A quiz can be the perfect way to test, engage and entertain your audience full of friends, colleagues, or family members! While coming up with some quiz questions might be easy, making sure that the execution is perfect can take a little practice. So we have decided to make it a bit easier for everyone by putting together some top tips on how to host a great quiz!
No matter if we are engrossed in a tv game show, impressing one another with our trivia knowledge, or racking our brains at a family gathering, we all love a good quiz. Entertaining quizzes need not have the same format or similar questions. They should be all about having fun and thinking creatively while enjoying a fun and friendly bit of competition.
How do you host a fun quiz?
- Decide on a format
- Choose several rounds and questions
- Teams or individuals?
- Pick a scoring system
- Make it as fair as possible
- Arrange some prizes
- Have a fun way to break a tie
- Make it enjoyable
Decide on a format
Decide on a quiz format early, considering multiple-choice questions, player-selected categories, and time limits. Keep it simple to lessen admin burden and ensure enjoyment. Avoid complex rounds and rule-laden categories that confuse the audience and cause headaches.
Choose a number of rounds, questions, and time limit
How long should the quiz be? Too few questions and it ends quickly, while too many categories exhaust participants. Breaks and pauses can extend the quiz, allowing a breather and scorekeeping. They also build tension. Test the questions to estimate answering time. Make adjustments based on the dry run. Set a time limit for rounds to prevent excessive thinking. The game is about knowing the answer in time, not just being correct.
Teams or individuals?
Will teams or individuals compete? The total number of players will, of course count, determine the choice. Individual quizzes add chaos and suit smaller groups. For teams, consider the number of participants. Teams of 2, 3, or 4 are common but can go up to 6. Opt for around 4 for better contribution and less conflict. A harmonious experience ensures more fun for everyone.
Pick a scoring system
One point for a correct answer is standard but lacks excitement. Spice up your quiz with double points, extra points for complex answers, or negative scoring. Choose a system and record it to avoid score calculation errors and potential disputes. Understand the chosen system and avoid accounting mistakes.
Make it fair
Now we are not insinuating that you would make an unfair or corrupt quiz! What we want you to bear in mind is that the quiz should give everyone a fair chance of winning (or at least doing well). Certain categories will naturally contain more niche questions that few will understand; loading your quiz with questions on science and mathematics may alienate many.
Sticking to topics most people know something about (pop culture) will let everyone feel they can contribute and show off their trivia skills.
Arrange some prizes
If you want to create real competition during the quiz, consider awarding the winner (and perhaps the runners-up) a small prize to recognize their achievement. The prospect of winning something can help your audience become even more engaged while creating a more competitive and energetic atmosphere!
If you’re running a large-scale quiz a great way to gather together some prizes is to ask people if they have anything they would be willing to donate. This way you will be able to hand out a number of prizes and let the winners have their pick of the bunch.
Have a fun way to break a tie
Draws happen. Tennis has tiebreakers; an exciting way to break this deadlock and crown a champion. Why not take some inspiration from tennis and create your very own exhilarating tiebreaker? Feel free to get creative with this part of your quiz and break from the norms. Remember that you want to build the suspense and end with a bang!
Make it enjoyable
Quizzes should be fun! Consider your audience for an enjoyable experience. Serious quizzers will appreciate challenging trivia, while friends prefer questions on their interests. A charismatic and humorous host enhances the experience. Entertain with jokes and a smile. Add anecdotes after each question for context and knowledge sharing. Enrich your quiz!
What are good quiz categories?
So what are some of the best categories you can compile to make the ultimate quiz? Well, there are of course plenty and what’s wonderful about quizzes is that you can be as weird and wonderful as you want. But we will stick to some of our favorite examples here - some a bit more creative than the standard, history, geography, food & drink that we all enjoy.
- Guess the song - Play the intro of a song and wait for answers to pour in.
- World flags - A personal favorite and one that really tests political and geographical knowledge.
- Where are we traveling to? - Give hints about a city and see who can answer the quickest.
- National dish - A little bit more complex than your normal food and drink quiz. Spice things up with trivia on national dishes.
- Alter egos - List some famous peoples’ birth names and see if anyone knows what they are more commonly known as.
- Unique answers only - Ask a series of questions with multiple answers and award additional points for unique correct answers.
- Movie plots - Give a basic and humorous summary of a movie plot and let everyone guess the title.
- Whose the oldest - Name two celebrities and let your audience guess who is older.
- What’s the punchline - Start a joke and see if anyone knows the punchline.
- Alphabetical order - Come up with a series of questions but all the answers must be given in alphabetical order!
What are some good quiz questions?
Now that we have given you some tips on how to host a fun quiz and some interesting categories you can include, we better offer some extra advice on what questions you can include. Well, you’re in luck as we happen to have a blog post dedicated to this exact topic. So for over 100 different quiz questions - broken down by category - just follow this link.
Best online quiz tool & free quiz templates
Now there are a lot of online quiz tools and quiz software that you can use to create something really fun and impressive. Also, you may want something that offers some inspiration or even guidance when it comes to creating a quiz. Well, you are in luck because the team here at Mentimeter has the solution for you.
