Survey data are widely used in higher education for purposes such as assessment and strategic planning. One of the most common ways of using surveys has been to assess student learning outcomes by means of proxy questions on a survey, assuming that students who engage in specific behaviors (called engagement) have learned more during college than other students. The most well-known approach has been used by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which asks students numerous questions about their academic experiences, such as number of times they did not prepare for class, how often they made a presentation in class, and the number of books assigned in their courses. This chapter examines the validity of several questions about academic challenge taken from the NSSE. The authors compare student self-reports about the number of books assigned to the same number derived from course syllabi, finding little relationship between the two measures. (Contains 4 tables.)