Top Ten Most Challenging Things About Being a Bible Quizzer

Easily the hardest part of Bible quizzing. Sunday school might have you memorizing a verse a week or so, but this year, we had to memorize six or more a day! In no way do I suggest I memorized anywhere near that much, but it's what it takes to be a good quizzer! And I... am not!

Last year, I was part of my church's quiz team, and we had to memorize 3 chapters each. Some of these chapters were 50 verses long. Being a lazy bum, I took the easiest segment, which consisted of 30 verses, 20 verses, and 10 verses, but that's hard!

Even when I studied well, much of the difficulty came from actually remembering. The language is awkward most of the time. So, remembering even the six or more verses, especially word-for-word, became a struggle!

This seems hard to me. One thing to study, one thing to remember.

Jumping is indicating when you want to answer the question, like a buzzer. One is typically supposed to jump around the third syllable, but say the question is "Who is the stone, rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone?" (I don't know, bad question, it's Jesus, by the way).

If you were to jump on the third syllable of that, you probably wouldn't get the question. Jump too late, someone might have got it before you. Jump too early, and you could get it wrong. It takes a while to learn, and I'm still working on it!

Something I still fail to do well. I read things as a whole, and attaching numbers to the verses is amazingly difficult for me. For example, you could ask me what Acts 1:3 is, I know it easily and by heart, but I would never come up with it based solely off the numbers! At least, not on its own.

Holy keys, you must have one heck of a memory.

You may know the verse, but not the number.

I have various methods I switch around with, none of which I'm very good at, but I make do with!

For example, a regular question might be: "Saul, Saul, why are you..." The answer: Persecuting me. You'd have to go back on all the material you've memorized to remember where "Saul, Saul" came up.

I remember when I first started off, I was a really slow jumper, and it was hard to comprehend jumping and answering at the third syllable! Very much a test of reflex!

Nerves often make me blank out on quotes I know that I know! Being nervous is fine, but it does interfere with my head a bit. Especially in a competition all about what you've previously memorized, I don't need to be blanking out!

You get comfortable with your friends, but it's difficult to muster up the courage to jump at a meet with strangers. Especially with the possibility of getting it wrong and feeling embarrassed!