Am I the only one who finds the Treehouse quizzes ridiculously annoying and a complete waste of time?

No and I don't think you have given any course enough time to drop that kind of criticism either. I think they are a great way to make sure you have digested the information given in a video. Of course earlier videos are going to seem simpler as difficulty rises when you have to take in much more information.

Don't worry - they get harder :).

I'm gonna have to agree with Niall and Greg. I'm very new to Treehouse, but I'm not new to programming ideals and mindsets, and I've coded HTML/CSS, a little PHP, and a little Javascript in my days.

Starting out from the bottom just as a refresher, some of the questions are pretty basic. But remember they are designed to ensure EVERYONE "gets" it from the get go.

As the courses and tracks progress, they do in fact get a trickier and more difficult, and align with the level of difficulty indicated in the course itself (i.e. - Novice vs Intermediate).

Just keep pluggin' along, and keep an open mind. :)

I honestly don't think they do; despite Niall's assertion, I have taken quite a few courses and a lot of tests (I have had more than one Treehouse account over the years), and they seem to follow the same format - a couple of very easy true/false statements, a few MCQs, and maybe a question where you have to insert a word. I really do think they have their place on the site, it's just a shame it feels as though they are written with a six year old audience in mind.

Your answer focuses on the quizzes, not the code challenges. Both have their spot and the number of questions raised on the forums regarding each shows that quite a few people have difficulty with them. So, they may be a waste of time for you, but they are not for everyone.

I also agree with the previous comments.

Stephen,

I am sorry you aren't finding the quizzes up to your standards and that's okay. Since Team Treehouse caters to all forms of educations and knowledge, there will be questions that may or may not seem ridiculously simple. As far as your example goes, yes, I can understand why you think that question was just too lackluster. Coming in you know you are getting a programming course and it's about Ruby, so yes, the question is to laugh at. But think about it in terms of a person that might have troubles taking tests and quizzes. There are people who dread quizzes and tests and whenever they see them, they freak out. Team Theehouse isn't here to instill fear in it's students and any way they can ease the stress of learning and retaining, they will use it. Think of that question as a way to ease people into the quizzes. Remember, you are talking about a quiz from the beginners level of a programming language; and better yet, the first part. Give it time and the quizzes will get more difficult. The quizzes here aren't meant to stump you as they are just going over what you learned a few minutes prior, but as time and difficulty level of the material increases, you will get your fair share of head-scratchers. Please be patient and hang in there, you will get your money's worth.

Cheers!

I don't think the questions are insultingly simple and questions shouldn't be hard just ensure that you listened the whole video and that's why I think the quiz should be longer to meet this objective. But I don't oppose to adding difficult questions after the first goal is met in the questions list. I think the comprehension is addressed by the chain of thought of the video's content but if not then hard questions should just look to promote comprehension.

I think it depends on the course. Some of the courses have better quizzes than others. I've taken a good share of Treehouse courses and my issue wasn't so much the questions being too hard or too easy, but the instructor not putting a lot of thought into what they should be asking. It's important to ask the right questions (and the right amount) to enforce proper comprehension of the material. How to go about doing that depends on the topic.

If you're completely new to coding and just learned about, for example, how to use a for-loop in JavaScript; you need to be practicing for-loop problems over and over again to get solid in it. If the class is about the history of HTML and CSS, ask about events and dates.

I often get frustrated by the quizzes. I googled for it after all. Not because they are too easy but because of the errors in them. for example, there are 5 options. 1 option is a wrong statement. 2 options are correct statements. and the other 2 are all of the above/none of the above. BUT only 1 of the 2 correct statements is the right answer... >.<