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Light Speed Individual Open Buzzer Quiz

The Perfect Question:

Is never ambiguous and the answer becomes obvious.

Having said that, the perfect question, like the lost chord, is probably non-existent! Nevertheless, when asking a question for any buzzer quiz there are some intuitively logical guidelines. 'Perfection' may be unobtainable, but excellence and/or adequacy is/are quite possible.

Primarily, if a buzzer quiz question is not eventually answered correctly it is a waste of valuable time and effort, not least on behalf of the question master. This does not preclude 'non-got' questions from being asked; they will be pitched in occasionally, as no question master can know the limits of the contestants' knowledge. One must imagine, however, that these 'non-got' questions are best saved for a 'table' quiz, i.e. a quiz designed to establish the boundaries of an individual's or a team's knowledge.

This article will highlight two independent yet broadly coincident perspectives of buzzer quiz question setting. One from Pat Gibson; not only both a champion buzzer and table quizzer, but also a writer of questions of great humour, interest and exquisite craft. The second thread will revisit some thoughts and examples published around Ian Weaver's most excellent 'Weaver's Week' review on the UK Games shows web site.

Pat Gibson on Buzzer Quiz Questions:

With harder questions, or at least questions that start off very hard and then get easier the potential for a buzzer traffic jam is reduced.

If people step forward for a buzzing quiz then they should expect material with a bit of 'chew' in it. At the very least the later stages should have the tougher material - if one can assume that the main players are contesting these later stages. There will still be flurries of mass buzzing as the question gets easier, with the additional 'clues' appearing, but the early bird (the first person with the correct answer) stands a better chance of catching his (rightful) worm.

The question master should stop speaking immediately a buzzer is heard; it is human nature to finish a word or even a phrase but ideally the QM should go mute instantly - mid-word if needs be.

Three scenarios...

1

QM: "What is the capital of...
Player: BUZZ
QM: ...Australia"
Player: "Canberra"

Is to be avoided at all costs - it is quite unfair on the non buzzers that the buzzing player gets to answer a question they did not get asked. The buzzing player is welcome to take his chances with an outrageous 1 in 250 guess - Good luck to him - 'psychic' answers are remarkable and exciting, but when the QM keeps going there is no guesswork left, the buzzer has been rewarded unjustly and the other 3 players have been diddled.

2

QM: "What is the capital of Aus...
Player: BUZZ - "Canberra"

Is to be applauded The player took the 50/50 Australia/Austria gamble and was successful.

3

QM: "What is the capital of...
Player: BUZZ - "Canberra"

Is to be applauded to the skies - the player took the 1/250(?) gamble and was successful. Of course a long streak of such extraterrestrial guesses might spook everyone in the room.

N.B. I don't know if Pat was teasing, but in the 2003 quarter-final of University Challenge Leeds v Worcester Oxford, Leeds were on the ropes at 50-15 and Paxman asked

"Shakespere, Cromwell, Gladstone, Emu and Kookaburra were among the names suggested for which Commonwealth capital city at the beginning of the 20th century?"

Leeds buzzed in first and said "Melbourne".

I could've died, as I was the dope who said it.

Weaver's Week on Buzzer Quiz Questions:

Ian Weaver is an astute critic of what should be the benchmark buzzer quiz starter standard of University Challenge. He is particularly scathing (rightly so) about the 'swerve' question which punishes the brave and sometimes brilliant. In his column dated 15th February 2003, he is describing the Sheffield v Merton game. ('Thumper' is Jeremy Paxman, by the way).

Then comes this starter, and it's getting beyond a joke:

Thumper: "Producing a narrow beam of coherent light, capable of travelling over vast distances without dispersion...

Subhaniel Lahiri, Merton: "Laser."

Thumper: "Wrong, lose five points" ... and of being focused to give enormous power densities, the device known as "laser" has what full name?"

Grimshaw, Sheffield: "Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation."

This exchange neatly sums up everything that is wrong with University Challenge this year. Week after week, we have a run of starters that set out on one course, arrive there, and set off on a completely different course to find the answer. This column has been pointing out some of the more egregiously long starters; though long questions do serve to break up the staccato rhythm of short, sharp starters, they need the brief counterparts to establish that sound. Week after week, we have to listen to Thumper drone on in this manner. It's not the host's show, it's the contestants'.

More to the point, these unpredictable starters devalue University Challenge as a serious quiz

Question setters take note!

Ian and friends went on to run a competition to find good buzzer questions. An edited version of the result page gives good guidelines and a sweet winner.

My criteria for judging were:

The question must be reasonably short. Anything over 75 syllables was marked down as over long.

The question, or the answer, or the combination of the two, should be interesting to the casual viewer.

The answer must be unambiguous, and the question must lead directly to the answer with no detours. In particular, it should be possible to buzz in part way through the question and either give the answer or a fact revealed in the question.

The best single question was submitted by James Webb. It packs a lot into a short length, has multiple opportunities for a speculative buzz, and most of the UC audience will know of the answer, even if they can't answer the question itself. The winning entry:

'"Hier stehe ich, ich kann nicht anders", meaning "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise" is a famous quote from a speech given at the Diet of Worms in April 1521 by which religious reformer?'

Answer: Martin Luther.

Conclusion

Bearing in mind that variety is the spice of life (and quizzes) and that the most difficult questions should be saved for a table quiz, the Light Speed Individual Open Buzzer Quiz shall strive to attain questions where:

and the question master will: