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This week: Quiz Dilemmas Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI back on Jan 4  
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I conduct 'Harry Potter' quizzes here in Bangalore, India.
In this newsletter, I discuss some of what I go through while on stage, faced with participants and audience. |
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Dear Reader,
Imagine the scenario.
Potterheads (as we call Harry Potter fanatics) keen to display their deep knowledge of everything Potter, their families and friends in the audience, and one in-quiz-itor (me) asking the questions and judging the quality of the answers.
So what's going on in my head?
It's all fun, but there are some moral / ethical decisions I have to make. I share those with you here.
Who is the quiz for?
This is the first question I have to answer. Is the quiz for the participants?
Is it for the spectators? Is it for me, the quizmaster? (Quizmistress, in this case!)
Ideally, of course, it's for all of the above. The participants have to feel enriched, the audience has to get something exciting to watch, and I need to believe I did a good job.
Usually, I do a written preliminary round, in which all the aspiring participants get the same questions. They write down their answers, and the top scorers are selected for the final round of live quizzing.
This means I get a pretty uniform level of finalists, and questions can be of the same difficulty level for all of them.
However -- there are occasions on which there is no time to conduct a written prelim. In this case, everyone gets straight in to the live quiz. Which means -- levels of knowledge vary widely.
In this case, it usually transpires that one or two participants are WAY ahead of the rest, and score on all their 'direct' questions and most 'pass' questions.
This means the other participants lose heart, and it is boring for the spectators.
So -- I need to take a call. Here's what I need to take a call on:
i. Do I tweak the order in which I ask the questions, so that the predominant team gets the most challenging questions, and others get slightly easier ones? (We're kidding ourselves if we think that all sixty questions in the quiz can be of exactly the same level of difficulty!)
ii. Do I word the questions in such a way that the weaker teams get built-in clues? Do I actually mention that I'm giving clues openly, and go ahead and give them?
iii. Do I not do anything of the sort, and just go ahead and ask questions as I wrote them, in the order in which I wrote them, and that's their luck?
I do try to balance things. For example, if I find one team dominating and getting all the 'pass' questions, it means the team that is placed after them never has a chance to answer any questions on the pass. So, I start different rounds from different directions. It means a little more work for my scorekeeper -- suddenly going backward! -- but it does work.
I must admit that I do sometimes tweak the order and do sometimes give clues. Mostly, I mention I'm doing so, trying to make it lighthearted. I know opinions on this vary, I've had arguments with friends about it! However, I haven't (at least, I hope I haven't) ever been accused of partiality or injustice. I guess there is a fine distinction between 'tweaking' and 'stacking'. People recognise that those who won were, actually, the best team. I don't think my tweaks have ever led to a situation where an unworthy team has overtaken a worthier team or something like that. I've had warm, hearty responses to each of my quizzes from participants and audience alike. Only once has my Dad said he overheard a little girl saying something was unfair, as she left the venue after a quiz, but he didn't stop her to find out what, so I don't know!
Does age matter?
Potterheads come in all shapes, sizes and ages!
I've sometimes been told that I should divide participants by age, favouring the younger ones.
I do not believe in this.
For me, a Potterhead is a Potterhead, whether s/he is nine years old or fifty-six years old. They've read and re-read the books, they have their passionate opinions about the characters and situations, they can reel off dialogues in their sleep. The kids don't NEED or WANT to be molly(weasley)coddled! I'm not going to coddle them and that's that. I've had the youngest ones give some of the toughest answers.
Where I DO make a distinction by age is when I'm having a discussion group, (not a quiz, so I'm digressing a bit). During discussion group meetings, there may be topics like young love: fake v/s real; or things may get political -- so I keep it to teenagers and older.
Particular people
There are some (well ONE!  ) people (person  ) who attend all my quizzes and follow all the questions I put up online. There's one guy who has placed either first or second in every quiz he has attended so far.
When he came for my quiz last Sunday, I tried to promote him to scorekeeper or timekeeper, just to give others a chance to win prizes. He wasn't having any of that. So he competed, and came in second.
I know he has a great sense of humour and sportsmanship, so I kept kidding around with him. The biggest joke involved tokens. See, the organisers of the event had given me tokens which were redeemable for Harry Potter posters. Any great answer got the participant a token. I had them in my pocket and was handing them out generously to people who gave exceptional answers. Well ... I did give this guy a token ... when ... he ... got ... the ... answer ... WRONG!  I told him that he always got everything right, so here was his reward for being original! It got a hearty laugh from the audience (and yes, he joined in the laughter).
There you have it. There are some things that may challenge your idea of what is strictly fair or just, but I have to balance things out to make it competitive, entertaining and fulfilling at the same time!
Thanks for listening.
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Thank you for the responses to "Spiritual Newsletter (June 21, 2017)"
Alexis Kaye Wright 
This email has come at an ironically coincidental time (and I do not believe in coincidences). My mom passed away June 28, 2006, and June 28th is this Wednesday... 11 years and I still find it hard to grasp the fact that I will never see her again until it is on the other side (Heaven). Today (Sunday) was alright, but about an hour ago I started missing my mom badly to the point of crying. I wish God allowed visits to or FROM Heaven because she (my mom) gave the best hugs and I need a hug right now. 
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Thank you for featuring my work and for such an insightful interview and topic
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Thank you for sharing about white cases and how to go about getting one. I feel sad for those who passed away, even if I never knew them. Thinking that their works may never be read and simply fade with our memories of them saddens me even more. I started writing for selfish reasons, because I feared that I might pass before my son ever really got to know me. My stories are my way of leaving something of me behind for him to enjoy and remember me by. I'm sure the white cases will be glad to be remembered this way; I know I would be honored. |
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