Quizzes

Using an Audience Response System for an interactive quiz or a more formal assessment is a popular feature. They can be as simple or as complex as necessary, and can be a fun addition at the end of a hard day's work, or be used as an accurate test of the delegates' knowledge of the subject

Adding variety to an event is always an attractive option, and one many of our clients talk to us about. A quiz can provide that variety, and our audience response systems are powerful and flexible enough to handle any situation.

If you're looking for a 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' style quiz or any other gameshow format, we'll be able to help out. From 'Question of Sport' to 'Deal or No Deal', we know how to make a quiz work for a larger audience.

A Team Effort

All handsets are individual and scores are assigned individually to each. However handsets and their corresponding scores can be grouped together to form teams, where every vote counts.

Teams can be:

• Of any size
Teams do not have to be the same size as this is taken into account when calculating scores. Bigger teams does not necessarily mean bigger scores.

• Pre-allocated or created ‘live’
Teams can be set up before the quiz starts, or you can ask a question which sets them up automatically.

• In different categories
You can have different sets of teams in the same quiz allowing the same handset to be in several different teams at the same time. For example, you could have a set of teams defined by a gender question, and another set defined by a question on which department the delegates work in. Thus you could see whether the males were beating the females, and also whether sales were beating marketing…

And the Winner is...

If you need a way to show who is winning or indeed has won, dynamic scoreboards can be shown at any stage of the quiz, allowing you to keep everyone motivated by showing the ‘state of play’ at various moments.

Scoreboards can:

• Display scores for any question, round or for the overall total
• Show Individual or Team totals
• Show Names, ranks, scores and response time
• Take response time into account to order results
• Display any given range (top ten, bottom three, etc)
• Be sent individually to the handsets’ LCD screen
• Incorporate scores from other non-voting activities

Asking the Right Question

There are six main types of question that can be used within a quiz. These questions can be grouped together into rounds, allowing you to subdivide the quiz into sections.

Single Response

There is only one right answer. All others are wrong. The system can be programmed to accept only the first key pressed or to allow participants to change their mind and choose a different option during the countdown.

Multiple Response

There is more than one correct answer. The order in which they are selected is not important. In this example, handsets that answered one of the two correct answers would receive half the available points. However, you could also require them to answer both correctly in order to receive any points at all.

Ordered Response

Here, the options must be put in the correct order to obtain full marks.

Handsets that answered 2134 would obtain 100% of the points for this question. Proportional scoring is available if required to give points according to the number of answers given in the correct order.

After the vote has been taken, the correct order can be displayed.

Numeric Entry

The system can allow a string of numbers, as well as decimal points to be selected on the handset as an answer to a question instead of choosing an option from a list. This is especially useful for maths based questions.

Text Entry

There are many uses for text-based response questions. You might want to test the audiences spelling as well as their knowledge. For example, you could ask 'What is the capital of Iceland?' Many people may know that the answer is Reykjavik, but will they know how to spell it properly?

Text based questions eliminate the element of chance associated with multiple choice questions, as participants will not be able to choose one of the options and have a good chance of being correct simply by guessing.

Another great example of using text based responses is to have a 'conundrum' style question, where participants have to solve an anagram. Alternatively, you could show them a series of nine letters and allocate points depending on the length of words they can create using a combination of those letters.

Also, you could have a question at the beginning of the quiz asking the participants to enter their name or team's name into the handset. That name will then be associated with the handset.

Tiebreaker

The system allows the first handset that answers correctly to stop the vote. This is most useful in tiebreaker situations, or to imitate TV game-show formats. Since the system has accurate timings for all handsets, this can also be carried out without stopping the vote.

An alternative to this is to use the system as a ‘buzzer’ system. Useful when you don’t want to display any options, you can just show the question and ask the audience to buzz in if/when they know the answer. The first handset to buzz in will be identified, and can give their answer out loud. If they get it right, they can be given points or even an on-the-spot prize. If they get it wrong, just ask the question again!