As Itamar has mentioned, there are lots of ways to accomplish besides your current method of just having the quiz grade being a zero.
Out of the methods mentioned, I think hiding the grade item in the gradebook is the easiest. As a bonus, you can enter a date to have it hidden until. This way you can get your stats and the grades won't be revealed until you choose. To do so,
- In the Categories and Items tab, select the Edit icon next to the desired grade item.
- In the Hidden until field (you may have to select the Show advanced button if you don't see it), enter the date you want the item hidden until.
- Save your changes.
There is a difference between hiding and locking though. I recommend hiding because it is easy to set a date and then just let it handle the rest. If you lock the grade, the students will see the grade item in the gradebook but the grades will stay the same as when you locked the item. So if you lock the item before anyone takes it, then zeroes for each student will be locked in. When you want to show everyone their grades, then unlock the item and the grades will appear. The reason I don't recommend locking is I have had a couple faculty that lock a grade item and then forgot that they did so. Then I get to track down why the grades don't appear. Looking at the Categories and Items page, the "locked" lock icon isn't as obvious as a hidden grade item.
Happy
oodling!