Feeling a bit bored? Well don't worry we've got you covered, test your knowledge with our huge quizzes to try out during the holidays.

John Kleeman shared on Questionmark's Blog the ten benefits of quizzes and tests in educational practice as proposed by psychology experts Henry L. Roediger III, Adam L. Putnam and Megan A. Smith in a recent paper, “Ten Benefits of Testing and Their Applications to Educational Practice”.

Here is John's summary and understanding of the paper:

1. Retrieval aids later retention. There is clear evidence from psychological experiments that practicing retrieval of something after learning it, for instance by taking a quiz or test, makes you more likely to retain it for the long term.
2. Testing identifies gaps in knowledge.
3. Testing causes students to learn more from the next study episode. Essentially it reduces forgetting which makes the next related study area more productive.
4. Testing produces better organization of knowledge by helping the brain organize material in clusters to allow better retrieval.
5. Testing improves transfer of knowledge to new contexts. There are several experiments referenced in the paper where tests and quizzes help transfer and application of knowledge.
6. Testing can facilitate retrieval of material that was not tested. Surprisingly there are circumstances where quizzes or tests, particularly if delayed, can help people retrieve/retain information that was related to that asked but not actually asked in the questions.
7. Testing improves metacognitive monitoring – by giving students scores or self-assessments, they can better predict their knowledge and be more confident about what they know and what they need to know.
8. Testing prevents interference from prior material when learning new material. If you have a test after learning one set of material before learning another set of material, it can make it less likely that the second session will
9. Testing provides feedback to instructors and lets them know what is learned or what is not.
10. Frequent testing encourages students to study. Having frequent quizzes and tests motivates study and reduces procrastination.

 You can see their paper “Ten Benefits of Testing and Their Applications to Educational Practice” in Psychology of Learning and Motivation, Vol 55. It’s also available for download on Professor Roediger’s publications page, in the list of papers from 2011, at http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/publications/.

Piers Morgan today hit out at the Government's "spectacular failure" for doing fewer coronavirus tests than 12 days ago.

RD Burman composed for more than 300 films in a career spanning 30 years

This weekend, a group of music enthusiasts is going to deconstruct the thin line between imitation and inspiration at a talk on Hindi film music. The works of RD Burman, Shankar-Jaikishan and OP Nayyar will be discussed at the event.

Shankar-Jaikishan ruled from 1949 to 1986

“Many tried to imitate a sound that worked well with listeners in that period. In fact, film producers would encourage music directors to do so. The music of Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji-Anandji was close to the sound created by Shankar-Jaikishan and Burman,” says Ramesh KV, one of the speakers. “If you listen to the orchestration of a song, you will think it belongs to Burman, but it actually is by someone else,” he adds.

The full panel includes R Balaji, Shankar Iyer, Archisman Mozumder and Subramanian Iyer.

On: April 15, 7.30 pm
At: Pitaara – The Art Box, Yashwant Nagar, Goregaon (W).
Call: 9820393001
Entry: Rs 250

Social media allows you to connect with the world, but many seemingly harmless quizzes and games can really be traps laid by social media hackers.

The simple and sometimes silly surveys that pop up on Facebook feeds often ask simple questions that may appear simple enough: What's your favorite color? Where did you grow up? What is your spirit animal? Where did you go to high school?

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With most Americans under orders to stay at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are turning to social media for a fun distraction. Taking a Facebook quiz about how well you know a friend or what character from your favorite TV show best matches your personality may seem like a harmless way to pass the time while quarantined, but it could also give scammers your personal information for nefarious purposes.

Not all social media quizzes are data collection scams, but some quizzes collect personal information by asking questions like: What is your mothers maiden name? or What is the name of the street you grew up on? These are common security questions for banking and credit card accounts. Sharing this information can lead to your accounts being hacked and your personal and financial information being stolen. It also can enable a scammer to impersonate you to your friends and family.

Tips to avoid social media scams:

• Be skeptical. Before you take a quiz, figure out who created it. Is it a brand you trust? Just because something appears to be fun and innocent, doesn’t mean there isn’t an inherent risk.

• Adjust privacy settings. Review your social media accounts privacy settings and be strict about what information you share — and with whom you are sharing it.