AI & information

Check the answer key before studying with an AI quiz

Verify each question against its source, including exceptions and alternatives that might also be correct.

A quiz feels useful when it gives you an immediate score. But if the answer key is wrong, repeated practice can make the mistake more familiar. A fluent explanation does not establish that the marked answer follows from the material you are studying.

Give the assistant a bounded source

Use a short passage you are allowed to share and ask for a few questions with a source location for each answer. Naming a textbook is not the same as supplying the right edition or passage. NIST describes the risk of generated responses that sound confident while being false or departing from the input.

Check the question, the proposed answer and every alternative together. For a single-answer question, the wording must leave only one defensible choice. Open discussion prompts need a different form of feedback from a right-or-wrong score.

Test whether an exception changes the answer

Consider this invented reference: “The workshop opens at 09:00 on weekdays and at 10:00 on Saturdays.” A question asking only “When does the workshop open?” is incomplete. Marking 09:00 as the sole answer hides a condition. Ask about weekdays explicitly, or include the day in a short scenario.

If the source does not settle a question, remove it or rewrite it; another confident explanation from the same assistant does not supply missing evidence. Review a small set before requesting more, then verify every item you intend to use. Keep the corrected answer key with the questions and replace outdated copies. A score is informative only when the questions and marking rules deserve that confidence.

Sources & further reading

  1. NIST AI 600-1 — Generative Artificial Intelligence Profile, section 2.2

Sources support the technical explanations. Examples and suggested checks are editorial guidance.