Quizzes
from Trivia to Mental Health Improvement to Life Saving
A psychiatrist friend once told me that retirees who play social golf have it cracked. They are out in the fresh air, undertaking gentle exercise and possibly most important maintaining social contact and interaction. Added to this, a small friendly side bet provides that added element of competition that most people enjoy as motivation.
For non golfers and those seeking mental stimulation, Quizzes provide the same benefits. Teams of 6 or 8 are common providing social interaction, the questions provide the mental exercise and the competition against other teams motivates and satisfies the human need for competition.
These qualities have been harnessed as charity fund raising activities, with a small fee for quiz entry going to the charity being supported. This could be for cancer research, a local hospice or have more global reach supporting something like polio eradication.
But what makes for a good quiz?
Staying with the golf analogy it has to be fun and challenging, but not humiliating. The social golfer will not enjoy the game so much trying to play a course set up for a professional as they will a local course that while challenging for their ability gives them a chance to shoot a good score if they play well. If the course wins the golfer loses. The same is true for quizzes; you don’t want the quiz master winning because the questions are too difficult.
This places a great responsibility on the question setter who has to meet the requirements of a variety of participants with different needs within the fun to serious spectrum. Questions usually come in batches of 10 on a given subject. A good balance would be 7 which most people can answer or will in exasperation say ‘Oh yeah!’ to when the correct answers are given, a further 2 that require a bit more knowledge and usually solicit a long putt sinking ‘Yeeess’ response and 1 difficult question that will sort out the difference between teams and obtain hoots of delight from a correct answering team akin to sinking a chip from off the green.
The question setter also has to make sure that there is no possible ambiguity in the answer and avoid questions requiring multiple word responses that will lead to a request of ‘Can we have a half for …’ a part correct reply. Challenges from the floor are inevitable as there is bound to be a subject expert present, therefore it is essential that both the question setter and quiz master research the subject fully to be able to provide an informed response and make decisions on the spot. Even though it is for fun, quizzers unlike golfers can and will question the course that has been set.
Local charities that have harnessed the potential of quizzes include the bereavement support group BESS and St. Luke’s Hospice who run joint quizzes at Billericay Cricket Club on a regular basis and the Rotary club of Billericay Mayflower who run an annual quiz at Stock Village Hall, the next one being on January 31st 2009.
If you would like to participate in any of these quizzes you can contact David Randall on djr66@aol.com or 01277 654540.