WATCH: Here’s a breakdown of how NSMQ questions are set and accepted

The quiz mistress of the National Science and Maths Quiz (NSMQ), Prof. Elsie Kaufmann, has given a breakdown of the processes that go into the setting of questions for the popular national program.

According to her, the process begins with an extensive work done by a team of four consultants, each one for a subject area.

“We have four subject consultants: physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics. Their work is to set questions. Now, the questions they set are taken through a moderation meeting where we all sit down and read everything,” she said.

Prof. Kaufmann, who is the Dean of the Engineering Department at the University of Ghana, and one of about only 4 female professors in engineering in Ghana, explained that, in that meeting, her role as quiz mistress is to scrutinize the questions that have been presented.

“As the quiz mistress, my job is to sit there and listen to the questions so that I can determine if it would work out well with the students. Also, I am the one to award marks so if they have for instance, set very good questions but when we give them marks, it doesn’t add up, my job is to reject them,” she said.

Speaking on The Delay Show with host, Deloris Frimpong Manso, she added that the last part of the process is done when she returns home with the questions.

At home, her job is to further scrutinize the questions, solve each and everyone and ensure that they are admissible in the quiz, bearing in mind that she is the one who would award the marks to the students.

“And for the consultants, they are human beings just like us and are prone to mistakes and so while there, we can identify errors and correct them. After all these, I carry the questions along with me home so I can scrutinize them more thoroughly. At home, I go through all the calculations and solve them so that I can identify the mistakes and if need be, get back to the consultants to have them corrected,” she explained.

The NSMQ has become a household program that many people look forward to yearly, also because of the bragging rights that come with it for the senior high schools that emerge victorious in them.

Watch the full interview below: