QuizList

‘Bible’ John is an Anglo-Irish occasional quiz player.  Thanks to him for this article.

What Makes A Good Quiz?

Some time ago, QL asked for thoughts on ‘worst quizzes ever’. I’ve been to so many that they tend to merge into something of a blur. Having said that, I do refer elsewhere on this site to one that sticks in the memory, in a London pub that I’ve called (to avoid legal proceedings) The Bag O’ Shite. Even then, that quiz was at least memorable (sticky carpets, people asking other people whether they’d spilled their pint, fights, etc.)

However, the question got me thinking about what makes a good quiz, or indeed a bad one.

A problem here is that the late and esteemed Professor Propellorhead has already provided the Thoughts Of A Quizmaster on this site, with great insight, based on his considerable experience as a quizmaster and a quiz attender, which would be much greater than mine. However, at the risk of repetition, here are a few fairly random thoughts.

I’ve broken down the essentials of a quiz into ‘Logistics’ – ie the arrangements for the quiz – and ‘The Quiz Proper’. Some of the things I say might seem too obvious to mention. Unfortunately, in my experience, they’re not always obvious to people running quizzes.

Logistics

The first thing to do is to let people know the quiz is on. If you happen to have a website, that helps. Another option is notices in the pub. It’s also good to let the bar staff know the situation, so they can tell people who want to check in advance – especially if the quiz is sometimes cancelled due to public holidays, big sporting events etc. It helps if the quiz is always at the same time and in the same format.

Once the quiz is actually happening, important issues include

• That the questions (and answers) are audible – ideally with a PA system, if the size of the pub requires it. (I’ve been at a quiz where the quizmaster had no microphone, so shouted the questions – which wasn’t fun if you happened to be sitting next to him, as I was.)
• The rules, format and marking are clear and transparent
• Cheating is prevented as much as possible – whether it’s competitors ringing or texting their friends, or accessing the Web on their mobiles, or friends of the landlord or quizmaster mysteriously winning.

It also helps if the quizmaster knows what they’re talking about. Ideally the quizmaster will have compiled the quiz, and checked the answers – as opposed to the situation where someone just reads out questions they’ve been given, often can’t even pronounce some words correctly, and if challenged can only say ‘well, that’s what it says here….’. Also if the questions are just taken off the web or from a quiz book, there’s a greater chance that more regular quizzers will have already heard them in other quizzes.

Another ‘logistical’ factor is ‘joker’ rounds, where teams choose a particular round to play their ‘joker’, and get double points for that round, although sometimes there’s a catch, eg they may have to guess exactly how many they’ll get right or get no points at all. This does add an extra element of gambling to the quiz, and perhaps opens it up a bit, so that the same people don’t always win.

Another ‘trick’, which can be enjoyable if done well, is to have a link between all the answers in a round, and give a bonus if teams guess the link. These links can be ingenious, and very helpful if you guess them, in that they can help you guess some of the answers you’re not sure of. The downside is that it’s a further chore for the poor old quizmaster, and limits the questions he can choose.

A variation of the ‘theme’ idea is to give a clue to a question after each round, with the number of marks for the correct answer declining each time. One I remember had songs such as Get Back, Sweet Home Alabama, Get Down etc. We were agonising about things like whether the songwriters had something in common. Finally the quizmaster hinted it was words in their titles that linked them, and we guessed that it was ‘words that appear on a keyboard’, eg Back, Home, Down etc. Another one I liked was the link between various films and TV programmes, eg Carry On Sergeant, The Omen, The Brothers, All Creatures Great And Small and Cracker. (Answer – they all featured actors who played the Doctor in Doctor Who.)

The Quiz Proper

However, I think what really decides whether a quiz is enjoyable and worthwhile is the questions – the quiz proper.

I read an article recently about a space probe to the planet Venus, which said that both Venus and Earth are in what astronomers refer to as ‘The Goldilocks Zone’ – ie it’s not too hot, and it’s not too cold – in fact, it’s just right. (Just right for life to develop – the astronomers’ special interest was why the Earth is ‘green and pleasant’, while Venus is a close approximation to hell.)

I think quiz questions should also be in ‘The Goldilocks Zone’. They shouldn’t be too easy – taking away the challenge, or meaning a team can win on the turn of one lucky question. But they shouldn’t be too hard either, demoralising the quizzers and removing the fun. They should be ‘just right’. (Obviously, you may need to take into account your ‘audience’ – eg whether they’re mostly hardened quizzers or just regular drinkers.)

Questions should also be interesting. I think a good one should make you think ‘Fancy that!’, or ‘That’s interesting, I must remember that’, or ‘I should have known that’ or even ‘I should have guessed that – or worked it out.’ (Or indeed, if you’re someone who sets quizzes, ‘I’ll use that’!) A bad one makes you think ‘So what?’ or ‘Who gives a monkey’s?’. (And that’s the polite version.) However, setting questions at the right level of difficulty and making them ‘interesting’ is subjective – if you’re a train spotter, you’ll probably find train-related questions deeply fascinating – and much easier said than done. There’s always the trap for the quizmaster of mistakenly thinking that what interests him (eg, in my case, US politics) interests everyone else – or indeed anyone else.

Because of this subjectivity, it’s not easy to give a good example of an interesting question. However, here’s one I heard that I thought was quite good. – ‘Who invented the aqualung?’ If the answer had been Jacques Le Brun (or even Jack Brown), I’d be inclined to ask ‘so what?’ In fact, the answer is apparently Jacques Cousteau – which is, I think (to quote Stephen Fry) Quite Interesting. (And also reasonably guessable.)

There are 2 other main types of question, beside the standard type that you read aloud – the music or audio question and the picture question. They’re more bother to prepare, but I like them – maybe because I like music and read a lot of newspapers. They also make it harder to cheat, and less likely that people have got the question before. With the audio questions, as well as the obvious – name the song/singer/band – you can also be a bit more adventurous, such as playing an extract from a film or TV show, or even of a famous person talking.

So, in conclusion, all you need for a good quiz is interesting questions on a variety of topics, personally researched by the quizmaster, clarity, scrupulous fairness, great prizes, and cheap drink. Easy really.

Or looking at it another way – my attitude to quizzes is almost the reverse of the famous definition of golf – ‘a good walk spoiled’. Ideally a good quiz is a pleasant evening with a few ‘bevvies’ in a pleasant pub in pleasant company. With the bonus that you get to wrack your brains, hopefully learn a bit, perhaps show off a bit, and if you’re really lucky (or good), win back some of the cost of the booze…

‘Bible’ John