My Two Cents on Quizzing

This article has been submitted by Binit Agrawal for the CLATGyan Blog Post Writing Competition. If you think it’s a good read, ‘Like’ the article (the button is at the bottom of this piece) or post a comment using the ‘Comments’ section below.

“An opportunity to sharpen your brains, over 500 students participating from over 60 institutes, prizes worth over Rs. 50,000.”

“Let the battle begin”.

Most of us have heard these lines and for those who have not, how about this one? “120 crore Hindustani, Kaun Banega Crorepati?”

These are not just lines; these are hymns, chants and drumbeats indicating the beginning of a festival. A festival celebrating an art called quizzing.

Yes, that guy sitting on the stage and pressing the buzzer is not a nerd. He is an artist, practicing an art form that involves not just knowledge but also skills.

Quizzing today is not limited to “England ki Rani? France ka Raja?” It has moved beyond that stage. Today it requires not just knowledge but also intuitiveness, reflex, accuracy, ability to link and think out of the box.

A question, which often comes to my mind, is –

Which is the largest e-commerce player in India? ….Flipkart? – umm, no! Is it Snapdeal? – Better luck next time! Maybe Amazon? – Come on its American. The answer to this question is IRCTC. The Indian railways might be a loss maker but nonetheless its revenues are huge!

Here is a compilation of various websites and blogs, which will help you assimilate well into the quizzing culture –

http://www.infinitezounds.blogspot.in/ – If you have the time to follow only one quizzing blog, this is the one you were looking for. It is one of the best quizzing blog in India run by Ramanand JN, a popular quizmaster, researcher and the winner of BBC mastermind India 2002.

http://www.amul.com/m/amul-hits – No quiz fest in India comes to end without a question based on an Amul hit (the Amul ad based on recent stories). It’s preemptive that you stimulate your creative hormones by going through these posters.

http://www.google.com/doodles#archive – Google doodle is Google’s way of speaking its mind – celebrating festivals, days, anniversaries and any important event around the world. Its uniqueness has made it a favorite of quizmasters and thus can help you.

http://bizquizzard.blogspot.in/ – If anyone is preparing for a business quiz (read, Tata Crucible), then this is the ultimate blog. Also, this is the most regular blog that I have seen, with 30-50 questions every week for last 7 years and this has been recognized by Limca Book of Records too.

http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?searchfrom=header&q=quiz – When it comes to a platform where quizzes are shared, Slideshare is the Mecca. Just search for a topic in the search box and set the time barrier to the last 30 days and you will be flooded with the slides of recent quizzes.

http://quizzingiimraipur.blogspot.in/ – This blog is really nice and regular and contains questions ranging from all sections I can think of. What makes it unique is that the questions are so framed as to make you think, connect and guess.

http://guessthelogo.blogspot.in/ – Questions based on logos are an integral part of today’s quizzes and this blog is solely based on that. Obviously you can also use the logo quiz app, but I know (as well as you do) that the fervor will last even shorter than it lasted when you first joined the gym. Moreover, you can also read more about the companies on your browser.

https://donquizote.wordpress.com/ – This is a blog maintained by IIT Bombay quizzing club.

http://www.thebusinessquiz.com/ – Today’s quizzes revolve around trivia. This blog is a really nice one and has compiled trivia and stories behind many companies.

https://www.youtube.com/user/TataCrucible – Crucible is a quiz that every quiz aficionado looks forward to and winning it is a cherished dream. Why? Because it’s the biggest quiz competition in India hosted by Pickbrain – Giri Balasubramaniam who is one of the best quizmasters in India and carries mind-boggling prizes. The Crucible team posts videos of all its quizzes on their YouTube channel.

http://www.cruciblechronicles.com/ – This website is based on Tata Crucible and contains every single question asked in the competition.

Apart from all these blogs, newspaper reading should always be an integral part of a quizzer’s daily routine.