Quiz Format Advice

The weekly quizzes on our site follow a format that changes slightly from week to week. Our research and feedback shows that most people like a format that is similar enough from week to week to stay familiar, but that they also like a bit of variety to keep them on their toes and to keep things fresh.

This is the standard format for our weekly quiz...

Handout Round

Distributed to each team at the start of the quiz along with blank answer sheets on which they can they write their answers to all subsequent rounds

Round 2 - General Subject

Ten questions on a subject such as Geography, TV and Films, Food and Drink, etc.

Round 3 - Connections

Either nine questions on General Knowledge, plus a final question asking for a connection between the first nine answers, or two sets of four questions on General Knowledge, with questions asking for connections between the answers in each set

Round 4

This changes from week to week. Often it will be an "In The News" round with questions on Current Affairs. Other weeks it will be a "Specialist Subject" round, often on an event or subject that is topical at the time, such as the Oscars, or Wimbledon. Occasionally, we might have a "High Fives" or "Points Builder" round, with questions asking for multiple answers - again often on a subject that is topical at the time.

Round 5

This round is made up of General Knoweldge questions, but with an added rule to the round. Often we will have an "Initial Letter Link" round featuring ten questions on General Knowledge where the answer to the final question can be spelt out by rearranging the first letters of the first 9 answers. Other examples include a "Chain Letters" rounds, where the last one, two or three letters of each answer are also the first one, two or three letters of the next answer, and a "Rhyming Pairs" round, where each correct answer rhymes with one other answer in the round.

Round 6 - General Subject

Ten questions on another general subject.

Round 7

This is another round that can vary from week to week. Often it is a "Quickfire" round, featuring ten quick questions on a particular theme (e.g. Name the TV sitcoms from the titles of their final episodes). Other weeks we might have a "High Fives" or "Points Builder" round.

Round 8 - Themed Round

The final round in the quiz features ten questions on General Knowledge that follow a given theme. As this is the final round in the quiz, we recommend adding a gambling element, such as two points for each correct answer, but where teams can leave answers blank as they get two points deducted for each incorrect answer, or even two points for a correct answer, but where teams can leave answers blank as they score zero for the round if they get any answers wrong.

Time

Including time for one or two short breaks, and allowing time for marking at the end, we'd expect a quiz of this format to take around two hours. We have spent a lot of time researching good quiz formats, and believe a format like this one will make for a challenging and entertaining quiz.

If, you have another format you'd prefer, we've got plenty of handout rounds and question and answer packs on our site to help you compile this. For example, you might like to keep things simple and just have a series of General Knowledge questions, maybe with a handout round before these, and splitting them into two rounds of 20 questions each with a break in between. You might even want a longer quiz, with an extra handout round and one or two extra question and answer rounds.