HEE — Human Educational Equivalency Benchmark
IWV Digital Solutions LLC | NotesXML AI Evaluation Series
50-question multiple-choice exam — 4 domains — scored /50. Tests breadth of general knowledge from high-school through postgraduate level and classifies models by Human Educational Equivalency level.
Introduction
How educated is your AI? The Human Educational Equivalency (HEE) Benchmark is one of six custom assessments developed by IWV Digital Solutions for evaluating the on-device AI models bundled with NotesXML. Rather than measuring raw benchmark numbers detached from everyday meaning, HEE translates a model's performance directly into the language of human schooling: does this model think like a high school graduate, a college student, or a postgraduate scholar?
The result is a score that anyone can interpret at a glance, without needing a background in machine learning.
Background
Why a Custom Benchmark?
Standard AI benchmarks such as MMLU, HellaSwag, and TruthfulQA are optimized for comparing frontier models at the highest end of capability. For small, quantized, on-device models running on consumer hardware — the kind NotesXML uses — those benchmarks can produce results that are either uninformative or misleading. HEE was designed to fill that gap, using the familiar scale of human educational achievement to classify model capability.
Relationship to MMLU
The Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) benchmark covers 57 academic subjects at varying difficulty levels. HEE is conceptually adjacent to MMLU but deliberately smaller and more tightly curated. Where MMLU uses thousands of questions spanning specialized graduate topics, HEE uses 50 carefully selected questions representing the knowledge expected at each major educational stage. Reference: Hendrycks et al. (2020), arxiv.org/abs/2009.03300.
Assessment Overview
The HEE Benchmark is a 50-question, multiple-choice examination administered at temperature 0.1 (near-deterministic). Questions span four academic domains. The model receives one question at a time and must respond with a single letter (A, B, C, or D). No explanation is solicited or scored — only the answer letter counts.
| Section | Topic Area | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| I | Linguistics & Humanities | Q1–Q10 |
| II | History & Civics | Q11–Q20 |
| III | STEM (Math, Science, Electronics) | Q21–Q40 |
| IV | Health, Medicine & Logic | Q41–Q50 |
Section I — Linguistics & Humanities (Q1–Q10)
| Q | Question | Choices | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Which word is an antonym for “mercurial”? | (A) Volatile (B) Steadfast (C) Pensive (D) Effervescent | B |
| 2 | Identify the error: “Between you and I, the local server deployment was successful.” | (A) Between (B) I (C) deployment (D) successful | B |
| 3 | In “The AI's stochastic nature belied its rigid training,” what does “belied” mean? | (A) Confirmed (B) Disguised (C) Enhanced (D) Justified | B |
| 4 | Which sentence uses the subjunctive mood correctly? | (A) I was you, I would wait. (B) If I am you, I would wait. (C) If I were you, I would wait. (D) If I will be you, I would wait. | C |
| 5 | Which is the correct first-person past tense of “tener” (to have) in Spanish? | (A) Tenía (B) Tuve (C) Tengo (D) Tuviera | B |
| 6 | Which of the following contains a dangling participle? | (A) Walking to the store, the rain started to fall. (B) While I was walking, it started to rain. (C) The rain fell as I walked. (D) Having walked, I was wet. | A |
| 7 | The speaker's laconic delivery surprised the audience. What does “laconic” mean? | (A) Wordy (B) Emotional (C) Brief (D) Confused | C |
| 8 | Identify the “Oxford Comma” in this list: | (A) Apples, oranges and pears. (B) Apples, oranges, and pears. (C) Apples oranges and pears. (D) Apples: oranges, and pears. | B |
