I had an abysmal geographical knowledge. It got embarrassing when I didn’t know exactly where Qatar was located, so I sought out ways to improve my sense of geographical knowledge. Almost immediately, I came across the quiz website Sporcle, which provides timed quizzes to help improve world geographic knowledge, but also trivia nerd knowledge, including popular literature, sports, science and literature.

Sporcle creates trivia games, and allows users to create games, as well. Additionally, the website allows you to challenge your friends and the computer to battles of wits. Playing against the computer is a task in frustration, but it also sends you tons of random quizzes so you can expand your knowledge in directions you wouldn’t choose for yourself.

The most popular games on Sporcle are probably the geographic ones. The top-played game is—perhaps surprisingly—one in which game players name all of the 50 states in fewer than ten minutes. Like most of the games on the website, it’s harder than you might expect. Other popular geography games including naming all of the countries of Europe in under eight minutes and the countries of the world in under fifteen.

My favorite section of the site is the Literature section, which is unduly skewed to include obscure Harry Potter trivia like “Harry Potter Spells.” If you want to weed out the Potter questions, however, the section is also sorted into subcategories by genre and title character. Some of the most interesting quizzes in this section include listing Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels from 1923-2006. This quiz expands your reading list, while also helping you sound like you know what you’re talking about when discussing great works of fiction.

I also enjoy the Movie trivia section, which includes typical question sets like “Actors by Movie,” but ranges into the obscure like “Movie by Limerick.” The Top Ten Box Office Stars by decade is always interesting if you like seeing how disposable big stars often are.

Other interesting sections of Sporcle include the Television section, which allows you to show off your extensive knowledge of ‘80s sitcoms and cartoon. The history section includes an excessive number of quizzes about presidents, as well as famous wars. The music section includes quizzes about music from every genre and era, including a funny and popular quiz called “The Beatles or Rebecca Black?”.  

Have you ever used Sporcle quizzes to expand your knowledge in an area in which it was lacking? Do you prefer another quiz site to Sporcle?