📝 Quiz Logistics

Overview

There are five quizzes this semester. Quizzes are meant to be checks of your understanding of the basic computational ideas introduced in the class, while exams assess your deeper theoretical understanding of the ideas and problem-solving skills. Quiz 0 is designed to assess your understanding of high school-level algebra and geometry. See the Grades section of the syllabus for more details on how quizzes factor into your grade in the course.

Exams will be administered in person and on paper, and everyone in the class will take each exam at the same time and in the same room (subject to accommodations).

Quizzes, on the other hand, are administered in person, but in the College of Engineering’s Engineering Testing Facility (ETF) on North Campus. Here are the key ideas:

You will take each quiz on a computer in the facility, rather than writing your work out on paper.
Quizzes are run on PrairieLearn, a website that allows us to provide randomized assessments.
Each quiz is open for a 4-5 day window, and it is your responsibility to schedule one 50 minute slot in which you will take the quiz, using PrairieTest.
You can only take each quiz once, but as we describe in the Practice Quizzes section below, you can take unlimited practice quizzes from home to prepare.

Launch PrairieTest, the scheduling software

Quiz Dates and Scheduling

	Open From	Scheduling Opens On	Content
Quiz 0	September 8 to September 11	August 31	High school algebra and geometry
Quiz 1	September 21 to September 25	September 14	Lectures 2–6
Quiz 2	October 12 to October 16	October 5	Lectures 9–12
Quiz 3	November 2 to November 6	October 26	Lectures 13–17
Quiz 4	November 30 to December 4	November 23	Lectures 22–26

With this system, you can schedule each quiz at a time that is convenient for you. When you go to take your quiz, there may be students taking assessments from other classes at the same time!

To make a quiz reservation, use PrairieTest, following these instructions:

Log in to PrairieTest and select University of Michigan. The first time you log in, accept the invitation to join Math 124. If this doesn’t work, let us know on Ed.
Find the quiz you want to schedule. PrairieTest may label every assessment as an “exam,” including our quizzes.
Click Make a reservation, choose an available session, and click Reserve this session. Remember to allow enough time to travel to the Engineering Testing Facility.
Confirm the date, time, and location shown in your reservation, then add the reservation to your calendar.

Reservations can be made after scheduling opens and until 15 minutes before an available session. However, spots are not guaranteed if you wait until the end of the quiz window. We strongly recommend scheduling in the first half of the window so that you have time to reschedule if something goes wrong.

To change a reservation, open it in PrairieTest and select Change or delete this reservation. Changes can be made until 30 minutes before the session begins.

Location

The Engineering Testing Facility (ETF) is located on North Campus on the 2nd floor of the Engineering Auxiliary Building. The ETF’s website has more details on how to find it.

Plan to arrive at the ETF well in advance of your scheduled quiz time, especially for Quiz 0. It is in a slightly hard-to-find location on North Campus. Don’t search for the Engineering Auxiliary Building on Apple Maps since, as of this writing, it does not appear there. Use the Google Map below instead.

Logistics

It is your responsibility to be familiar with all of the policies of the ETF, found here, as we will follow them all in our course.

Before You Arrive

Double-check your reservation for the correct ETF location and room.
Arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled time. Arriving late does not give you extra quiz time.
Bring your M-Card, a pen or pencil, and the device you use for Okta two-factor authentication. Make sure the Okta app is installed before you arrive.
Leave enough time for travel, check-in, and logging in to the testing computer.
Memorize your password to your @umich.edu account, since you will need it to log into the computer.

Checking In and Taking the Quiz

ETF staff will check your M-Card, assign you a computer station, and direct you to store your backpack, coat, and other personal items in a cubby. You may take the scratch paper provided by the facility to your station.

Use your device to complete Okta authentication (if the computer asks you to do so), then place it in the designated bin before the quiz begins. Do not handle it again until you have finished the quiz. At your assigned computer, follow the on-screen instructions to open PrairieTest, select your Math 124 quiz, and start the quiz in PrairieLearn.

Once you begin, you will have 50 minutes. You may answer questions in any order, but make sure to save each answer. Before finishing, check the assessment overview to confirm that every answer was saved. When you are done, finish the assessment, log out of PrairieLearn and the computer, return or recycle scratch paper as directed, and collect your belongings.

What Is Allowed

You may use the scratch paper supplied by the ETF and a pen or pencil; you cannot bring scratch paper or notes sheets in with you.
You may use only the resources made available to you within the quiz itself.
Personal notes, books, websites, calculators, phones, watches, and other personal electronics are not allowed.
Collaboration or communication with anyone else during the quiz is prohibited.
ETF staff can help with check-in or technical problems, but they cannot answer questions about quiz content.

Accommodations

Approved SSD accommodations should appear when you make your PrairieTest reservation. After reserving, open the reservation and verify that any extended-time or reduced-distraction accommodations are listed correctly. If something is missing, contact the course staff and the ETF before your quiz.

If you have an approved accommodation involving breaks, food, drink, medication, or another need, follow the instructions provided by the ETF. Food and drink are otherwise not allowed at the computer station.

If You Miss a Reservation

If you miss your reservation, go to the ETF with your M-Card and ask a staff member to remove the missed reservation. You can then reserve another available session. A replacement session is not guaranteed, especially near the end of the quiz window, so schedule early whenever possible.

Practice Quizzes

The quizzes themselves are run on PrairieLearn, a website that allows us to provide randomized assessments. (PrairieLearn hosts the content; PrairieTest is the scheduling software.)

In order to practice for the quizzes, you have access to “practice quizzes” that you can access from PrairieLearn at home. These do not directly count toward your grade, but it is highly recommended that you practice for each quiz.

To access a practice quiz, all need to do is open PrairieLearn, which is also linked in the toolbar of the course website. If you don’t have access, let us know on Ed. We will release Practice Quiz N on the same day that scheduling opens for Quiz N, e.g. Practice Quiz 2 will be released on October 5, the same day Quiz 2 scheduling opens.

Practice quizzes contain the same questions that the real quizzes do. On a practice quiz, you can attempt each question as many times as you would like; each time you re-attempt a question, you will see a slightly different version with different numbers. In real quizzes, you can only attempt each problem once, and only take the entire quiz once.

Disclaimer

This is the first semester that the ETF is being used, and Math 124 is one of the first classes to use it. It has been beta-tested extensively, but it is possible that there are logistical hiccups. Thank you for your patience. And, if anything about this page is confusing, let us know on Ed!