Question setters can be a bit like the Magic Circle: it usually takes a lot of begging, bribery, blackmail or booze to get one to tell you the answers, instead of just asking more questions. Setters are also even less likely than journalists to reveal their sources. However, NAQT have gone right ahead and broken the code of secrecy with their You Gotta Know lists (and yes, the title makes me cringe too).

Let's start with the disclaimer: yes, NAQT are our friends, but what's wrong with a little nepotism? NAQT - National Academic Quiz Tournaments, if you like - does in the USA roughly what BQ does in the UK, albeit on a considerably larger scale. More importantly, as least as far as anyone planning to take on BQ questions is concerned, NAQT also supplies some of our questions - so if they're giving hints, you might want to take notice.

If you're still sitting there trying to cram title-author or person-date of birth lists, here's a hint: don't. Not only is learning binary lists like those the fastest way to make yourself hate quizzes eternally, most decent question setters have got wise to it and now don't start buzzer questions with "Born in [year], this person...". Instead, if you really must start swotting, a good thing to work on is arming yourself with an arsenal of plausible and common answers in particular areas.

After all, unless we're really being mean, there's only so many 20th century composers or Egyptian deities we're going to ask about. If you at least know the basics about them, you'll give yourself a fighting chance of being able to offer at worst an intelligent guess (and not something so wildly out that it earns a Paxonian sneer).

That's where these short guides come in: by picking the really common answers, and giving you the really common facts about them, chances are you're going to be able to recognise something if they come up. Games are often won and lost not on outright clear knowledge, but instead on plausible punts and half-remembered details. After all, the only way you're going to get points is by offering some sort of answer to the question.

The "You Gotta Know" lists aren't going to make you an expert quizzer overnight (sorry). They will, however, save you sinking your head into your hands every time you hear "Answer these questions about medieval Islamic dynasties" or "Name these psychologists". And, indeed, if you were to be taking on pure US questions (hint? me?), you could do worse than to be able to offer a New York Yankee other than Babe Ruth or a Civil War battle other than Gettysburg. And I bet you never knew Wayne Gretzky wasn't all on his own in the Ice Hockey Hall of Fame.

Just don't mock our nice American friends for their list of British monarchs, mmkay?