The Ultimate Guide To QUIZZING

Following on from lockdown, now more and more players are getting involved with quizzing and going to their locals quizzes. Also, with the likes of game shows as popular as ever, more people are wondering, how do they get better at quizzing like the pros do? Well here are some handy hints take straight from the pros.

• Keep QUIZZING: It sounds so obvious but as with anything, you will only ever get better with practice. The more you do, the more you get used to those typical pub quiz questions and the more you get used to the styles and types of rounds out there. Whilst you may not get exactly the same question twice, you are likely to hear very similarly worded questions. There are some questions that do the circuits of quizzing on a regular basis and getting used to these will always help. You obviously can't revise EVERYTHING there is to know if the world ever, but doing quizzes, getting things wrong but retaining the knowledge for next time is a sure fire way of getting yourself better.

• No TV: Now this one by comparison might be absurd but as told to me by one of the best quizzers in the world Kevin Ashman (Eggheads) he doesn't actually own a TV. Now you may think that this might hinder his chances of getting questions about TV related subjects but he will still revise things from reading up about certain shows (in the time he isn't watching TV) meaning that he still has quite a good substantial knowledge. I am not suggesting for one minute that you give up TV but maybe replacing some of that junk TV time with other activities might improve your knowledge base.

• Try different styles and levels of QUIZZES: Not all quizzes are the same, there is a MASSIVE variety of different styles out there. Its best really to familiarise yourself with as many as possible. Some hosts like to make it more fun, some like to make it more serious and you need really to be playing both to get a feel for where your strengths and weaknesses lie. Try going to different quizzes every week of the month and rotating. There are a few teams that come to my quizzes who do this and they always do well when they return.

• Brush up on your weak subjects: Now there might be certain subjects that don't interest you at all and these will be the questions where you find yourself losing points. It might be a tough thing to do but if (for example) you aren't so good at history and kings and queens like myself, take some time to have a quick scout through some sites that might give you a bit more info on the subject, the more you look at them, the more likely they are to stick in your mind, or at the very least give you a better chance of making an educated guess.

• Learn how to make better educated guesses: Now this is quite a difficult skill to teach but there are certain things that you can do that could well help you with tough questions. For example, things like phobias and study fields usually come with some form of Latin or language connection. Again, I am not suggesting you take up Latin but noticing those connections might just help you with questions about things that might look like an completely unrecognisable word.

• Test yourself: There are plenty of quizzing apps you can play at home now on your own phones. Download some of these and maybe dedicate 30 minutes a day to playing this. Trivial Pursuit is also another great way to improve your skills, so get some friends together and play along.

• Watch gameshows: Now, there are plenty of different quiz shows out there and they ALL have varying difficulties. Don't limit yourself to just one show, try them all out and see if you can answer the questions. Maybe even take notes on things that you find interesting or a subject that you find you don't get well so often. The easier quizzes tend to be something like The Chase and Tipping Point, whereas your harder ones are University Challenge and Only Connect. Don't feel defeated if you don't know anything, I promise you, the more you watch them, the more you get better. This again is another sure fire way to get used to different quizzing styles.

I hope those tips are useful to you, and they didn't feel like they were too obvious. Quizzing is a vast world and even the pro quizzers will struggle against members of the public at certain events, don't go thinking that they know absolutely everything, they are just able to get to the answer logically better than others. If they were that good, it would be impossible to win on Eggheads or The Chase.

Let me know how you get on with the above and if you can think of anything else that should go in there, let me know and I will add it in.