Of Roses and quizzes

I have never been very comfortable with the idea of calling a short test a “quiz”. We used to have our unit tests in school. The nomenclature changed to hourly tests (because of the time limit of one hour in which the paper was supposed to be answered), at college and then to short test during post graduation.
Quiz for me holds a sacrosanct meaning wherein the person holding the mike throws a question at you, with a sly smile, you scratch your head, tear your hair make all sorts of expressions signifying its in the stomach but not coming to the mouth and finally allow the question to pass on to the next team once your stipulated time is over. This is precisely what is done in a short test too. Especially when you are grossly under prepared. But there is one difference which makes a quiz, the sacrosanct one that is, a lot better “test” to handle. You can discuss the question with your partner. Or at least pretend to discuss. You might just be laughing or cribbing about all the tough questions coming your way. But then the person holding the mike, also called the quiz master waits in anticipation (may be also hoping against hope) for the right answer. Whatever it may be, you are allowed to talk with your partner in a quiz. And you get points not marks for a right answer. Also in a quiz, you can be asked questions from a subject you know something about, in a short test of say chemistry, that is simply a utopian dream.. However, in a short test, even turning your head to the right or the left will raise the curiosity of the teacher about your creative animal instincts of stealing (the euphemistic word used by the educators is cheating) and irrespective of whether the animal in you is awakened, you become liable for a zero, a red “U” on your copy, signifying Unfair means, besides a red cheek with finger marks on it.
The first time when I heard a short test being referred to as a quiz was in one of the biology periods when I was in class XI. (I am a boy). And I actually confused it with the sacrosanct quiz. Biology and especially evolutionary biology (the topics which were to be covered in the “quiz”) were not particular favourites with me. So I offered to be the time keeper so that I would have to stay away from the torture of going through five chapters of evolutionary biology from the dry NCERT books. Well, NCERT books then used to be monochromatic with black and white illustrations. However I realised the futility of my “innovative volunteerism” when the teacher explained to me what she meant by the word quiz. “Its what you know as a short test”, she explained
Years passed and I finally reached (hopefully), the last leg of my education in a well known institute of management in Western India. One of the seniors in the management institute who was incidentally a classmate in M.Sc.(Arre yaar he quit his M.Sc., I did not fail), gave me some solicited council on the evaluation pattern. And the first thing he referred to was the quiz, which teachers here are apparently very fond of giving. The first thought which crossed my mind then was, “It’s a b-school after all, and as future managers we are expected to be abreast of all that is happening around us. So may be that is why the teachers give quizzes.” The school incident, mentioned earlier had by then been forgotten. But I could feel my face turning pale as he explained to me the meaning of a quiz in b-school parlance. “Its what we used to call short tests”, he explained. I had no choice but to accept my fate of clubbing something which I have always treated as sacrosanct and sanctimonious, with something as horrendous as a short test.
And about 15 months from that fateful night in the university, I am still struggling to find an answer to the question, why on earth do we have to call a short test, a quiz? May be as one Mr. Shakespeare had once said, “A rose by any other name will smell as sweet”, a short test by any other name will feel as nasty.