Hello, and welcome back! This week, Barry outlines some of his preparatory study techniques, that saw him taking home the top prizes on both Ford Superquiz AND Sale of the Century. Here’s hoping they can work for you too!

Take it away, Barry!

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= Getting the knowledge =

There’s lots of useful advice on this site – all of which rings true with my experience – about the learning part of preparing for quiz shows. What follows are suggestions (some of which, I appreciate, might seem quaintly ‘olde worlde’) which might help beginners to build on and flesh out the advice which others have offered. I will start with a very interesting insight once shared with me by quiz master and question writer extraordinaire George Black, who I mentioned earlier. George told me of his estimate that there were about 25,000 questions circulating on the then contemporary (mid-’70s) Australian quiz shows. His view was that anyone who managed to acquire the body of knowledge represented by those questions could expect to do very well on any general knowledge quiz show – not a guarantee of unfailing success, but a very good foundation for that.

The balance and components of the current corpus of Australian quiz show “general knowledge” would be very different from what it was 50 years ago – much less about history, geographical facts, literature and classical/older music and much more about pop culture, celebrities, consumer products and sport – but from what I have observed, the concept of a quiz show corpus of knowledge is still very relevant as a way of framing and guiding the process of learning. The essence of this process is to get a good feel for the range of questions asked on whatever show you are aiming for, and then to work out the most time-efficient means of acquiring sufficient knowledge to give yourself a good chance of success. Watching the show as much as possible and, one way or another, recording the questions is very useful – in fact, it’s invaluable.

 Whether you’re starting with a good range of knowledge relevant to the questions on the show, or obviously have a lot to learn, the basics are the same – it’s about being analytical and systematic in filling in the gaps. Areas of subject matter weakness are best addressed by looking closely at the questions asked in that subject matter area on the show that you’re aiming at. Take note of the questions asked in that area (or areas) over at least a few months and look for patterns – there will always be randoms and outliers, but in most cases, some patterns will emerge over time. Once you have a sense of those patterns you have a good starting point for focusing your learning efforts. 

It’s then about finding the most concise source of information which, if you master it, would allow you to answer a healthy proportion of future questions in that subject area on that show. The logic of this is that, for most shows, you don’t need to know the answer to every question – it’s about tilting the odds in your favour, and having enough knowledge to have a better-than-average chance compared to your competitors. The sort of focused learning I am describing here was easier in the pre-internet days. Back then, it was a matter of hunting out, through libraries or bookshops (more often of the second-hand variety), one or two reference books which covered the particular topic in enough detail (but not too much). For most subject areas, I always had in mind a few obscure/challenging questions I had remembered from recent quiz shows, which I would use to test newly encountered reference books. If a book was concise and compact, but still managed to contain the relevant details, and plenty of similar material, it would be on my beg, borrow or buy list – but I would always be looking for books which did the job even better. But even with the pithiest books, it still takes focus and discipline to absorb only the knowledge which you judge likely to be relevant to the show you’re aiming at and not stray off course – which is why it is so important to get the best possible feel for the sorts of questions asked on that show. These days, instead of printed books, it might be a Wikipedia article or similar but the basic process is the same – look for the most concise webpage or site for the relevant subject area. Wikipedia is particularly useful because many articles have that handy list of related articles at the end, which could serve as a useful way of working your way through a topic – but the key is always to avoid going too deeply into a topic and wasting time and memory space on details which are unlikely to be the basis of questions.

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Great advice there from Barry, but as we all know, when researching some of those tangents and rabbit holes of new and interesting facts can be just so tempting… He’s right – real self-discipline is required during this process. While you’re using the above methods to assemble your game show databanks, it truly IS a case of “keeping your eyes on the prize”!

Next week, we’ll round this series out with even more of Barry’s handy hints and quiz show study tips! See you then!