Quiz Champ's Tips for Erudites

Contents:

1. What makes a quiz player

2. Essential knowledge

3. Humanities or STEM – who’s got it easier at trivia?

4. What is the best place to start? 

5. First steps

6. How to prepare

7. Do's and don'ts

What makes a quiz player

Although game shows like What? Where? When? suit all ages and backgrounds, Mikhail Mun believes there are several requirements each would-be contestant needs to meet in order to land a spot at the game table: 

• Interest in the game. Watch a few games to find out if this is something you'd like to do yourself.

• Rapid response and fast thinking. One of things about quizzes is that there are strict time limits. Players have a minute, sometimes less, to find the answer to a question – so you need to think fast when going over the possible options.

• Communication skills. However, it’s just as important to be able to listen and hear what others on your team have to say. If you want to knock out a question in one minute, you can’t shut yourself off from your teammates and take everything into your hands. What you should do instead is to try to come up with an answer through communicating with them and discussing different versions together. 

Essential knowledge

As the game’s creator Vladimir Voroshilov once pointed out, if you’ve finished high school and know that Monet and Manet are two completely different artists, you already know enough to compete at trivia. 

Humanities or STEM – who’s got it easier at trivia?

The game doesn’t care if you’re a programmer or a philosopher. Besides, it doesn’t matter how you think or where you come from. There’s a question for every player: while some call on your logic, others may require the use of your spatial and visualization skills.

What is the best place to start?

Quizzles are popular around the world – you can easily find one in your city. If you're an ITMO staff or student and confident in your Russian, sign up for an open contest or ITMO's own game tournaments. 

First steps

Compete solo or team up. It may be a challenge to find a whole team who are just as passionate about trivia as you are, shares Mikhail Mun. Most players embark on this journey on their own and meet their teammates after a few games.

But if you, nevertheless, want to build up your own team right away, the expert recommends that you consider the following qualities when looking for candidates: 

• Their eagerness. Is this person interested in the game or just tagging along?

• Shared level of dedication. While some contestants wholeheartedly commit themselves to the game (and training), others may treat it as a form of entertainment. Your reasons for playing must be the same – or you risk a divide in the team.. 

• Speed of thought. You can take notice of how quickly a person answers questions in a casual conversation. 

Pick a team captain. A captain is crucial for any team, as their key mission is not to answer the question but to manage a discussion, drawing attention to likely versions and ruling out the rest. What’s more, captains are responsible for recruiting members and creating a pleasant and friendly atmosphere within their teams.  

How to prepare

Watch game shows on YouTube. When training online, you should follow the game’s rules as you watch the show: listen to the question, put a video on hold for one minute to have a discussion, put forward your joint version, and hear the correct answer.

Then, you need to thoroughly investigate how the players on screen addressed the question: how they acted during the discussion, what variants were voiced, and what helped them and what didn't when they were looking for the right answer. It will also let you see thought patterns that may have kept them from solving the task correctly. Another show expert Andrey Kozlov is confident that members should avoid saying no in discussions unless they’re 100% the version offered is wrong. 

Boost your erudition. The game doesn’t focus on one particular field; instead, it encompasses a broad choice of topics, from chemistry and history to contemporary art and space travel. That’s why players who want to improve their performance need to be voracious learners, readers, and movie lovers. 

Keep in mind that stress and failure is a part of the journey. Don’t expect that you will tackle all the questions and take your team to the top in your first game. For starters, you need to get used to the pace, learn to cope with stress and handle failures. Practice makes perfect, which is vividly illustrated by Viktor Sidnev, a renowned What? Where? When? player who lost his first five games but kept going – today, he has 36 wins (out of 64 games) and a title of the best club captain under his belt. 

“What? Where? When? is more than just guessing riddles. The game has its own charm: the central table with a spinning top and familiar musical themes – all this is a peculiar zest of the show that puts viewers in a particular state of mind. The music helps us pull ourselves together and mentally prepare for an intense game ahead. These are integral parts of what this game is,” notes Mikhail Mun.

Do's and don'ts

There are a few things to be on the lookout for when playing the game:

Quizzing is a team sport. Always remember that no player should be above the rest. You should not be competing against one another, but rather teaming up to accomplish a common goal. Learning when to speak and when to listen and let your teammates tackle the question is important.

Analyze the question for clues. Maybe it was worded in a way that leaves out some information (for instance, the host uses the words “capital of Japan” instead of just “Tokyo”) or its phrasing includes some suspicious old-fashioned terms. If you spot something unusual, but have no idea what it means, make sure to share your findings with your team.

It is also crucial to keep track of what exactly is being asked of you. In order not to lose your train of thought, it is always useful to write down the question.

Every question includes a clue. If you have nothing to work with after hearing the question, do not panic. Maybe your teammates spotted something strange and are about to share their findings with the team. If everyone is still silent, a good idea is to repeat the question while rephrasing it using simpler words. It may point your team towards a hidden clue.

Choose answers that check off the most boxes. By the end of the discussion, your team can have several possible answers, and it may be difficult to choose one. That is why the captain has to:

• Remember that your answer has to be supported by solid argumentation. If one of the players is insisting on a version, then asking them to explain their reasoning in more detail is probably a good idea.

• If you have two versions to choose from, do not pick the one that explains a single clue perfectly – instead, take the one that better fits the most criteria given in the question, even if it's a bit of a stretch when it comes to some of them. For example, you have to name a poet who lived in a certain town, had some prevalent themes in their writings, and loved including a certain word in their works. Let’s say you came up with two versions. The first fits one of the criteria to a T, but the second broadly fits all three. The latter should be your captain's choice. Among beginners, picking the wrong version is one of the most common mistakes, says Mikhail Mun. To avoid making it, you can follow your intuition. In addition, even if you have a version you are sure of, try and come up with alternatives to see if it stands up to scrutiny.

After the game, analyze the questions. With the answer in mind, take another look at the question. Try to follow the train of thought of its author. Go over it with your team. This post-game analysis can help you quickly get a lot better at the game.