For the last thirteen years, Forsyth County resident, Julie Wilson has been fortunate to have been a stay-at-home mom, thanks to her husband, Denny’s, entrepreneurial knack for building successful businesses. Although Julie hasn’t been part of the workforce, per se, in many years, she has worked diligently at raising the couples’ two children, taking particular interest in their education and success in school. She has devoted countless hours studying with her children – now in 8th and 4th grades -- and devising creative ways to help them study and have fun doing so.

“Over the years, I’d spent a great deal of time studying with my son and daughter after school, making flash cards, cutting and pasting in Word, and verbally quizzing at the kitchen table, but our interaction wasn’t always as uplifting and positive as it could be,” explained Julie Wilson. “I realized I was actually doing my children a disservice because they were not organizing their own study materials -- I was! They really didn’t know ‘how to learn’ – but only, ‘what to learn,’” she continued.

Julie Wilson and Family

Julie discovered she needed a creative way for her children to study that would involve her assistance but would put the ball in their court more often, while teaching them valuable study skills along the way. She navigated the Internet for study tools and was dismayed at the cost of the various programs and how complicated some were to use. “I knew what I wanted, but just couldn’t find it,” said Julie.  Tapping into her organizational skills and question-designing expertise gained while working for years in qualitative market research, she began to design Qwizzy’s World (QW) in her mind.

She shared her thoughts and ideas with her parents and her beloved grandmother. “My grandmother was quite the entrepreneur in her younger years and loved that my idea involved education. She had graduated from high school in the 1920s and had continued on to secretarial school, providing her with solid training for the then male-dominated business world,” recalled Julie.

When her grandmother passed away in late 2006 at the age of 98, she lovingly left Julie a modest inheritance. “I knew right away that Gramie Virgie was helping to make my dream come true, and I had to pursue it. Hence, Qwizzy’s World began to evolve, and by November 2007, I had a unique and dependable quizzing system that allowed kids, parents and teachers a new way to study together, while enabling students to learn a valuable skill – test anticipation without the anxiety!”

A wonderful thing happened when Julie launched her QW test site. In addition to it being a great time saver and an easy way to study, she discovered that it was also a great tool for reconnecting with her kids. Homework time transformed almost magically from a trying experience to an entertaining one for Julie and her kids. She knew she had hit on something special.

“The kids began having fun creating their own quizzes, and when they went to bed, I would log on, use the QW edit function on the site, and add in more challenging versions of the same material. The fact that the site randomized the questions on their quizzes ensured that they were really learning the material as opposed to just memorizing it,” shared Julie.

Because the Wilsons had set up multiple accounts on QW within their household, they could ‘Buddyshare’ quizzes with each other – a special feature Julie used when traveling, allowing her to create quizzes and send them to each child’s account with the touch of a button. Additionally, she could access their quiz scores by reviewing them in the performance results section stored on QW.

When mid-terms rolled around, Julie used another special QW feature enabling her to put several previous quizzes together, creating one ‘Ultimate Quiz.’ “I watched first-hand as my kids experienced a boost in self-confidence, their test anxiety disappeared, they left for school each day fully prepared and their grades went up,” said Julie.

Although her personal goal of helping her own children had been met, she wanted to share her excitement, and desired to see other students excel as her children had with the help of QW. “I knew how incredible it would be to get this concept into the schools, both public and private, along with the growing home school segment and the tutoring community.”

The Wilsons’ long-time au pair recognized its value to college students as well, being a recent graduate herself. She now works as part of the team to broaden QW’s reach. Just recently, a tutorial guiding users through the process of creating quizzes was added to the site. QW is also currently being updated to accommodate all grade levels by using an interesting assortment of characters to enhance the quizzing process.

The site was made affordable for all students, teachers and families, regardless of their means. “Qwizzy’s World has become my passion and my labor of love, and I truly desire to help students across the globe learn how to develop study skills that will take them successfully through all levels of school, enhancing their experience along the way. My ultimate goal is to someday make QW available at no cost to all students. I look forward to the day that it’s second nature for students to create their own practice quizzes and that test anxiety is a thing of the past.”

To learn more about Qwizzy’s World or to sign up for a 30-day trial, please visit www.qwizzysworld.com. Julie Wilson is available at Julie@qwizzysworld.com.