Time is very important, consider how much time you have and this will make it clear how many questions and rounds you can have on the night. In a pub quiz night a land lord is the best person to usually ask on the time slot as they will have their own ideas because they need to make money as well make the punters enjoy the the night. Don't go for longer than 2 hours when starting a quiz and we would recommend more in line with 1:30 including interval.



So now you need to work out how many questions you can ask in that time. This is quite an easy formula that whilst crude, does generally work. In a usual quiz night there will 70 minutes for the rounds 10-20mins interval (depending the amount of teams) and another 20mins to get everything marked and winner announced. A handout round is usually given at the start but don't always need to do this. Now 1.5minutes for every question so 70minutes/1.25 = 56 question exactly.

Now you have the amount of time now to pick what size rounds to use. Handout rounds if to be used are best right at the beginning and given as the team registers and collects the answer sheet. So a good idea is now to split the time into 2 amounts so you have a interval right in the middle 70/2 = 35mins. Now this makes good for 2 rounds of 10 question and one of 8 question on both sides.

You will need to do now is pick what the rounds are going to be. Start with a general knowledge round, specialist round and it is good a idea to have the 8 question rounds be designed so the final answer either spells something out from the first initials of the rest of answer or is a link. A well earned break and if a pub quiz night then the landlord can get some money behind the bar. After the interval you should start with a 10 question round then the eight question round and to end the quiz why not do something like a true or false round of 10 questions.

Get the teams to pass to another team for marking. If teams have the same mark now you can either be fussy on the spelling or the exact answer in this case but for me this is not very fair and would go for tie breaker question. With tie breaker questions always have 2-4 in back up. These questions need to be a number answer such as what year did Julius Ceasar first come boss of the Romans.

Hopefully this guide as helped pick how you are going to format your quiz night and highlighted areas that you might not have thought of before. Now all you need to do is have a go, have fun but remember the quiz master rules.

1.Quiz master is always right

2.Quiz master word is final