If you want to win a quiz, one of the best things you can do to prepare is to read newspapers everyday. A good quizmaster will use the media as a benchmark for what contestants are likely to know and what he’s likely to throw them.
Getting into the habit of reading widely will help you brush up on names of national and state capitals, medal-winners and electoral outcomes, or to notice things that might catch the quizmaster’s eye, such as the recent change in the pump price of petrol.
If it’s a general knowledge quiz, start reading up on what happened the previous year and what has happened so far in the current year, especially government appointments (recently elected ministers, promotions to powerful government positions etc), winners of international and domestic prizes (Nobel prize, National Merit Awards, Pulitzer Prize etc), corporate affairs (mergers-acquisitions, senior management changes etc ) and sports (the Olympics, Euro 2016 etc)
You should be able to find this information on Wikipedia and Google by searching for the respective year like this : 2016 in Nigeria; World events of 2016. Brush up on quizzing staples: longest rivers, past heads of state and years of service, and sports trivia.
Read encyclopaedias on topics you are not sure you have a grasp on, try to skim as fast as possible and absorb facts as you read. Remember also that information is always more memorable if you come across it an interesting context – so make it fun!
Keep in mind that you cannot prepare for a quiz the same way you would an exam, because trying to learn the right questions that might come up is a waste of time. The reason being that you do not know, well, except you are given broad topics to cover, which I seriously doubt. Hence, your reading and research must be broad-based, and you should also learn the art of how to answer questions quickly.
Preparation is continuous. Try to gather as much information as possible about every new subject you come across. Further, few quizmasters have been known to repeat questions, so get a hold of the archives just so you have a working knowledge of the pattern in which the questions are set. Is it Science and Tech, Politics and Current Affairs, Sports and Entertainment Trivia, Geography and History etc?
Stay curious and endeavour to keep your spirits high. You also have to trust your instincts, it’s amazing what you come out with under pressure.
