STOP! Take the Quiz yourself before looking at the answer key please 🙂
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Catholic Benchmark Quiz
Description: A beginning & end of program quiz that touches on various key faith topics that enables you to know where your flock and volunteers are at theologically so that you can adjust your content to them as appropriate, solicit their interests from them, and assess their progress.
Forum: You can make general questions/comments about how to use or improve this Catechesis Material in the associated forum area QU-0423-0001 Benchmark Quiz | Forum | VeriCat.org
Instructions and Tips from the Author: This quiz helps you know who you are dealing with, which becomes invaluable. I’ve had highly involved 60 year old volunteers that attend daily Mass etc totally fail this quiz and 15 year old disengaged disruptive class clowns ace this quiz (and in both instances I never would have guessed, but with the knowledge gained from quiz results I was able to adjust my approach to them and generate a better pastoral outcome). I recommend this quiz be given at the beginning and end of any high school youth group or confirmation, RCIA/OCIA, adult parish faith formation program, etc where you will have recurring contact with the individuals (while I’ve not used it for smaller group settings and imagine it being more awkward to administer there, maybe it could work there too).
You should take the quiz ahead of time and force all your volunteers to take the quiz alongside the students too (this gives you concrete data to prayerfully discern whether certain volunteers should be trusted to teach/lead small groups unsupervised and what topics need more or less attention throughout rest of your program). You can also add extra survey questions to the end of this quiz as appropriate.
Given most people show up between 3 minutes early & 10 minutes late routinely, you can avoid wasting that precious time by having the quizzes/pens/extra paper set out on the desks ahead of time and gently greet people at the door with “Shhhh, we’re all taking a quiz today, don’t consult your neighbor or phone, please complete it and when you’re done hand it in [insert location, e.g., “to Mr. Catechist” or “on this desk”] and [insert alternative chit chat room or other thing they can move onto (or sitting and reading a syllabus/classroom policy sort of handout packet is good choice)]” then break the silence after all or most people are done with something like “Alright, I know not everyone loves quizzes, but thanks for battling through it and now onto the fun stuff!”.
It’s important to grade the quiz by hand and write little “great response, how interesting, good job” sorts of encouragements to make a connection (not many people grade stuff by hand anymore, and they will notice and appreciate it… plus I get a ton of joy seeing everyone’s responses and you will too!). I like to use traditional red ink to set the tone, but if a less tough love more pastoral approach is what you’re after you can use blue ink. I do not grade or mark as incorrect questions 9, 10, 15, 16, or 20 (it’s just pastorally insensitive to have someone admit they don’t pray much and then bleed ink on it) and I use my judgment on questions 18 & 19. I place “-3” or whatever in the top left of the front page and log in an excel sheet the numerical result for each student along with their content requests. I then return the hand graded quiz along with a print out of the answer key the following meeting (you may refrain from sharing the answer key or reduce the quantity of text within it similar to what HumbleHelen has done in her alternative answer key QU-0523-0004 as you feel appropriate. The answer key is a long document and I made it so long in part for the Catechist’s benefit, but the 2 page discourse on purgatory may be distracting/bad timing to hand a 14 year on their 2nd day of youth group so use your prudence based on the audience please, but I prefer handing it out in full usually). After giving the quiz again at the end of the year, it is rewarding to see how their scores improve (and sometimes I realize certain peoples scores didn’t improve and I embrace the shame that I failed them, imagine how I could do better next year, and make recommendations to my parish priest for interventions as appropriate).
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About the Author: Username “CAThanasius” Married father of 5. Former High School Confirmation teacher, RCIA director, adult faith formation, and retreat coordinator for several years. I love Church History especially, but can be found editing videos, reading catechisms, etc in my spare time.