I’ve compiled a quiz for the rugby club which we’ll use this Thursday evening. I made my first for the club in July 1995 so this is the first one I’ve made since I reached my 30th Anniversary mark. I’ll be honest, 30 years ago a) it was a whole lot more work to make a quiz for the club – and – b) somehow it was more fun.
It was more work because this was five years before I had
the internet. I had amassed a small but very comprehensive quiz reference
library, but checking your answers could still be quite a labour-intensive
process. . Even writing out the questions was a bit of a drawn out affair.
First you’d gather the different categories of questions and write them by hand
( 8 sport, 8 history/current affairs, 8 Geography etc. etc.) Then you’d write
them in rounds by hand. Then, after roadtesting them in school and making final
changes and corrections, you’d type out the rounds (on my Sharp electric
typewriter). And one thing you did achieve through this process was by the time
you made the final quiz, the questions were as clearly written as you could
write them.
The picture quizzes were a whole different level of work.
You’d collect newspapers, colour supplements etc. in the weeks between quizzes,
and be continually selecting pictures for the next quiz. Then it was a matter
of literally cutting and pasting, with real scissors and real paste. Then there
was the photocopying in the local library.
It all certainly built your anticipation, I can tell you
that. And sometimes it didn’t go down well which was very disappointing, but sometimes
it went well, and that was just the best feeling you could have. I do think
that it was all of the time and effort that I put into compiling quizzes for
the club in the first ten years that made me a good enough quizzer to at least have
a chance of winning Mastermind. You couldn’t help learning more about your weakest
subjects if you were doing it properly.
I’ve looked back to a post I wrote in the first couple of
years of this blog, in about 2009, where I pontificated on my advice on setting
a quiz. This is quoted directly from it :-
“* As a rule of thumb, people never complain that the quiz
is too easy. If you're in any doubt about whether a question is too hard, then
simplify it, or ditch it.
* Don't go making a quiz to appeal to your own interests. Your quiz will go
best when there's something for everyone in it.
* I don't think that everyone realises just how important it is to phrase a
question clearly, so that it is absolutely clear what you are actually asking.
Even if you do take care, you'll still get asked for clarification sometimes.
But if you don't take care it can be a very frustrating experience all round.
* You will make mistakes anyway. Some questions you've included in good faith
from quiz books, for example, will be wrong. That can't be helped. Making up
your own questions and not checking that your answer is correct CAN be helped,
and its something you really should avoid.
* Aim to write a quiz for the middle ability teams rather than the most or
least knowledgable. I know that if the majority of teams are scoring about 60
out of 80, then I've pitched it just about right.
* Listen to constructive criticism. Unadulterated praise is nice, but not
exactly helpful. Neither are comments along the lines of "Your quiz was
crap ". If people tell you that they liked something or disliked
something, then think about it. if it’s not fair comment - OK, but if it is
fair, then use this to help you make your next quiz.”-
Well, to be fair to myself I was a lot more serious about quizzing
in those days. Having said that, I still don’t think it’s bad advice, and if I
was being particularly bitchy I’d say it was advice that would make quite a few
of the quizzes in the club a lot better if some of our semi regulars followed
it. Not referring to my own team here, I hasten to add. I do try to be patient.
Now. Time was when a qm would ask “What is the fastest bird?” and leave it at
that. Chances are, you’re sitting there thinking – fastest where? Underwater?
On land? In flight? (straight line or diving?) Well, time was I would have
expected a question master to have considered this when they wrote the
question. So when I asked “Do you mean etc. etc.?” it used to really pee me off
when the qm would say ‘I don’t know. It’s the one I have here.” Because the QM
really ought to know what they’re asking. But as I said, you mellow as you get older,
so when this happened a few weeks ago I just said ‘Fair enough’ and wrote down
peregrine falcon. It’s usually the answer.
For over 10 years I was as keen as mustard to compile the
quiz and would have done it every week if I had been allowed. Now though. . .
well, by Covid it had become a chore, and even since I won’t volunteer but will
aways try to do it when asked. But I’ll be honest, I only really enjoy making
sets of connections questions. I was the first to introduce connections to the
rugby club quiz, and many have adopted the gimmick since. Why not? I stole it
myself from Geoff Evans of the Neath quiz league.
Well, considering my ‘butterfly mind’, the fact that I’m
still interested enough to be doing it after 30 years is something of an
achievement in itself. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment