Stimulate me!
October 10, 2011 1:30 PM Subscribe
What are the best Sporcle quizzes that don't show up on the Most Popular or Highest Rated categories?
Looking for the hidden gems, especially in literature, science, geography, language and similar subjects. Less interested in tv, movie, gaming categories, but hey, if you know a brilliant quiz in any category I want to hear about it. There are so many thousands of quizzes on offer but I'm finding it difficult to find the best ones outside of those few ranking parameters they give you and I can't think of a sharper bunch of people to beg recommendations from than y'all.
Looking for the hidden gems, especially in literature, science, geography, language and similar subjects. Less interested in tv, movie, gaming categories, but hey, if you know a brilliant quiz in any category I want to hear about it. There are so many thousands of quizzes on offer but I'm finding it difficult to find the best ones outside of those few ranking parameters they give you and I can't think of a sharper bunch of people to beg recommendations from than y'all.
Best answer: I made a Mefi quiz awhile back, and there's another one by jedicus for the 200 most active Mefites circa 2010. I also turned waxy's viral video backgrounds into a neat visual quiz.
The trademarked sounds one was fun.
There are a number of open-ended linguistic ones that don't have a lot of plays, e.g. words that start with "a" and end in "ation", all the three-letter words, four-letter words, etc. I find the the brain-racking aspect of these more interesting than the much more common ones that want you to guess specific words based on definitions.
In the same vein, there are a few mega-quizzes that cram thousands of possible answers into a few hundred ranges, which end up more or less like "name every X you can think of." For example: the 2000 best movies, the 4000 largest cities, the 5000 most common English words, the 2000 most common words alphabetically, etc.
Also, if you like geography, I think the countries of the world quiz on Jetpunk is far superior to Sporcle's version.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2011
The trademarked sounds one was fun.
There are a number of open-ended linguistic ones that don't have a lot of plays, e.g. words that start with "a" and end in "ation", all the three-letter words, four-letter words, etc. I find the the brain-racking aspect of these more interesting than the much more common ones that want you to guess specific words based on definitions.
In the same vein, there are a few mega-quizzes that cram thousands of possible answers into a few hundred ranges, which end up more or less like "name every X you can think of." For example: the 2000 best movies, the 4000 largest cities, the 5000 most common English words, the 2000 most common words alphabetically, etc.
Also, if you like geography, I think the countries of the world quiz on Jetpunk is far superior to Sporcle's version.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:35 PM on October 10, 2011
I like the baby name quizzes. I've particularly enjoyed comparing popular names from the 2000s and names from the early 1900s. Then there's this one, which asks you to guess names that were popular in both 2009 AND 1909.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:56 PM on October 10, 2011
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:56 PM on October 10, 2011
Literal Chinese Animals -- shameless plug for a quiz by yours truly, but I think it's honestly a fun and unique type of quiz. More of solving riddles than knowing facts. (No knowledge of Chinese necessary.)
What Language Don't I Speak? -- identifying written languages
Things Meatloaf Won't Do For Love -- this one might not take you much time to complete, but I still love it.
posted by jef at 4:04 AM on October 11, 2011
What Language Don't I Speak? -- identifying written languages
Things Meatloaf Won't Do For Love -- this one might not take you much time to complete, but I still love it.
posted by jef at 4:04 AM on October 11, 2011
There are some great ones here. One of my all time favorites was the totally out-of-left-field USPS street suffixes quiz.
posted by saladin at 7:08 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by saladin at 7:08 AM on October 11, 2011
I like the "In other words" quizzes, as well as the "name the countries with the most X, quizzes, like exports of stuff.
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:44 AM on October 11, 2011
posted by Cold Lurkey at 8:44 AM on October 11, 2011
Response by poster: Thanks everyone! Great stuff.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 12:27 PM on November 10, 2011
posted by villanelles at dawn at 12:27 PM on November 10, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
Can you name the languages spoken in the sound clips?
Can you name the most widely spoken languages with each ending?
Can you name the modern countries in which there was an ancient Greek colony?
Can you name the countries of the world
whose English word for citizens (demonym)
ends with '-ese'?
Can you name the modern countries in which Shakespeare's plays are set?
Can you name the art museums that received the most visitors in 2009?
Can you name the two countries, in either order, whose names begin and end the given ways?
Can you name the books from their plot haikus?
Can you name the Famous People whose Last Words are Listed?
So, less obvious trivia, more puzzley type ones that require you to organize things you know in an unfamiliar way.
posted by villanelles at dawn at 2:30 PM on October 10, 2011