On Impending Quiz Redundancy

Have you been waiting for me to update you one the quiz last Thursday? No, didn’t think so. Well, let’s begin with other matters. I mentioned last week that I had produced 11 hand drawn Christmas cards to give out this year. I’m up to 25 now. I’d like to think that the people I give them to appreciate the effort and the thought, but even without that just making them is something that brings me a lot of pleasure. Still, let’s get onto the quiz shall we?

How do you know when a quiz that you’ve compiled is going down well? No, seriously, how do YOU know? I ask because I think it’s probably easier to be able to tell when a quiz isn’t going well. All or any of the following are tell tale signs.

- People ask for a lot of repeats. That is, they ask you to say the question again. This might be because you haven’t written it very well, and so it’s not clear what the question is actually asking. Or maybe you just haven’t engaged their interest enough to get them listening to it in the first place. Which brings me to:-

- People ignore you when you’re asking the questions. Yes, I know it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to listen in perfect silence when you’re asking the questions (although, in my teacher’s heart, I can’t help thinking that it would be nice.) I’ve been to quizzes where the conversation on the table is a hell of a lot more interesting than the stuff being asked. Hell, I’ve probably written quizzes like that.

The scores are low. The only quiz I ever set questions for now is the social quiz in the rugby club now and again. While it would be perfectly possible to set a quiz where the scores were really low, it would be pointless, and no, that’s not meant to be a pun. Ideally you want to ask people a set of questions where they are surprised by how much they know, not how little.

So yes, there’s usually pretty good indicators which show you when a quiz isn’t going down too well. So is it fair to say that your quiz has gone down well if you haven’t seen any of these indicators? Maybe, but then again, maybe it doesn’t necessarily go to show that you’ve produced a good quiz, merely that you haven’t produced a bad one. Well, there we are – good and bad are subjective concepts anyway. What I like in a quiz you might not and vice versa.

For all of that though I did feel that Thursday’s quiz seemed to go quite well, and I enjoyed being question master more than I think I’ve enjoyed it since the 2022 New Year’s quiz. This was probably because it was more exciting than most. Okay, this next bit is going to sound smug, arrogant and boastful, but it is true. Since September 2021 when I started going back to the quiz every quiz I’ve played in has seen us win, and only a very small number have been at all close. By close, I mean that the winning margin has been less than five points between first and second. On Thursday evening we had four teams playing, and all of them scored well. So well in fact that only 3 points separated all four teams by the end of the quiz.

On a personal note, I was also delighted for my team. No, they didn’t win, but were so close that I’m convinced that they are going to win one of my quizzes soon. Or should I say, another of my quizzes soon, since they are the reigning quiz of the year winners. Considering that the heart of the team – Dan, Jess and Adam are all decades younger than the average of other players in other teams and that nothing is tailored specifically for them – well, the opposite, if I’m honest – well, they’ll be winning the weekly quiz without me very soon.

Hang about.

That will make me redundant!