I have been working at my first full-time job for a little over 9 months now. At times, I am frantically working at my computer,
trying to create the latest report to be due by the end of the day. At other times, I am sitting here, just like I am now, with no real intent to be doing any meaningful work. Perhaps I have done everything needed to do so far, or perhaps I just feel like taking a 10 minute break.
Either way, my fingers inevitably guide me to the news and sport websites I often visit near 100 times a day - perhaps the weather to determine whether I will be likely to be soaked when I get home this evening. Other times, I will visit
sporcle.com.
Huh? Sporcle? What is that? Well, Sporcle is a site which essentially hosts games you can play. These games are not multiplayer ones, but games which require you to think, and likely get that 'tip of the tongue' feeling.
Essentially, the games are all quizzes of the form "How many x can you name in y minutes?".
You choose a
quiz, and you will be given a presented with a table of answers which are all currently blank. Your job is to name as many correct answers as you can in the time limit. It is a simple notion - but difficult to win. You have a simple answer box in which you type your answers, and correct ones will appear on the gameboard.
There are many categories you can choose from, as so those not up on their American entertainment (like myself as I am from UK) can direct themselves to a more suitable one. Categories include Entertainment, Sport, History, Geography, Music, Languages, Literature, Television, and more. After choosing a category, you can then filter down into speicfic ones. For example, in Geography, you may have "How many American states can you name in 10 minutes", or "How many European capitals can you name in 10 minutes", etc.
The great thing about this site, is that it tends to have updates every day - so you can come on each day and try a new quiz. In the majority of cases, it will be something you will know something about, but maybe not everything. Also, it seems that Sporcle is tending more towards the Americans than to other countries, but also does intertwine with Canada and UK (London Tube Stations for example).
In my opinion, this is a great site as it provides a good distraction from work for 10 minutes, and is one where you can compete with your friends. It also is educational - after doing the "Elements Quiz" multiple times, you will remember some elements that you never did before, thus improving your knowledge. Also, with the countries quiz, you will remember things like the location of the countries, spellings of them, etc. So it is educational, as well as fun.
A new feature is that you can create a username which will track the quizzes you do, the scores you obtain, and the common answers you leave out. After each quiz, you have the opportunity to view the stats, which states what percentage get each answer, and what percentage get them all correct, or most correct (numbers vary on the quiz of course), etc.
I highly recommend at least a visit. Try out one or two of the quizzes - I am sure there will be at least one quiz out there to suit each person's strengths. Hopefully, you will get hooked, like myself.