Summary: things I’ve learned doing Mastermind.

In the decade or so since I won Mastermind, not one soul entering the quiz has ever asked me for a word of advice on how to do well on it … even feckers I know.

And I have opinions! They may not be plentiful but, in case of use for anyone, here they are.

1. Do your favorite subject first, because you may never get another chance.
2. Study your specialist subject like your whole future depends on it. Because in Mastermind terms it does. It is the only subject area where you know the sort of questions that might come up, so you have to endeavor to max this round out.
3. Questions usually have one or two word answers so try to spot likely candidates as you revise.
4. If you don’t know the answer immediately, give yourself a moment to think. In my first round I passed on about 4 questions in the general knowledge which I recalled the answer to immediately on saying the word “pass”. I had thought it was better tactics to pass and move on rather than dawdle trying to recall an answer. It’s not. Fortunately I had done enough work on the specialist subject round to carry me through.
5. Before sitting in the black chair I would have said that winning depended on hard work and luck, and that, in accordance with most things, about any one of 20% of the entrants could win the whole thing. I still think that is more or less right. But as Gary Player, I think, said, the harder you work, the luckier you get.
6. Winning also depends on staying calm when the chips are down. It takes as much energy to panic as it does to think, so try to think.
7. And so, as with life, the rules are simple: work hard, hope for some luck, and try to hold your nerve at the moment of truth.
8. Here endeth the lesson.

PS, from the legend that is Mr Dave McBryan:

4a Even if you know you aren’t going to know the answer to something, a speedy wrong answer is usually a better tactic than a pass.

And one more to add:
Listen. Focus for the entire question. It’s all too easy to zone out at the beginning because you’re still thinking about the previous q, or to to miss something crucial late on because you stopped paying attention once you thought you had the answer. Any thoughts about other qs or how well/badly you’re doing are distractions to be avoided – in the moment, nothing matters except the current q.