Tips for Themed Trivia: Speed, Accuracy and Climbing a Pack Board

Speed against accuracy

A right answer inside 2 seconds pays 100. After that it slides down to 80 at the 15-second buzzer. Wrong answers and timeouts pay nothing.

So being right matters far more than being quick. A slow right answer still earns 80; a fast wrong one earns nothing. Rushing only pays on questions you're sure of.

1. 1Read during the revealThe clock doesn't start until the choices appear, so read the whole question first. Misreads cost more easy points than gaps in knowledge do.
2. 2Sure? Tap at onceIf you know it, tap inside 2 seconds and bank the full 100.
3. 3Unsure? Use the clockThinking costs about 1.5 points a second. Take the time if it gets you to the right answer.
4. 4Never let it run outA timeout and a wrong answer both score zero, so a guess before the buzzer can only help.

Know the difficulty mix

A themed game deals 2 easy, 3 medium, 3 hard, 1 expert and 1 very hard, shuffled, so you can't tell from the position which one is which.

The easy and medium questions are where a good score is made. The expert and very hard ones are where boards are won, because most players miss them. Don't let a brutal question rattle you for the next one: there's only one very hard question per game.

Spend your free games well

Your two free themed games work in any packs, so spend them where they'll count: spread across packs to find the one you love, or all in the pack where you want a board place. Since a game counts the moment it's dealt, start one when you've got two quiet minutes rather than on the way out of the door.

Pick packs from your own life first. A dog owner, a history teacher or a crossword regular already has a head start somewhere.

Climbing a pack board

A pack board ranks your average score once you've played two games in that pack. All your games count toward that average, so one careless game drags it down as much as a great one lifts it.

Keep reading