PULTEVENT
Quiz master tips: 7 habits that make a quiz night run on time
A school hall on a Friday, the PTA quiz, twenty-two tables of parents with a bottle of wine each and a bowl of crisps they've been told to share. I read question four of the music round a little too quickly, and a dad at the back put his hand up like it was 1994 and he was in double maths. "Sorry, could you read that again? Some of us are old." The whole hall laughed. I read it again, slower, and I've read every question since at that speed.
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A quiz is simple to describe and surprisingly easy to run badly. The questions can be excellent and the night still drags: rounds that overrun, marking that takes longer than the round, a dispute over one answer that sours two tables for the rest of the evening. Almost all of it comes down to a handful of habits at the microphone.
Some of these tips are about voice and timing and apply to any quiz. Others assume the setup I use on PULTEVENT: the console in a laptop browser, questions on the big screen, and teams answering from their phones after scanning a QR code, so the scores add themselves up. Phones need internet for that part. Everything about reading, pacing and fairness applies either way.
7 habits of quiz masters who finish on time
1 Pace the round, not the question
Set a length for each round before the night, then fit the questions to it. Eight questions in ten minutes is a comfortable rhythm for most rooms.
How to run it. Put a break screen with a countdown between rounds so the room knows when the next one starts.
A quiz that finishes when the poster said it would gets booked again.
2 Read aloud like a newsreader
Slow, clear, a small pause before the key word. Read the question, pause, read it again. Name the answer format: a year, a surname, a country.
How to run it. Record yourself reading one round at home. You will be faster than you think.
The quietest table at the back is the one that decides whether it was a good night.
3 Show the question on screen
The question and the answer options appear on the big screen as you read. Teams check spellings and numbers without asking you.
How to run it. Keep on-screen questions short. If it takes more than two lines, rewrite it.
Fewer repeats, fewer arguments about what was actually asked.
4 Close the answer window firmly
Give a clear time for each answer, announce ten seconds left, then close. Late answers don't count for anyone.
How to run it. Use the same words every time: "Ten seconds... and locked." The room learns the rhythm.
Firm windows keep the pace up and stop the fastest teams getting bored.
5 Score without stopping the show
When teams answer from phones, scores update on their own and the team scoreboard shows the standings after each round.
How to run it. Show the scoreboard after every second round, not every round. Suspense needs a gap.
You stay at the mic talking to the room, not hunched over a pile of answer sheets.
6 Have a tiebreaker ready
A numeric question where the closest answer wins: the height of a building, the year a local pub opened, the number of steps up the town hall.
How to run it. Prepare three, in case the first one also ties.
Ties at the top happen more often than you'd expect, and a made-up tiebreaker feels unfair to the losers.
7 Finish on a podium
Reveal the final standings from the bottom up, then the top three with a proper awards ceremony on screen, confetti included.
How to run it. Add one special award for the best team name or the most spectacular wrong answer.
The last two minutes are what people talk about on the walk home.
Read it twice
Once to be heard, once to be understood. Every question, every round.
Put it on screen too
Written questions rescue the table by the kitchen door.
Let the software mark
Phone answers score themselves. You talk to the room instead of adding up sheets.
Decide disputes by rule
Announce the rules before round one, then apply them the same way all night.
Writing questions that survive being read aloud
A question that looks fine on paper can be a mess when spoken. Put the subject first and the actual ask at the end: "This river flows through Cairo. What is it called?" works better aloud than a single long sentence with a clause in the middle. Avoid double negatives, avoid names that sound alike, and never ask a question whose answer depends on how a word is spelled if you're only reading it out.
Check every answer against two sources. The one wrong answer in a night is the one the pedant at table seven will have looked up by the time you reach the next round.
The first five minutes
Introduce yourself, the rules and the timings before question one. How many rounds, how long each lasts, when the break is, how disputes are settled, whether phones can be used for anything other than answering. Say it once, clearly, and put it on the screen.
Then run a practice question worth no points. It warms up your voice, gets every team through the QR code, and flushes out the team whose phone is on two percent battery.
Disputes, handled once
Decide your rules in advance and stick to them. Is a surname enough? Do misspellings count if the answer is clear? Is the answer on the sheet final even if a team finds a better source? Tell the room at the start.
"But the answer's technically Lake Victoria."
"Bring it to me at the break and I'll look."
Never argue on the microphone. Take it offline, decide quickly, announce the result once, and move on.
One phone per team is enough
Not every team needs every player online. A captain answers for the table on one phone after scanning the QR code, and the rest of the team argues around it, which is half the fun of a quiz anyway. Guests do need internet on that phone, so check the venue signal before the night. If connectivity fails, the questions still display from the laptop and you can switch to paper for the answers.
Where your questions come from
The quiz builder takes questions in any language, with pictures if you want them. The built-in ready-made decks are mostly Russian for now, so an English quiz master writes their own, which is what a good quiz master does anyway. The board game-show format (Super Smarts), True or False and Timeline rounds give you variety without new mechanics to explain.
Running your next quiz on it
The free 3-day demo, no card required, is long enough to build a full quiz and test it with friends on your TV. The full version is a one-time license, no subscription; pricing is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to prepare as a quiz master
- 1
Fix the number of rounds and the length of each before writing a single question.
- 2
Write the questions with the ask at the end, and check every answer against two sources.
- 3
Build the rounds in the quiz builder and add three numeric tiebreakers.
- 4
Read one full round aloud at home, recorded, and slow down.
- 5
At the venue, test the QR code from the back table and run a no-points practice question.
- 6
Announce the rules and timings, play the rounds, and finish with the podium.
FAQ
How many rounds should a quiz night have?
Should I read the answer options aloud too?
Does every player need a phone?
What if two teams tie for first?
Can I use pictures and audio in rounds?
What does the software cost?
See also
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