Events

Inspiration for your quiz night

Quiz nights are a popular way to bring your supporters together for some fun and fundraising. Daniel Etherington has some suggestions for ways to liven up your rounds

Which is which?

Choose two categories with unfamiliar names and words and ask contestants to guess which is which. Is it a cheese or motorway service station, Ikea product or Scandinavian swear word, or rollercoaster or horror film? The possibilities are endless.

Close-ups

A variation on the theme of picture rounds. Show players a selection of close-up photos and ask them to guess what each item is. It could be anything from food or tech to household items, such as sponges or graters. If you have a professional photographer or a keen amateur in your community, get them involved.

Star child

We’re all obsessed with celebrities, and it’s easy to find photos of them as babies all over the internet. Dig out baby photos of a range of stars and ask participants to identify them. To make it easier, include photos of how they look now, and ask quizzers to match them up.

Taste tests

Blind taste tests can throw up some amusingly unexpected results. There are so many options for this one:

  • Name the crisp flavour
  • Name the biscuit from a spoonful of crumbs
  • Match the soft drink or chocolate to the brand by offering a range from budget to upmarket
  • Rank the hot sauces (making sure your participants can handle the escalating Scovilles).

Emoji translation

Does anyone really know what all those emojis are supposed to represent? Select some of the more obscure ones and challenge players to define their meaning.

Blank Monopoly

Mock up a blank Monopoly board or find one online. Test participants’ familiarity with this classic board game/cause of family friction by asking them to fill in the missing names of the streets, stations and corners from the standard London version.

Can you SAT?

Can the parents answer the questions their children may encounter in the SATs? Download previous years’ tests for free and fire off a selection of questions at your participants. Many adults will particularly enjoy the maths!

Junior quizmasters

Ask each year group to set a few questions and create an entirely fresh quiz round. The creativity and unpredictability of the pupils will amaze you. Just make sure the questions and answers are factually correct!

Rewind

Get your quizmaster to read out the lyrics to popular songs, but in reverse order. See if your contestants can identify the songs from the potentially baffling results of this simple switch.

Beam me up

Print out photos of old technology – items that were iconic in their time but are now obsolete – and ask participants to guess the year each was released. Examples may include the Atari 2600 (1977), Zip drive (1995), Trimphone (1965), Walkman (1979) and anything else that’s meaningful for your demographic. Watch the children gasp in horror as they realise how primitive life used to be. Offer a multiple choice or allow guesses that are within three years.

 

  • Share your most innovative and successful quiz rounds with us at info@pta.co.uk