Vocabulary Quiz Template
Seven words worth knowing, from ephemeral to resilient — a self-scoring vocabulary check that sorts word collectors into three tiers.
Seven words you will meet in serious reading — pick the closest meaning for each. Your tier is revealed at the end, no dictionary required (or permitted).
Vocabulary is the rare skill that improves by being tested. Reading a definition does almost nothing; being forced to choose between "lasting forever" and "lasting a very short time," committing, and finding out — that is the retrieval event that makes a word stick. This template is built as that event, seven times over: seven high-value words, four plausible meanings each, instant scoring, and a tier verdict that makes the whole exercise feel like a game instead of homework.
How the scoring works. One logic rule per word watches for the correct option and adds a point to the score variable; three tier rules read the total and pick the ending — six or seven correct is Walking Lexicon, four or five Working Wordsmith, three or fewer a warm Word Collector verdict with marching orders to try again. The score pipes into every headline, so feedback arrives inside the same breath as the last answer.
Why these seven words. Ephemeral, ubiquitous, candid, scarce, meticulous, ambiguous, resilient — each appears constantly in editorials, business writing, and exam passages, and each has a precise meaning that people half-know. The distractors do the teaching: "extremely fragile" sits next to ephemeral because that is the exact wrong inference people make from context, and "rehearsed" shadows candid because both describe answers. A good distractor is a documented misunderstanding — which is why writing your own set is worth the effort, and why this one is worth stealing from.
What we left out. Spelling questions (typed answers punish typos, not vocabulary), fill-in-the-blank sentences (multiple words are often defensible, and self-grading demands one key), and definitions-to-word reversals, which test recall of the quiz format more than the language. One question shape, seven reps, done in ninety seconds.
Who uses this. English teachers running a weekly word list as a form instead of a worksheet, test-prep tutors warming students up for verbal sections, ESL programs giving learners a self-paced check with a friendly verdict, and newsletter writers who know their readers cannot resist being graded.
Make it yours. Swap in this week's seven words: edit each question, keep four options with one precise answer and three tempting near-misses, and re-point the seven scoring rules in the Logic panel. Keep the tier bands at roughly 80 and 50 percent as you scale the word count. For classes, ask for a name up front and export the CSV each Friday — a term of those files is a genuine progress record, per student and per word. Focus mode earns its keep here too: one word on screen at a time stops eyes drifting ahead to easier questions, and the theme settings let a school run it in its own colors so the quiz reads as coursework, not a random link.
Frequently asked questions
Do quiz takers find out which words they missed?
The ending shows their total and tier. For word-by-word review, open the response in the responses view — every choice is stored, so a quick debrief covers exactly the misses.
Can I rotate in a new word list each week?
Yes — duplicate the form, replace the seven questions, and update each scoring rule to point at the new correct options. The Logic panel lists them one per question.
How should I write good wrong answers?
Base each distractor on a real misunderstanding — the meaning people wrongly infer from context. Three plausible near-misses teach more than three obviously silly options.
Can I track a class over the term?
Add a name field, keep the form open all term, and export the CSV periodically — you get per-student, per-word columns that show exactly which vocabulary stuck.