10 Tips for Hosting a Successful Quiz Night

10 tips for running a successful trivia night:

10. Have questions of varying difficulty. The best rule of thumb is for every 10 questions, have 3 easy, 3 difficult and 4 somewhere in between. Too many difficult or too many easy questions will result in the players getting bored, or discouraged. Check out this blog post for more details on creating great questions

9. Have clear and concise rules! Make sure all players know all the rules before the quiz starts. Clear rules will lead to a smooth quiz.

8. Take a short break halfway through the event. Your players will thank you for it.

7. Be entertaining! Try to throw in a joke or 2 throughout the event, or have fun with some of the questions.

6. Instead of marking the scores each round (This takes time!) have the teams do their own marking by passing the answer sheets around each round. It will save a LOT of time and it’s much less frustrating for the players.

5. Update the scoring each round. Use either a paper score sheet, or even better, something that can go up on the big screen (included in our packages). Learn about more great tips for scoring in this blog post

4. We all make mistakes. If you realize one of your answers is incorrect, admit to it and give all teams full points for that answer. Have google on standby to check while you are between questions if you have any doubt…

3. Prepare, prepare, prepare! It takes practice to make things run perfectly, but the more you are prepared, the better the experience will be for everyone.

2. When handing out answer sheets at the beginning of the quiz, be sure to provide extra scrap paper for the teams, along with a pen or pencil.

1. HAVE FUN! If you have fun, the players will have fun too and they will be more likely to come back for more!

3 Responses

Asia

February 28, 2020

Hi I work for Radwell International and we are planning a trivia night. Could you assist me with some great questions? How many should we create? And how should we collect points? There could be more than 100 people attending! Also any other beneficial tips that helped you create a successful event! THANK YOU

Sunita

March 21, 2020

Hi Roy and Kevin,
I have been an avid quizzer for past 22 years. Now working at a school, i have been called upon to mentor and design a whole quiz for 16 students (4 teams of 4 each)
I have come up with my own some usual rounds and some different.
Am looking for suggestions on how to mentor the students most of whom have never done a quiz before. Request for some helpful practical tips to arrange, design one. Thanks looking for an early response as hace this coming up in 2 weeks.

Roy Stead

March 14, 2019

Hey Kevin,

I´ve been doing quizmastering for nigh on 20 years now and your pointers all hit the nail, mate (though point nr 6 I dare not utilize as it takes more time with the disputing that takes place when teams are being intentionally hard with their marking on each other ;-)).

I would like to contribute with a couple of things i´ve learnt through the years.

Mobile phones: I am very strict about their non-usage! I have experienced their advent and increasing exploitation. I tell the quizzers in no uncertain terms, that unless they are Police, Doctors, 9 months pregnant (or both), I will not see them until the prizes are dished out. Promoting the idea that it´s fun being “retro” for a night seems to work (while asking bar staff to keep an eye open for rogues!).

You are right in that there should be a sliding scale of difficulty. I personally like to ask “open” questions. If you ask too many “closed” questions i.e. “Who wrote that?”, “Who sang that?” or “What is the capital of……..?” then there´s always the “clever b.gg.r” who dominates the team. Asking stuff like “Which continent has the highest representation of countries in the UN?” (Africa), or “Which country has the highest number of wild bears?” (Russia – one could give 2 points for country and 1 point for continent), These get people talking and working together. Other good questions are those that make them think: “Oh, l never thought of that”. These can be as corny as “Do windmills turn clockwise or anticlockwise?” (clockwise), or, in “The Addams Family” films, “Is Thing right or left handed?” (righthanded). It makes for a lot of fun and equalizes if there is a difference in knowledge levels between the teams.

Other than that, thanks a lot, and if you want to swap questions just send me a mail.

Cheers,