Welcome to the online headquarters for the Mayflower Pub Quiz, which takes place on Mondays and Thursdays at The Mayflower Inn, in San Rafael, California.

If you're here to listen to the quiz, you'll find the files in the "ARCHIVES" section.

Cheers,

Jeffrey

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Thanks!

QUIZ NEWS

"Your Questions Are Too Hard"

Over the last five years, I've written (and asked) more than 7000 questions for the Mayflower quizzes, as well as quizzes at other venues and functions. I've enjoyed every minute of it. Writing the questions is more than half the fun, and I doubt I'd do the quiz using someone else's questions.

Writing good quiz questions is tricky business. It's certainly more difficult than I imagined before I started doing it, and I'm still working to improve the questions I ask each and every week. If you've got a moment, and you're even vaguely interested in the subject, I'd suggest reading the following two articles.

"Writing Great Questions", by the Cornerstone Word Company.

--and--

"Thoughts of a Quizmaster" by the late Paul Coombs, London quizmaster.

Last week, like every week, a couple of people approached me after the quiz to let me know my questions were "too hard". I can't argue with one person's opinion of such things. But if they believed they were speaking for the other 100+ people playing the quiz that night, I'm not sure I'd agree.

Each and every week I take your answer sheets home and engage in some seriously obsessive compulsive behavior. All of the scores and winnings are recorded for the on-going leader board, of course. But I also look at how well particular questions and types of questions fair with the room as a whole. I use this information, every week, to help chart our quizzing course for the following week and beyond.

My goal is to provide a quiz that nets median and mean scores as close as possible to 60%, each week. And the closer those two numbers are to each other, the greater success. At least, in my opinion.

"Around" 60%. That's our goal. And looking at the weekly scores for the last couple hundred weeks, we're doing a great job of achieving it. Hats off to you.

Here's the thing. If we go much higher than 60%, we'll end up with an awful lot of ties for first place (with several perfect papers) and everyone will scream it's "too easy". And if we go much lower than 60%, some teams will leave without having answered much of anything.

Last week's quiz? Drum roll, please. Median = 66%. Mean = 62%. The top teams tied at 86%. The worst team in the house scored 38% (without much effort, I might add).

Hopefully, there was something there for everyone. A couple of questions that everyone got right. A couple of stumpers that few teams knew. And a lot of questions that sparked conversation at the tables.

We have only ever had one perfect paper, and I think that's a good thing. Every bit as good as the fact that no one has ever made an attempt to play through the whole night without scoring... something.

Remember, you don't need a perfect paper to win. You just need one more point than the folks at the table next to you.

Cheers,

Jeffrey