See The classroom Overview: reading your class analytics.
Each student's page: scores by section, quiz time, retries, and every answer they gave. See Looking at one student's progress in depth.
Reteach: the sections with the most missed questions.
Integrity: patterns such as a quiz finished unusually fast with no mistakes. See Academic integrity: quiz protections and the Integrity page.
Tips
Tell students before their first quiz that wrong tries lower the score. Students who treat "Try again" as free will click through options, and their scores will show it.
Encourage students to reread the lesson before starting. Once a quiz is finished it can't be retaken, so the first attempt is the one that counts.
When a student disputes a score, open their page, find the section under Course progress and open it. You'll see each answer they gave, wrong tries included, next to the correct answer.
A score in the 60s from a student who usually scores in the 90s is often a rushed quiz, not a gap in understanding. Check their quiz time before reteaching.
Common questions
A student finished the quiz. Why isn't their score 100%?
Finishing means every question was eventually answered correctly. The score counts the wrong tries along the way, so a student with 2 wrong tries on a 10-question quiz scores 83%.
Why did two students see different questions?
Many questions have several variants, and each student sees the answer choices and the variants in their own order. Every version tests the same idea and counts the same.
Can I change the mastery line or the passing score?
No. The bands are fixed at 80% for Mastery and 55% for Needs support in every class, so scores read the same everywhere in Intertwined.
Can I write my own questions or edit a quiz?
Not at the moment. Quizzes come with the course. You can preview every question and its correct answer from the course.
What happens if a student closes the quiz halfway?
Their progress is saved. When they come back, the quiz resumes at the first question they haven't answered correctly, and their earlier wrong tries still count.
Can I assign a quiz on its own?
Yes. When you create an assignment, choose Quiz to assign a section's quiz without its lessons. See Assignment types explained.