Puzzle Notes

Dear Friends:

When is a hard trivia question too hard? At AVCX, we're able to see the responses for anyone who submits the Google Form, and we can calculate the get rate on each of our questions. When building our trivia puzzles we try to keep 50% in mind. We think a question below a 50% get rate can be classified as hard. Hard questions are okay (though we wouldn't want the majority of questions to be hard), but how hard is too hard? We don't have a good answer.

If a question had a 0% get rate, we'd say it was too hard. But what about 10%? Or 20%? One factor is if the hardness comes in service of the theme. We could stomach a 20% get rate on a question that's vital to tie a theme together. Hmm. If we're forced to put a number on it (we're not, no one if forcing us to put a number on it) let's say a single digit get rate means a question was too hard. That'll be our hardness barometer. Of course, this won't be able to prevent us from asking a question that's too hard. We can't know a question's get rate until we ask it. But at least we'll know in hindsight.

That's it for today. If there are any trivia topics you'd like us to talk about, let us know! You can use the feedback field on the puzzle submission sheet, or email trivia@avxwords.com. We're by no means experts, just folks who enjoy talking about trivia. And we're happy to keep doing it.

AQCAG

Our All Questions Correct Answer Getter from our March 8 puzzle is Rory M. Gold star, Rory!

Trivia Puzzle #6

Today's puzzle is by Patrick Iber. Patrick is a historian and magazine editor. For the last few years, he has been the editor of the Hidden Connections puzzles at LearnedLeague, which have a similar format to AVCX trivia. As a fan of the whole AVCX project, he is delighted to be making his debut here!

With 7 questions, this one is pitched at a medium difficulty and touches on musical modifiers, structural shapes, and more. Enjoy!

Until next time,

T.J., Karen & The Red Hot Chili AVCXers

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