The Quiz of Religions

In the context of the project „Relixchange – an Interreligious Youth Exchange between Germany and Egypt“ (a project as part of the German-Egyptian Transformation Partnership) we created a religions quiz (in English) which we would like to make available here for everyone who is planning a similar project or who wants to use it for other purposes in this or an adjusted form.

The Quiz of Religions can be downloaded here as a power point presentation.

Here we would like to give some instructions on how to play the quiz with a group of around 20 people:

Aim of method

• Offer a playful introduction to the different religions (in the respective country context) and provide some factual information
• Assess how much the participants know about this topic

Time required:      50 minutes

Material required

• Quiz questions in electronic version
• Laptop
• Data projector
• Flip chart or board, pen
• Umbrellas (as many as there are groups)
• Printed questions and answers for the trainers
• Hand-out with all the questions and the right answers to be distributed to the participants
• Prize for the winning team

Description of method

1. The participants are distributed into teams of 4 or 5 persons from mixed religious and cultural backgrounds.
2. Each team gives themselves a name.
3. The team names are written on the board/flip chart so that the points they achieve can be written underneath.
4. Each team receives an umbrella.
5. The trainer explains the rules of the game.
6. The first question including the possible multiple-choice answers (denominated by letters a, b, c, etc.) appears on the screen.
7. The teams quietly discuss amongst themselves which answer might be the right one.
8. The team that thinks they have the right answer raises the umbrella.
9. The first team to have raised the umbrella is allowed to give the answer they think is right (the other teams are not allowed to talk at this point).
10. The trainer compares the given answer with their printed answers from the quiz.

• If it is right, the right answer is displayed on the screen and the team is given a point (on the board/flip chart) by the assistant and the next question is displayed.
• If it is wrong, a point is deducted from the team who raised their umbrella first, the right answer is NOT displayed on the screen, and the other teams (who have not given an answer yet) are given the opportunity to answer the question, i.e. to raise their umbrella if they think they know the answer – the game continues as described (i.e. the group that raises the umbrella first is allowed to give an answer etc.).
• If the team that has first raised the umbrella does not come up with an answer in the first 3 seconds after being given the chance, their chance expires and a point is deducted. This avoids teams sticking up their umbrella in order to be the first and only afterwards discussing their answer.
• If none of the teams gets the right answer, the right answer is displayed and none of the teams receives a point.

1. At the end of the quiz, the points of the teams are counted and the team with the most points receives a prize.

Special information

The quiz needs to be prepared beforehand by the trainers or organisers. It might be necessary to adapt, update or create a new quiz according to the specific programme.
At least two trainers (or one trainer, one assistance) should conduct this exercise. It is advised to if possible, have three persons running it. In this constellation, the lead trainer reads the questions from the screen, compares the answers with the printed copy, and decides on whether the answers are right or wrong and how to continue; the first assistant takes care of displaying the questions and answers on the power point presentation (or similar) and pays attention to which team raises the umbrella first and the second assistant is in charge of giving and deducting the points on the flip chart/board.
A decision needs to be made beforehand as to whether multiple right answers are included in the quiz and how they are to be dealt with (e.g. first answer from a team including any of the right answers will be taken as correct, point is awarded and complete answers are displayed, or else).
It is advisable to hand the questions with the right answers to the participants afterwards, because during the game itself there is not enough time to reflect on the answers properly. Also, the trainers should be ready to discuss the answers with the participants afterwards.
For further methods that can be used in an interreligious youth project also see our “Method Kit for International Inter-religious Youth Work” which can also be downloaded as open educational resource from our website.