The most difficult thing, is the difficulty.
For me, the most difficult part of writing a quiz is making sure that the questions are accessible to your audience. If you are the quiz master, this is something you’ll get a feel for if it’s a recurring quiz. Otherwise you’re mostly going in blind, so here are a couple of things to consider.
- Age range – If you’re talking about a pub then the age will be probably between 18 and 80. So if you do a music round for example, don’t just include songs from the last 10 years, or those who are in their 80’s will probably find it too difficult. If you know the rough age range then you’re off to a good start.
- Serious or fun? – If it’s a pub quiz, it’s likely the majority of people there are wanting a fun quiz, one that isn’t too difficult and they have a chance of getting at least 4/10 answers on a round. If it’s a quiz league, then they’re probably after a much higher difficulty level. If you’re aiming for a fun quiz I would suggest that you know at least 7/10 answers on each round you write.
- Do a picture round – You should probably be including a break in your quiz around the middle. So a picture round is perfect to hand out during that time. Some of the things people like are celebs, dingbats etc. However I’ve done things like Where’s Wally, Matchstick puzzles, and stills from films.
- Types of question – Make use of multiple choice and true or false questions. These can generate discussion and fun disputes between the players. For example, a question to name a year, then giving three options.
- Check your answers – Don’t rely on anecdotal evidence, or just one source for your answer. It’s possible someone might have a different answer which is also correct. Or you might have the wrong one. It’s rather embarrassing for the quiz master when that happens.