Over lockdown, the increasing presence of a fun quiz was both a blessing and a curse. Each of us leant the joys that a good quiz can bring, particularly in a less than joyful time, and we learnt the agony of participating in a bad, boring quiz. Now, whilst some of these bad quizzes are caused by bad company, often the issue can lie at the door of the quizmaster, the format and the questions. Having spent far too long in the last two and a half years running quizzes with family and friends, I do feel I have some level of expertise in this area. So allow me to walk you through my guide to writing and running an interesting quiz. In this first part of the series, we will be discussing the questions.
The Questions
To understand how to write a good quiz, you must first understand the different type of questions that can be asked. The key point here is ensuring the most variety possible, which will help engage and entertain all the participants in your quiz. Below you will see described three types of questions, with subcategories within each.
Factual Questions
These are questions with a factual answer, which can be answered by participants based on the knowledge they have brought with them to a quiz. This is generally what people think of when they hear the word quiz. Within this category, you can find ways of providing some real variety to make the quiz more interesting.
1) Single Answer
E.g. What is the capital city of the United Kingdom? London
E.g. In which capital city is this famous monument located? (see the image of Big Ben)
E.g. Which band originally wrote and performed this famous song? (play “London Calling”)
These are questions with one single factual answer, and any other answer is incorrect. These questions are the standard in every pub quiz as the format removes most of the interaction between quizmaster and participants. They are a very useful subcategory of question as they offer no confusion for the participants. They also require much less effort for the quizmaster as they only need to have written down one factual answer.
To create variety with this subcategory of question you can consider doing music rounds and picture rounds. These give the impression of a more creative quiz, whilst allowing you to stay with a very simple question.
The limitations of this subcategory of questions should be apparent. With a single correct answer factual question, one of the main problems is you either know the answer or you are making a guess. This can often be alienating for participants, particularly within a team dynamic where one member of the team could end up feeling useless. This can be mitigated in two ways. Either make the question multiple-choice, which allows for more educated guesses, or just be incredibly careful with your subject area, making sure there is enough variety and that they are accessible.
2) Multiple Answers
E.g. Write down a capital city beginning with the letter L? Only unique answers will obtain points.
E.g. Write down as many capital cities beginning with the letter L as possible?
E.g. Name three capital cities beginning with the letter L, fastest wins.
This is a nice way to broaden the scope of the question. With multiple answered factual questions, the participants can give one of a number of answers to gain points. The first example above shows an interesting way to use this subcategory of question, which forces teams to think of obscure facts whilst still having the choice to opt for the obvious answer. This category can also include asking for as many answers as possible or can be combined with a speed element to be made more interesting.
These questions allow for less knowledgeable participants to have a greater shot at naming correct answers, whilst still allowing knowledgeable participants to show off. This gives the quiz more balance and makes everyone feel as if they are participating, whilst still keeping it fair.
Impossible Answers
E.g. How many ASDAs are there in the UK? Closest answer wins
E.g. In a YouGov poll regarding British food, which five British meals were voted most popular?
This subcategory of question has a factual answer but works on the basis that not a single participant definitively knows the answer.
The first example shows how this can be done easily with questions requiring numerical answers. These questions ask participants to essentially make their best guess at the answer and often throw up an interesting variety of responses. The closest answer wins format will struggle to work in with a quiz with a large number of participants, but with a smaller, more intimate group it will work incredibly well.
The second example shows a more interesting way to construct this subcategory of question. Research conducted asking the public for their opinions can be a great resource as the answers are intuitive, but there is no possibility that the participants will have seen the poll before.
This subcategory of question levels the playing field between more traditionally knowledgeable participants and everyone else, as anybody can attempt an informed and educated guess. The limitation with impossible answer factual questions is that if you use too many your participants can often feel like they’ve spent the whole quiz guessing. There is something incredibly satisfying about getting correct single answer factual questions discussed above, and they shouldn’t be overlooked entirely in favour of questions that require participants to guess.
Puzzle Questions
E.g. In a stable, there are men and horses. In all, there are 22 heads and 72 feet. How many men and how many horses are in the stable?
E.g. What has six faces, but does not wear makeup, has twenty-one eyes, but cannot see?
E.g. How many seconds are there in a week?
The second type of question I want to discuss is a puzzle question. This type of question gives you the answer within the question itself, rather than primarily focusing on the participants having factual knowledge. An excellent example of this type of question is a riddle. Riddles, whilst requiring some knowledge, require participants of the quiz to engage a different part of their brain rather than recall. Other neat examples of this type of question include giving the punchline to jokes, dingbats, anagrams or even mathematical questions.
This type of question can be incredibly fun but you have to be very careful not to make them too challenging for the participants otherwise they can give up with them and become disengaged. A common-sense tactic is to throw in some easy questions here and there, especially near the beginning of the round. However, using this type of question can be very accessible, particularly if your participants range in the level of knowledge and age.
These questions can also be combined with requiring more specific factual knowledge.
Conceptual Questions
The final type of question I will be discussing is a conceptual question. This is a question which the quizmaster does not hold the answer to. Essentially what you are doing as the quizmaster is offering a framework for the participants to interpret and participate in a very personalised and specific way. There are two subcategories of these.
1) Creative Answers
E.g. Pitch the most creative business idea, you have five minutes.
E.g. Take a picture of the best thing.
E.g. Write a poem starting with the line “there once was a lady called Sue.”
Conceptual creative questions with conceptual answers require the quizmaster to give participants a jumping-off point for a creative task. This could include a dragons den style pitch, taking the best photo, poetry writing, comedy questions, taskmaster. Popular games like Jackbox also provide a format for this kind of thing.
This subcategory of questions are incredibly fun, but traditional quiz goers can find them frustrating as the scoring is usually fairly arbitrary. These questions are usually only appropriate when you know all the participants but can make for a unique and interesting quiz.
2) Interactive Answers
The final subcategory we will look at is conceptual questions with interactive answers. These are more similar to traditional factual questions but the answers are created using the participants. A very common example of this type of question is the “Mr and Mrs” wedding game that requires partners to guess each other's answers to questions to see how well they know each other. Similar to creative answers, these questions create a unique quiz and can create a very fun and interactive atmosphere. However, these questions can’t be done in large groups or with people you don’t know.
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