Are We Taking BuzzFeed Quiz Results Seriously?

I was in class the other day trying to pay attention, when I noticed the student in front of me taking a quiz on BuzzFeed. I immediately lost focus on whatever the professor was lecturing about, and began scrolling through BuzzFeed until I came across the quiz titled ‘Are You a Good Speller’. It was a 15 question multiple choice quiz that tested my ability to decipher correctly spelled words from incorrectly spelled words.

Judging the format of the quiz (after scoring 100% thank you very much), I came to realize the subjectivity of my results. I of course was informed that I was a good speller, however, I was not certain that a 15 question quiz could hand me that result with confidence. I felt it was a flimsy result, as truly there was no way such a short quiz could judge my spelling skills.

Much like IQ testing, I find the question of ‘Are You a Good Speller’ age sensitive. I could get 100% on this quiz and believe I am a good speller, and then a 5 year old, who is quite advanced in spelling, could take the quiz and be told that he/she is an awful speller, which is not necessarily the case. Therefore, the quiz should have either based scoring factoring in the quiz takers age, or they should provide these spelling quizzes based on age.

Upon further research and investigation, I found that generally, BuzzFeed quizzes do distribute normally. However, is this distribution due to the age of the quiz takers being normally distributed, or is it due to the spelling skills of the quiz takers being normally distributed.

All this leads to me wonder how much people are relying on and using information obtained from these BuzzFeed quizzes. I can now go around and say I am an exceptional, above average speller, but is that a fact or an opinion? I constantly see my fellow peers in class taking these BuzzFeed quizzes; are you smarter than a fifth grader, what country best suits your personality, which job should you have when you are older, let me guess your age,…the list goes on.

Should we feel confident and comfortable enough to go around using our BuzzFeed quiz results as a means of further identifying ourselves, or should we take these quizzes lightly and use them for the sole purpose of killing time in class when we are bored?

Student N. 260633208