An explanation of zTalent Test Scores and Reputation Points

zTalent takes a novel approach to accumulating reputation points through answering test questions.

Typically (on other sites) tests have a set number of questions that you answer when you take the test and then you are done with the test. If you stop in the middle you don't get any credit and there isn't often any way to earn extra credit to demonstrate extraordinary proficiency.

zTalent tests are open-ended, Instead of requiring you answer a fixed number of questions for a test, you can answer as few as you like or many questions as are available and you can come back later and answer more questions as you gain experience with the subject matter. Each question you answer correctly incrementally adds to your reputation according to the question's level of difficulty.

It sounds like you can never be done with at test, but zTalent introduces a measure of confidence into the mix. Each test is specified by a number of questions to answer for 100% confidence that you know the material.

Let's say you correctly answer a single question for a test that requires you answer ten questions for 100% confidence. At this point your score is 100% but the confidence you know the material related to the test is only 10% because you only answered one out of ten questions. To get 100% confidence you need to answer another nine questions for a total of ten out of ten questions.

You can answer more than the number of questions required for 100% confidence for extra credit, and many people do. The reason to do this is to really show that you know the related material and accumulate more reputation points for the skills that the test is tagged with.

This falls on line with the open-ended nature of earning reputation points on zTalent, because you can earn them not only by answering test questions for a particular test but also by contributing or reviewing test questions. In fact, you can come to the site one day, answer a few questions in a test, contribute a few questions, and return another day to answer more questions, return another day and contribute more questions and so on... Each time you participate you are increasing your reputation for the skill(s) exhibited by the test.

Bottom line: zTalent provides several ways for you to increase your reputation for particular subject matter over time as your skills increase, all at your own pace.

How to write a good zTalent test question

It is not difficult to write a good zTalent test question if you keep the following simple suggestions in mind:

• Try to be very specific in the wording of questions, using objective or absolute words instead of subjective or relative words. Include as much information as possible in cases where the best answer depends on context. For example:
• Bad: "Which is the best automobile for hauling?"
• Better:"Which is the best automobile for hauling gravel"
• Better still: "Which is the best automobile for hauling at least six tons of gravel"
• Best: "Which is the best automobile for hauling at least six tons of gravel and unloading it as fast as possible?"


• Make the incorrect answer choices sound plausible. A good answer choice is one that appears obviously wrong to someone who knows the material, yet sounds plausible to someone who does not.
• Make sure there is nothing in the answer choice wording that would make it possible to confuse the correct answer with the incorrect answers.
• Don't try to trick the test taker. Few people like to be tripped up by trick questions when they do actually know the material. The purpose of a zTalent test is to assess real knowledge, so please try to keep the questions on the main knowledge path and not out in the weeds.
• Try to provide at least four or five answer choices to minimize the chances of a person just guessing the correct answer. This also means that you should avoid true/false questions where possible.
• There is a space by each answer choice where you may provide explanation text that is shown after the person answers the question. Please try to include information that might be helpful to the test taker here, such as:
• additional details about the correct answer
• links to sources or additional material
  
• reasons why the incorrect answers are truly incorrect

Remember that test takers will be more inclined to rate your question highly if they feel like they learned something from it.

zTalent activity Twitter Feed

I just added a Twitter feed to zTalent, so user activity such as contributing tests and questions automatically generate Twitter updates both to the zTalent Twitter account as well as the user's Twitter account, if specified.

I was surprised at how easy this was to do using java-twitter API.

Why zTalent?

Hello and welcome to the zTalent (http://www.ztalent.com/) blog. I hope you are reading this because you found the zTalent site and are finding it useful or at least an interesting idea.

My name is Mike Silverstein and I'm a 28 year software engineer who's been an employer, employee, contractor and everything in between.

I wrote zTalent for several reasons:

• I wanted a test bed to try out and learn new software development tools and technology.
• I wanted a way for technical people to showcase their skills so they could establish technical credibility in the job market, as well as in technical venues such as blogs and discussions.
• I wanted a way for people with similar skills to be able to find each other.
• I found that during times when I was an employer, one of my biggest challenges was to separate job candidate's actual from manufactured qualifications, so I wanted a way to make it easier for employers to pre-screen prospective job candidates.

zTalent as it sits right now is the result of several years of off and on nights and weekends developing Java, jsp (and soon Flash) code. It represents a small fraction of what I want to do with it but the time has come to let it loose on the world and see where actual users want it to go.

In subsequent entries I expect to explain more fully how to get the most from the site and solicit feedback on new features and directions.