Hello and welcome to the final instalment in Barry Lee’s guest post series. Last week, Barry was outlining some of his study techniques. If you haven’t read that instalment yet, I’d strongly, STRONGLY recommend that you go back and read it now, because this week’s post follows directly on from it.

Okay, done that? All up to date? Good. And now, Dear Reader, read on…

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I recently saw a good example of how the learning process I have outlined here could be utilised when the same question (“in what decade were Kit-Kat bars introduced?”*) was asked on The (UK) Chase and turned up a few weeks later on Mastermind Australia – it may well have been asked on The Chase Australia when I was not watching. I have seen other similar questions, which ask what decade a popular snack or beverage was introduced in, or in what country it originated. So if I was preparing for a contemporary show, I would get busy with Google and Wikipedia etc. and produce a list of such products with the decade and country details included and whenever I heard a question which asked about a product not on my list, I would add those details. 

For some of the more traditional quiz question topics, (e.g. history, mythology, classic art, music and literature), older style reference books aimed at children / teenagers can often be the best way of covering a topic, because the better examples of those books omit the obscure and esoteric, and the dull and dry, and focus on the mainstream details, presented in an appealing manner, which are likely to turn up as questions. I mention older style children’s reference books because my observation is that books published in the last few decades tend to be too lightweight to be of much use for this purpose.

Another easily overlooked, but often very handy, way of filling in gaps in knowledge is through crossword dictionaries – the better examples of which are packed with loads of diverse and pithy information grouped in useful ways. To take an example, a reasonably common form of quiz question is to give the name of an item of clothing and ask what part of the body it is worn on – a good crossword dictionary will provide lists of the names of styles and types of hats, footwear etc. which can be quickly browsed, and will likely do this as concisely and comprehensively as any other reference book or website. The same approach can be taken for other common forms of questions such as the ones which ask about varieties of fruits and vegetables, foods and beverages etc.

Quiz Books, if you can get your hands on them (many of the best examples are out of print, and not yet old enough to have their contents freely available online), can also be handy for broadening the horizons for beginners and for revising and filling in the gaps for more advanced contestants. The only caution I would give, which I think has been mentioned elsewhere on this site, is that some of the British quiz books, particularly the older ones, tend to have questions which are well beyond the level typically encountered now on Australian shows – so you need to keep a clear focus on what you’re using them for.

One particular challenge I found in my days as a young quiz show hopeful was learning about things which were not often covered in traditional reference books, but which were fairly well known to people who had been around long enough to have lived through or otherwise encountered the relevant details. Examples of this would be famous crimes, scandals, fads and fashions etc. which would be overlooked by the mainstream encyclopaedias and history references. Aside from specific books or websites on those themes, a useful option for dealing with this problem is popular history books (there may be equivalent websites?) which are presented in a tabloid newspaper style. Some of these books simply reproduce front pages from major newspapers from a particular era. Others, such as The Chronicle series produced by Penguin about 30 years ago, go through an era month by month, year by year, and present a series of brief articles about interesting events which happened on nominated dates. Titles in that series included – Chronicle of Australia, Chronicle of the 20th Century, Chronicle of The World, Chronicle of America, Chronicle of Britain, Chronicle of the Royal Family, Chronicle of the Second World War, and Chronicle of the Cinema. They are big, thick, hardback books – and very browsable.

In my tales of Ford Superquiz and Sale of the Century, I mentioned a handy little notepad I had put together for quick study/revision. It’s basically lists of useful info drawn from a wide range of reference books – distilled wisdom, so to speak, for quiz show purposes. Here are some examples of the details listed in the notepad:

• National capitals, grouped by continent and region,
• Rivers on which prominent national capitals are located,
• Airports of major capital cities,
• Units of currency and predominant languages and religions of countries,
• Highest mountains, longest rivers and largest lakes in continents and major countries,
• Notable volcanoes,
• British monarchs and their consorts,
• Notable battles,
• US Presidents and Vice Presidents,
• Australian PMs and notable state Premiers
• State flora and fauna emblems
• Alloys and their components,
• Vitamins,
• Bones of the human body,
• Medical names of common diseases and illnesses.
• Military ranks,
• Olympic Games locations – summer and winter – and notable gold medallists,
• Number of team members for major team sports,
• Boxing weight categories,
• America’s Cup winners,
• Planets and their moons,

etc. etc. etc.

These days, it could all be done on an electronic device, but it’s worth bearing in mind that notepads of the paper variety don’t crash, and can’t be accidentally deleted!

The late, great Cary Young on ‘Sale of the Century’.

Finally, a few words on the difference between being very good and truly exceptional in the world of TV quizzes. I reflected on this after reading the January 2023 tribute to Cary Young, which drew on Cary’s interview with Brydon Coverdale. What particularly struck me about that was hearing, for the first time, of the huge, systematic effort which Cary had put into being the absolute master of the “Who Am I?” Fame Game questions on Sale of the Century. It was an illustration of not just sustained hard work, but also of strategy – dominating the Fame Game questions on Sale gave Cary a practical advantage (by increasing the odds of getting extra points) but also would have given him a psychological advantage by adding to the frustration of his opponents. Cary’s approach to the Fame Game questions also put into perspective my memory of being rather pleased with myself over one such question I encountered on Sale. The question began with the clue that the person was born in Bundaberg in 1892. At that point I knew the answer would either be Bert Hinkler or Gladys Moncrieff – I had remembered, from my amateur question writing days, the interesting coincidence that two then-notable Australians had been born in that year in that town. I can’t now recall what the next clue was but I got it straight away on that. By comparison, had I been facing Cary Young on that show, there’s a good chance he would have been able to buzz in correctly on the first clue because, as he revealed to Brydon, he had not only meticulously learned the life dates of many noted people, he had also kept track of which of them had previously been the subject of a question on Sale – and worked on the assumption that repeat questions were less likely. That really is ‘next level’ stuff, and serves as an example – inspiring and maybe a little sobering – to those who aspire to the very highest levels of achievement in this wonderfully addictive TV genre.

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Indeed it does, and what an inspiring note to end this guest post series on! I’d just like to thank Barry once again for sharing all his memories, his insights and his fantastic tips and hints with us. I’ve really enjoyed reading his quiz-related adventures, and bringing them to you. 

And just a reminder… if you’d like to follow Barry’s footsteps and share your particular game show experiences with a wider audience, why not get in touch with me? I’m at Stephen@HowToWinGameShows.com. 

Thank you, as always, for your support for the site – I’ll see you again soon!

* And for those playing along at home, Kit-Kats were introduced in the 1930s.