How iqtify works
A free tool for finding out what you know in a set of subjects, and practising skills. This page says how it works today. It is not a privacy policy or terms of service — those have their own pages: privacy and terms.
How your answers are checked
- Picking an option is compared with the correct option. Instant, and no AI is involved.
- Writing your own answer to one of the hand-written questions is checked by matching words — again, no AI. On a multiple-choice question, if the match is not clear you are shown the options and pick the one you meant, so a written answer there is never marked wrong for its wording. A few questions only take a short written answer, such as a term; those accept the expected answer and the usual ways of saying it, and show you the expected answer when yours did not match.
- “Select all that apply” questions are right when you pick exactly the right set.
- When the hand-written questions on a subject run out, and in goal plans at /goals, an AI model can write questions. A written answer to one of those may be sent to the model to be graded, together with the question. On this server that is OpenAI's gpt-4o-mini.
- After a miss you see an explanation, and something to read: a source picked for that idea, or — where none has been picked yet — a web search, labelled as a search. When a generated question has no model answer, the screen says so.
How the results work
The end of a quiz shows how many you got right, how each idea went, and every question you missed. When a generated question has no model answer, that miss says so. Reading is listed with the miss. A word like “solid” or “shaky” only appears for an idea once you have answered at least three questions on it — one answer is not a diagnosis.
How your companion grows
Right answers in Practice a skill and in laps earn XP — more for harder questions. Your active companion grows by the same amount; knowledge quizzes do not feed it. Only one companion grows at a time. Switching never takes growth away: the one you leave keeps what it has and waits until you switch back. Wrong answers never cost XP or growth.
What is stored, and where
- A random ID in a cookie identifies this browser. You do not need an account.
- Your answers, results per idea, practice progress, XP and companion are saved on iqtify’s server under that ID. Without an account, clearing this browser’s cookies loses the way back to them.
- A name or “about you” note is saved if you add one.
- If you create an account: your email address, and your password only in scrambled (scrypt-hashed) form, which cannot be turned back into the password.
- The database is backed up daily; recent backups are kept for recovery.
- Visits are counted with Plausible Analytics, which does not use cookies.
- Like any website, the server sees your IP address. It uses it to limit how fast requests can be made.
You can download or delete your data from the You page. If you have an account, this covers every profile on it.
Not built yet
- Automatic deletion of data nobody has used for a long time. The code exists but only does a dry run so far.