​While there is never really a bad season to participate in Teen Bible Quizzing, the common perception is that a Gospel year is preferable. Especially to new quizzers, the Gospels seem easier to grasp as they tell a story. In addition, among the Gospels in the quiz cycle, John is by far the shortest.

The Book of John contains 878 verses, which is 18% fewer than Matthew (1,071 verses) and 24% fewer than Luke (1,151 verses). Also, of the 18,635 words in John, 3.7% of them (697 words) are used only once. Called unique or key words, they give quizzers the edge needed to be the first to jump and know from exactly where in the scripture the question was taken. For example, if a question began with “Who confessed…”, you would know that the question could only be: “Who confessed freely?” The word confessed is only found in John 1:20, so you know the answer is “John”. If you know these unique words and enough of the associated verse, you will be able to jump well before the complete question is read.

You can find a list of these words on the YouthQuiz web site or in the concordance at the back of your spiral-bound scripture portion. They are also in bold italics in the Nazarene Youth Bible Quizzing pocket scripture portion. A good study technique would be to highlight these words as well in your scripture portion so they will stand even more out as you read and re-read the material.

While I'm not a rocket surgeon, as you can tell I like to pretend I am one. So here is a brief statistical analysis of the Memory Verses for the upcoming quiz season covering the Gospel of John:

Reflecting on the Field and National Quizzes I have attended the past dozen or so years, I can confidently say that the most successful teams always have a skilled According To question person.

For those who may be unfamiliar, every quiz match asks four According To questions. The preamble of these questions supply the quizzer with the chapter and verse for the subsequent question. The intent of this type of question is to direct the quizzer toward a certain passage of Scripture which may be similar to other passages being studied. While the answer does not have to be word-for-word from the verse, the answer must be contained to just that verse and be precise enough to distinguish it from other verses. An example would be: According to John chapter 5, verse 1, where did Jesus go? Answer: Up to Jerusalem. Jesus went to many places in the Book of John, but in John 5:1, he specifically went up to Jerusalem.

Since answering an According To question as a multiple is permissible, it is common for these quizzers to get the jump (pun intended) on everyone else by interrupting the reading of the question as – or before – the Quizmaster is announcing the verse number. The quizzer rattles off several possible questions and their respective answers within 30 seconds in the hopes that one of them was the intended question.

Seemingly, According To quizzers appear to have not only memorized the entire study scripture, but can recall a specific verse instantaneously. In awe of this apparent superpower, I asked three former According To quizzers who have competed multiple times at the national level to share their stories and study methods: Cole Hodge and Leah Augustine from the MidSouth District, and Lydia Hutchison from the Florida District.