Article Surfing Archive

Q. Can you help me come up with a cool quiz?

A. I am known as the King of Cool in the realm of the Quiz master. This question is right up my alley!

The term cool quiz means different things to different people. As you might imagine, the subject of the quiz has to be something that is appropriate for the age group that will be taking the quiz. What constitutes a cool quiz for one group might be a snoozer for a different group.

For example. Put together a Harry Potter quiz for a group of 8-year-olds and you've probably got yourself a cool quiz. Compose a "Which American Idol winner is your soul mate" quiz for a group of teens and you're likely to have come up with another cool quiz.

Married people might call "What home style is right for you" a cool quiz, and dog lovers would probably flip over something that tests their breed trivia skills.

So, as you can see, cool is a moving target. The underlying requirements of a cool quiz is that it addresses a topic that is "cool" to the targeted group, and that it uses those answers to make the person who takes the quiz look cool for knowing the answers, or at least attempting to take the quiz.

Once you get a reputation for having developed a cool quiz the word spreads. At some point it becomes cool just to take the quiz and people will do it just so others will think that they are cool.

There are lots of examples of this phenomenon among users of AOL. When one person spots a cool quiz, they pass it on to their AOL friends, who pass it on to more AOL friends, who pass it on, and on, and on. Eventually the quiz breaks out of the AOL family and gets passed around to people all over the Internet. You really know that you've encountered a cool quiz when you can find it mentioned in Google.

Don't try too hard to develop a cool quiz though. Cool isn't something that can be manufactured. It either is cool or it isn't. If you don't end up with a cool quiz, don't despair. Just sit down and write another one. Do some research and find out what people think is cool these days and then put your quiz together. When you finally make a cool quiz, you'll know it.