I have a couple of comments in relation to your post. One is about what I do with the appeals. I only accept appeals from teams but, if granted, the appeal alters the score of:

1)    The team submitting the appeal (I don’t extend the appeal to other teams because I don’t want to teach that it’s OK to let other people do your work for you).  Further, with RARE exceptions, when I grant an appeal, the team gets full credit on the question.  Thus, because my questions generally count 3 points and they might have already received partial credit, the benefit typically ranges from 1-3 points.

2)    Any member of the team whose answer was consistent with the appeal.  For example, if the appeal was that alternative C was also correct, any member who had C on their individual test would receive from 1-3 additional points (depending on whether or not they had split their answers).  Also, because I want to encourage appeals, I do not take away the points from members who had correct answers in the first place. 

Note: I don’t accept individual appeals for two reasons.  The most important one is that I want to create an incentive system that encourages members to do their best to help their team get a good score.  (Allowing individual appeals would create the opportunity for members to decided to keep quiet during the team test and let the group make a mistake because they could do an individual appeal so that it wouldn’t hurt their individual score.) The second reason is that, because I’m often teaching large classes, I’m afraid that I’d be overwhelmed with individual appeals.

My other comment is that I would advise against ever calling the RATs quizzes for two reasons. One is that the word quiz implies that the activity isn't all that important (i.e., it is sort of a potential punishment for not doing some very basic preparation. The other is that "quiz" fails to teach WHY  is so important for students to read in advance. The key to being successful with TBL is following up the RATs with 4-S applications and the words you use helps get that message across. When you use TBL, you are making an implied contract with students.  You ask them to do the work to get the basics through their own study and PAY THEM OFF by giving them an opportunity to see WHY the material is significant in the larger scheme of things.  If all you are doing is covering more material there really isn't a payoff and they will NOT respond well to the approach. Eventually, they will rebel and the push back will be strong and determined. Using the term Readiness Assurance to is a zero cost opportunity remind students (and yourself) that their purpose is to assure that they are ready to move on to the important stuff—applications. 

Larry