Preparation:

Preparation is the most important ingredient – the subject matter should be popular and quiz questions need to be interesting. There is a load of free resource online enabling anyone to write their own quiz, but this can take a very long time and often it’s more worthwhile buying a ready-made quiz pack.

Rounds:

I find the best round to start a quiz with is a picture round. The reason for this is because it doesn’t need the quiz master to be reading out questions. They can be given out before hand to let people know the quiz has started and give the quiz master a chance check they are prepared.

In a bar / pub walk to each table asking if they will be joining in. If they are, hand the sheets to them (usually the picture round and an answer sheet) and collect their money.

Questions: The questions in a quiz need to be challenging, accurate, guessable and interesting. There is no point in setting a question that everyone will know the answer to. When I write a quiz I try to make sure that most people / teams will get at least 50% correct, but I never want anyone to get 100%.

Make sure the questions in the quiz are interesting and guessable. If someone cannot answer the question they should be able to have a go, and if they don’t know the answer the question should be interesting enough that they want to know.

Crucially, quiz questions must be accurate! I once went to a pub quiz and there was a question along these lines: What is the name of the barrister living at No. 10 Downing Street (at the time Tony Blair was PM)? The answer given was Cherie Blair, but there was a small uproar as some teams had answered Cherie Booth – the name she used professionally. This illustrates how badly thought out questions can cause problems. If a team lost by one point because of this they would have been quite upset (after all, a pub quiz is a serious battle!)

Quiz Master Attributes:

Being able to speak to an audience can help when there are a lot of people taking part in the quiz. Try to read the rules and questions as clearly as possible, and it doesn’t hurt to add some banter with the participants. Be fair at all times, but try to be assertive too. The quiz master should always have the final say.

Format:

The layout of the quiz depends on the situation – obviously a quiz for a social event will be formatted differently to an evening in with friends at your house!

A picture round is usually a good start for a quiz with a large number of teams. It allows you time to greet everyone taking part and collect entry money.

The Tiebreaker Questions:

If teams are deadlocked at the end of the quiz the best way to decide the outcome is with a tiebreaker question. Make things more interesting by asking each team to select someone to answer it.

Get the person nominated to the front, and ask each team member the question for them to answer. Most of the time this will result in the rest of their team yelling what they should answer and creates a fun way to decide the outcome.

Prize giving:

Once the outcome of the quiz is decided, giving the winning team their prize can also be made slightly more interesting. Instead of simply giving them 10 or a free beverage, tempt them to double up their winnings with a wager.

The task they must complete can be anything, from answering further questions, spinning a wheel, flipping a coin, anything you can think of!