The infamous Question 65 became a thorn in the side of the BBC, and was
destined to remain so until an official response to queries raised about it
were forthcoming. The legacy of Q65 may live on a lot longer than that though.
The problem with Q65, shown below, is that it was wrong. It is not possible
to answer the question in the way that it is posed ...
The Infamous Question 65 from the Online Test
The full explanation of the problem is best seen
by cutting the patterns out and folding them into cubes, then comparing them
with the target image.
Only pattern C matches the target image, while A, B and D do not.
The question, which pattern does not match the cube, cannot be answered
in any definitive way. The question is flawed.
The problem identified with Q65 are compounded by the fact that the labelling
of the patterns was different during the live broadcast to that which appears
in the online test, which has confused the debate. The core truth however, is
that the flaw is the same in both cases.
When the flaw was first pointed out on the BBC's Test The Nation message board,
there was some healthy debate, but the use of paper and scissors soon provided
absolute proof of the existence of the error.
With the mistake out in the open, it was not surprising that an official comment
was sought from the Test The Nation team, or anyone else in the BBC, to confirm
that there was an error made, and issue an apology where due.
Not an unreasonable request really.
The flaw meant that doubt was cast upon the validity of individual results for
the people who had taken the test, and upon the correlations, maps, and league
tables which were being derived from the collective results.
Although Test The Nation was seen to be, "just a bit of fun", by some, the
results are being treated seriously by many others. It is therefore only right
that the BBC should have seen fit to make some comment on the situation.
Unfortunately the BBC threw up a wall of silence.
Despite repeated requests on the Test The Nation message board by a variety of
people to have a statement made, those requests went unanswered. Those who
ran the message board intervened and requested clarification from
those responsible for the programme, but no response was forthcoming.
The requests for an official response were made repeatedly for a number of
days, but the BBC did not buckle. Not even an acknowledgement that there may
be a problem, let alone an explanation, or an apology.
The whole matter had gone from being a simple question of, "Did you get it
wrong ?", through, "Admit you got it wrong", and finally questioned the whole
integrity of the BBC.
If there was a mistake made, why was there such a reluctance to admit to it,
and issue an apology as appropriate ?
The BBC says it has a special relationship with its licence paying viewers
requiring accountability and openness, but the debacle over Q65 seriously
damaged any belief that this existed.
It is is hard to see why the BBC failed to comment. It is to be expected
that any response would need to have some 'spin' on it to limit the
repercussions when the error was admitted to, and the reply would need to be
comprehensive to bring the matter to a close, but does it take days to do
this ? Especially if Test The Nation was simply, "just a bit of fun" ?
Were the BBC worried that admitting the error would cause them more damage than
keeping quiet and hoping the issue dies down ? They may have hoped so, but they
were wrong.
The longer this issue dragged on the more damage it caused, and more people
took exception to the way the BBC were dealing with the matter.
Had the BBC the decency to respond early in the day, this web page would not
have existed, and the whole sorry story of Q65 would have been nothing more than
a tale of minor incompetence.
The BBC's failure to respond brought into question how it treats its
viewers and the licence paying public. The issue become much more than
whether a question on an entertainment programme was impossible to answer or
not, it become an issue about the BBC's accountability, its openness, and
the way in which it deals with those who give it their money.
The BBC's Response ...
A persistent campaign to get an answer took the debate into wider
circles, with more people within the BBC being made aware that there was a
problem, both with Q65, and the BBC's failure to respond on the matter.
After three days, the BBC did finally put their hands up to there being a
problem, modified the online test so Q65 was possible to answer, and gave an
apology.
But only to those who read the BBC's Test The Nation message board.
There was no mention of the Q65 problem in the BBC's online web site,
either on the Test The Nation home page, or the Frequenty Asked Question (FAQ)
page, and no comment about whether or not the correlations, maps
and league tables will be recalculated in the light of the problem.
While those initially involved in the Q65 debacle were pleased to see the BBC
finally admit that they got it wrong, it's a shame that the BBC didn't
informed the 90,000 who took part with the quiz, upon which the results were
based, that there had been a mistake made, nor the public at large.
Some 9 million viewers of the Test The Nation telivised show remain in blissful
ignorance that there was anything suspect about Q65, or that the BBC had cocked
anything up.
I'm sure the BBC are happy to leave it that way.
How the Mistake Occurred
If it was hard to get a response out of the BBC on Q65, imagine how hard it was
to find out how this flawed question made it to our screens and the online test.
None the less, there are always means. In the best traditions of investigative
journalism of which the BBC is proud, when the truth is out there, it can always
be found.
The problem does not appear to have originated from Dr Colin Cooper who set,
and verified, the test questions. His original Q65 appears to be completely
valid, and has only one answer; that which Test The Nation accepted as the
correct answer on the night of broadcast.
The error appears to have crept in somewhere between the drafting of the test
questions, and those which appeared on air, and in the online test. Basically,
the question which was meant to be asked wasn't; it had been changed.
The BBC's question ( shown above ) shows the target image with
the diagonally striped face having its stripes running downwards from the top
right corner of the chequered face. The question which should have been asked
had the stripes running upwards from the bottom right corner of the chequered
face.
The error, unless the BBC say otherwise, can be presumed to have arisen within
the BBC or responsibility for the cock-up rests with the Test The Nation
programme makers, and partners.
I've no idea why the patterns were labelled differently on broadcast and in the
online test, compounding problems further.
Perhaps it's a conspiracy to throw the debate into confusion, having realised
there was a problem in advance, and an assumption that people would be too
thick to notice. Not what one would expect in an IQ test though.
