How to run a pub quiz.

A good quiz night is mostly decisions made before anyone sits down. Here are the ones that matter, from people who have stood at the microphone.

The format

The shape most pubs settle on, because it works:

• Six rounds of ten questions. About two hours with a break. Fewer rounds for a work social, never more than eight.
• A picture round at the break. Hand it out (or open it on the phones) before the break and collect it after. Tables keep talking, the bar stays busy.
• One round with a twist. A music intro round, a numbers round where closest wins, or a lightning round where the first answer is final.
• Teams of up to six. Big enough to argue, small enough that everyone gets a say. If a table of nine turns up, either split it or take a point off per extra player. Say which before the first question.
• A joker. Each table picks one round to score double, before it starts. It costs you nothing and it gives every table a decision to make.

Writing questions

The most common mistake is a question with two right answers. The second is a question nobody in the room can get.

1. One answer, and you know it. “What is the tallest mountain in Australia?” has an argument in it (mainland or not). “What is the tallest mountain on the Australian mainland?” does not.
2. Check every answer against a source, and keep the source with the question. A wrong answer in front of forty people is the one thing the room will not forgive.
3. Mix the difficulty inside each round. Three most tables get, five that split the room, two that only one table will. Everyone scores, and the scores still spread out.
4. Mix the subjects for the room you have. A regular crowd tells you within a month what they like. A work crowd needs questions that do not all belong to one department.
5. Give a fact with the answer. “Canberra. It was chosen in 1908 as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne.” The fact is what people repeat on the way home.
6. Make it hard to google. “Which planet...” is googled in four seconds. A question that needs two facts joined together, or one that is asked about a picture, is not.

Marking rules, decided before you start

Most arguments on a quiz night are about marking, and every one of them is easier if the rule was said out loud before round one.

• Spelling. The usual pub rule: if it is clearly the right answer, it counts. “Tchaikovsky” spelt five ways is still Tchaikovsky. Decide whether you are strict, normal or generous, and apply it the same way to every table.
• Surnames. For a person, the surname alone usually counts. “Lennon” for John Lennon. Say if a round is the exception.
• Two answers. “Jupiter or Saturn” is never right, even if one of them is.
• Numbers. Either exact, or closest wins. Never “near enough” decided on the night.
• Disputes. One per table per round, raised before the next round starts. You hear it, you decide, and the decision is final.

Thinking Cap applies the spelling rule to every table the same way, groups identical answers so you mark “Canberra” once rather than twelve times, and sends only the real near misses to you.

Timing

• Read each question twice. The room is noisy and someone is always at the bar.
• Give about thirty seconds a question for a typed answer, twenty for multiple choice. Run the clock from when you finish reading, not from when you start.
• Collect or mark at the end of each round, not after every question; it keeps the pace up. Then the answers, then the standings.
• The quiet minute while you mark is fine. Twenty minutes is not. If marking takes longer than a drink, the format is too heavy.

Ties

Have a tie-break question ready before the night starts, with a number for an answer: “In what year did the Sydney Opera House open?” Closest wins. If two tables are equally close, ask another, or give it to the table with more right in the last round, which is what Thinking Cap does. Never break a tie by table number or by who handed in first.

The room

• A microphone, even in a small pub. Nobody hears the question from the back.
• The TV, if there is one, for the question, the clock and the scores. If there is no TV, the question on every phone does the same job.
• Phones. Most quizzes now accept that phones are on the table. A paste-free answer sheet, a clock, and seeing which phones left the app keep it fair without a speech about cheating.
• Team names. Ask for them early and read the good ones out. Need ideas? Here are a few.

Running the night in Thinking Cap

Write or paste your rounds in the builder, set the rules above once in night setup, and the app does the paper part: answer sheets on every phone, the clock, the marking, the scores and the tie-break. You keep the microphone. It is free, for the host and for every table.