The best and fairest way to mark the quiz is to have one person mark all the answer sheets. This will provide consistency and avoid any chicanery. However, someone to do the marking is often not available; if you have someone good, value them far beyond pearls. The sequence should be:
- Read the questions and allow the teams time to answer.
- The marker collects the answer sheets and hands out sheets for the next round.
- Read out the answers while the marker does the marking.
- Read out the questions for the next round while the marker finishes marking, tots up the scores etc.
- While the marker collects and hands out answer sheets, you read out the scores.
- Repeat
This should keep things moving along quite nicely.
If you haven’t got a marker then the teams will have to swap answer sheets with other teams. Be wary of two teams of friends who might be “lenient” with each other; perhaps insisting that teams vary who they swap with. Teams must swap back after you’ve given the answers, so that any mismarking can be rectified. It’s also a good idea to get the teams to call out their score, so that the team that marked them can spot someone adding a few marks to the score.
[If you use our scoring application it will take care of the sums to make things quicker, and you can display everything on a screen for everyone to see.]