Secret Stuff: Trivia on Trivia

Win more trivia games!

Every week, Cornerstone hosts a live trivia game at the Barley Mow Pub. We also play plenty of trivia, so we have some inside tips to help you win trivia games, whether you enjoy Trivia Pursuit, join in at pubs or play along at Jeopardy.

1. Stay current. Many pub nights include a news category with each game, for example. And try to stay on top of pop culture. The movies and TV you watched in high school are old news now. And the music you listened to is older news still.

2. Speaking of pop culture, if there was anything to "study" it would be Oscar winners and sports champions, particularly Olympians. Nobel Peace Prizes, Grammys and Emmys were worth a look, too.

3. Be terse. If you're asked for the name of the first divorced president, you will get full points for "Reagan" and full points for "Ronald Reagan," but you may be marked wrong if you write "Richard Reagan."

4. Be specific. Some quizmasters are hard on answers that are technically incorrect. If you're asked for the ally that entered Berlin first during World War II, the answer is the Soviet Union, not Russia. Music questions fall into the same category. You can be marked wrong for the Miami Sound Machine if the answer refers specifically to Gloria Estafan.

5. Many quizmasters compensate for hard questions by offering subtle clues in the question. Listen for these.