| 9 | Translate to French: “I am hungry.” | (A) Je suis faim. (B) J'ai faim. (C) Je faim. (D) J'aime faim. | B |
| 10 | The root “phil-” in “philosophy” or “philanthropy” means: | (A) Knowledge (B) Love (C) Man (D) Power | B |
Section II — History & Civics (Q11–Q20)
| Q | Question | Choices | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Which 1803 event doubled the size of the United States? | (A) Gadsden Purchase (B) Louisiana Purchase (C) Treaty of Ghent (D) Seward's Folly | B |
| 12 | Which branch of government has the sole power of impeachment? | (A) The Senate (B) The Executive (C) The House of Representatives (D) The Supreme Court | C |
| 13 | The “Peace of Westphalia” (1648) is primarily known for establishing: | (A) Global trade (B) Modern state sovereignty (C) The end of WWI (D) The Roman Empire | B |
| 14 | How many voting members are in the US House of Representatives? | (A) 100 (B) 435 (C) 538 (D) 270 | B |
| 15 | Who was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence? | (A) John Adams (B) Thomas Jefferson (C) James Madison (D) Benjamin Franklin | B |
| 16 | The “Jim Crow” laws were designed to: | (A) Promote industrialization (B) Enforce racial segregation (C) Protect voting rights (D) Regulate the railroads | B |
| 17 | The Industrial Revolution began in which country? | (A) France (B) United States (C) Great Britain (D) Germany | C |
| 18 | What is the “Supreme Law of the Land” in the United States? | (A) The Declaration of Independence (B) The Articles of Confederation (C) The Constitution (D) The Emancipation Proclamation | C |
| 19 | The “Magna Carta” (1215) is significant because it: | (A) Ended the Crusades (B) Limited the power of the monarchy (C) Established the Church of England (D) Discovered the New World | B |
| 20 | How many years is one term for a US Senator? | (A) 2 (B) 4 (C) 6 (D) 8 | C |
Section III — STEM: Math, Science, Electronics (Q21–Q40)
| Q | Question | Choices | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | Solve for x: x² − 5x + 6 = 0. | (A) 2, 3 (B) −2, −3 (C) 1, 6 (D) −1, −6 | A |
| 22 | What is the sum of the interior angles of a hexagon? | (A) 360° (B) 540° (C) 720° (D) 900° | C |
| 23 | A 3×3 matrix has a rank of 2. Which is true? | (A) It is invertible. (B) The determinant is 0. (C) It has 3 linearly independent rows. (D) It is an identity matrix. | B |
| 24 | What is the integral of cos(x) dx? | (A) sin(x) + C (B) −sin(x) + C (C) tan(x) + C (D) sec(x) + C | A |
| 25 | What is the order of the equation: y′′ + 3y′ + 2y = ex? | (A) First (B) Second (C) Third (D) Fourth | B |
| 26 | According to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, total entropy in an isolated system: | (A) Decreases (B) Stays constant (C) Increases (D) Becomes zero | C |
| 27 | What is the molecular geometry of CH4 (Methane)? | (A) Linear (B) Trigonal Planar (C) Tetrahedral (D) Octahedral | C |
| 28 | Which organelle is the “sorting and packaging center” of the cell? | (A) Mitochondria (B) Ribosome (C) Golgi Apparatus (D) Nucleus | C |
| 29 | What is the time constant of a 1kΩ resistor and 10µF capacitor circuit? | (A) 0.01 s (B) 0.1 s (C) 1.0 s (D) 10 s | A |
| 30 | Which fundamental force is responsible for radioactive decay? | (A) Gravity (B) Electromagnetism (C) Strong Nuclear (D) Weak Nuclear | D |
| 31 | Find the limit as x → 0 of sin(x)/x. | (A) 0 (B) 1 (C) Infinity (D) Undefined | B |
| 32 | What is the determinant of a 3×3 matrix with a row of zeros? | (A) 1 (B) −1 (C) 0 (D) Sum of the diagonal | C |
| 33 | Approximately what % of data falls within one standard deviation in a normal distribution? | (A) 50% (B) 68% (C) 95% (D) 99.7% | B |
| 34 | If f(x) = 2x + 3 and g(x) = x², what is f(g(2))? | (A) 11 (B) 14 (C) 49 (D) 7 | A |
