Difficulty level tailoring

Beginners (6-7 years old):

  • For younger children: Let students play in pairs. Two children can work together to guess the mystery character. They can discuss possible questions, combine ideas, and help each other decide what to eliminate.
  • They may only use simple and visible characteristics:
  • boy or girl
  • glasses or no glasses

You can give them a list of example questions to help them, such as:

  • “Does your person wear glasses?”
  • “Is their hair blond?”

This way, they learn that broad questions can eliminate many cards at once. They also discover that it’s best to reason from broad to specific.

Advanced learners (8-9 years old):

  • You can choose to allow a maximum of 10 questions.

They must write down their questions in advance.

  • This teaches them to plan instead of choosing impulsively.
  • A Required Question Order

They must begin with questions that eliminate many characters at once.

For example, they follow this sequence:

  • Gender (usually eliminates about half of the group)
  • Hair (hair colour or hair length)
  • Accessories (glasses, hat, moustache)
  • Clothing (bright colours, sweater, shirt)

Only after these broad questions are they allowed to ask more detailed ones.

Experts (9–10 years old): 

  • Smart Halving Questions

Teach students to ask questions that eliminate about half of the characters at once.

Examples:

  • “Is your person wearing something on their head?”
  • “Does your person have dark hair?”
  • “Does your person wear glasses or a moustache?” (a question about multiple features at once)
  • Forbidden Questions
  • Ban simple, low-impact questions such as:
  • “Does your person have blue eyes?”
  • “Is it Rob?” (except on the final turn)
  • Students must think about why these questions don’t help much.
  • Colour-Coding and Clustering
  • Before starting, have students create a chart where they group characters based on: hair – gender – accessories – face shape

They must plan their first three questions before the round begins.

  • Competition: As Few Questions as Possible

Maximum of 7 questions

  • +1 point for any question that eliminates more than 4 characters
  • –1 point for any question that eliminates fewer than 2 characters.