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Updated Mar 15, 2026

Thinking Baseline: Where You Start

Before you begin Chapter 1, complete this 30-minute baseline assessment. It is ungraded. Its purpose is to give you an honest snapshot of your thinking skills right now, before any training. You will repeat this exact assessment after Chapter 10. The comparison between your baseline and your post-assessment is the most powerful evidence of your growth.

Baseline Task (30 minutes, no AI)​

Read the following scenario:

"A mid-size hospital is considering replacing its emergency room triage nurses with an AI triage system. The AI system is faster, available 24/7, and in trials showed 15% better accuracy in severity classification. However, 40% of ER patients in this hospital are elderly, have limited language proficiency, or are experiencing mental health crises."

Without any AI tools, write responses to the following five tasks. Spend roughly 5-6 minutes on each. Do not overthink -- this is a snapshot, not a polished product.

Thinking Baseline Task
  1. Questions (Ch. 1 skill): Write the 5 most important questions you would ask before making this decision.
  2. Error Detection (Ch. 2 skill): The scenario claims "15% better accuracy." List every reason this claim might be misleading or incomplete.
  3. Systems Thinking (Ch. 3 skill): Map at least 3 second-order consequences of implementing this AI system that are not mentioned in the scenario.
  4. Ethical Reasoning (Ch. 7 skill): Take a position: should the hospital adopt the AI triage system? Identify who benefits, who is harmed, and what you would need to see to change your mind.
  5. Decision Under Uncertainty (Ch. 9 skill): Rate your confidence in your position (0-100%) and list the 3 pieces of missing information that would most change your decision.

AI Baseline Check​

AI Baseline Check -- Copy and paste into claude.ai or chatgpt.com
I am about to begin a 10-chapter course on thinking skills. Before I start,
I completed a baseline assessment with no AI help. Please evaluate each of
my 5 responses and then complete the Thinking Score Card.

Rate each response individually, then provide the Score Card.

Task-specific ratings:
(1) Question quality -- are my 5 questions diagnostic or generic? (1-10)
(2) Error detection -- did I find the real problems with the "15% accuracy"
    claim? (1-10)
(3) Systems thinking -- are my second-order consequences genuinely
    non-obvious? (1-10)
(4) Ethical reasoning -- is my position clear, is my stakeholder analysis
    honest? (1-10)
(5) Decision confidence -- is my confidence calibrated to my
    uncertainty? (1-10)

Then complete the THINKING SCORE CARD for my overall baseline:
Independent Thinking (1-10), Critical Evaluation (1-10),
Reasoning Depth (1-10), Originality (1-10), Self-Awareness (1-10).
For each score, give a one-sentence justification.
Calculate my Baseline Average (average of the 5 Score Card dimensions).

I will repeat this exact exercise after completing all 10 chapters.

Here are my responses: [paste all 5 responses].

Save Your Work​

Save your baseline responses and your AI Baseline Score. You will need both after Chapter 10.

Do not try to perform well on this baseline. The worse your honest starting point, the more dramatic your measurable growth will be. This is a mirror, not a test.

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