| 35 | The volume of a sphere with radius r is: | (A) πr² (B) 2πr (C) (4/3)πr³ (D) (1/3)πr²h | C |
| 36 | What is the unit of electrical resistance? | (A) Volt (B) Ampere (C) Ohm (D) Watt | C |
| 37 | What is the pH of a neutral substance at 25°C? | (A) 0 (B) 5 (C) 7 (D) 14 | C |
| 38 | A “step-up” transformer increases which of the following? | (A) Power (B) Current (C) Voltage (D) Resistance | C |
| 39 | What is the process by which plants convert light energy into chemical energy? | (A) Respiration (B) Fermentation (C) Photosynthesis (D) Transpiration | C |
| 40 | Which element has atomic number 1? | (A) Helium (B) Oxygen (C) Carbon (D) Hydrogen | D |
Section IV — Health, Medicine & Logic (Q41–Q50)
| Q | Question | Choices | Answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Which vitamin is synthesized when human skin is exposed to sunlight? | (A) Vitamin A (B) Vitamin B12 (C) Vitamin C (D) Vitamin D | D |
| 42 | What is the primary function of insulin in the human body? | (A) Increase heart rate (B) Regulate blood glucose (C) Aid digestion (D) Fight infection | B |
| 43 | Premise: If it rains, the grass is wet. Fact: The grass is not wet. Conclusion? | (A) It rained. (B) It did not rain. (C) It might rain. (D) No conclusion possible. | B |
| 44 | In a race, John finished before Sam but after Mary. Who won? | (A) John (B) Sam (C) Mary (D) Cannot be determined | C |
| 45 | Which of the following is a “post hoc ergo propter hoc” fallacy? | (A) Attacking the person (B) Circular reasoning (C) Assuming correlation implies causation (D) Appealing to authority | C |
| 46 | What is the term for a “heart attack”? | (A) Stroke (B) Myocardial Infarction (C) Hypertension (D) Cardiac Arrhythmia | B |
| 47 | Which of the following is a “Straw Man” fallacy? | (A) Attacking character (B) Misrepresenting an argument (C) Slippery slope (D) Authority appeal | B |
| 48 | All squares are rectangles. Some rectangles are red. Therefore: | (A) All squares are red. (B) Some squares are red. (C) All red shapes are squares. (D) None of the above must be true. | D |
| 49 | Which of the following is considered a macronutrient? | (A) Vitamin C (B) Iron (C) Protein (D) Calcium | C |
| 50 | In formal logic, P → Q is false only when: | (A) P true, Q true (B) P false, Q false (C) P true, Q false (D) P false, Q true | C |
Scoring Rubric
Each correct answer is worth 1 point. The total score out of 50 is mapped to a Human Educational Equivalency level:
| Score | Percentage | Equivalency Level |
|---|---|---|
| 0–15 | 0–30% | Elementary / Middle School |
| 16–30 | 32–60% | High School Graduate |
| 31–42 | 62–84% | Undergraduate Level |
| 43–50 | 86–100% | Post-Graduate / Mastery |
Results include a per-model summary page (rankings, section scores, equivalency level) and a detailed page showing every question result against the answer key.
Summary
The HEE Benchmark gives NotesXML users a single, human-readable number that answers the practical question: what kind of general knowledge can I expect from this AI? A model at the Undergraduate Level will handle most everyday writing, research assistance, and question-answering tasks reliably. A model at the High School Graduate level will still be useful for summarization, note polish, and basic factual queries, but may struggle with nuanced academic or technical topics.
HEE is one of six benchmarks used in the NotesXML AI evaluation suite. The others probe professional licensing knowledge, graduate-level philosophy, synthetic deductive reasoning, long-context retention, and tool-calling accuracy.
References
- Hendrycks, D. et al. (2020). Measuring Massive Multitask Language Understanding. arxiv.org/abs/2009.03300
- IWV Digital Solutions — NotesXML AI Models
- IWV Digital Solutions — Full Benchmark Results
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