Brain Quest Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of the Brain Quest Game is to be the first player to reach the finish space.

Set Up

Place the gameboard in the middle of the table.
Each player chooses a playing piece and places it on the start space.
All of the players take the four answer tokens that match the playing piece they chose.
Decide whether you want to focus on one subject, or if you want to use all of the subjects. If you what to focus on specific subjects, you will just use the cards from that category/categories. Otherwise shuffle all of the cards to mix them up. Place the stack of cards near the gameboard with the question side face up.
The youngest player starts the game.

How to Play Brain Quest Game

You will begin your turn by taking the top card from the stack. Fold the card so you can’t see the answers on the other side. Find the question that matches your current grade. If it is the summer, you should choose the grade you just finished. Read the question and the four possible answers out loud.

Question card — The current player is in the fifth grade so they will read off the corresponding question. The players need to try and figure out which of the numbers are larger.

All of the players decide what they think the answer is and place the corresponding answer token face down on the table.

A player picking the answer A — The blue player has decided to pick A for their answer.

When all of the players have chosen their answer, the current player opens up the card and reads off the answer.

Looking at the correct answer to the question — The correct answer to the above question was A. All of the players that picked A will get to move forward.

Moving Your Playing Piece

If the current player guessed the correct answer, they will spin the spinner. The number they spin determines how many spaces forward they will move their playing piece.

Spinning the spinner after picking the right answer — The current player guessed the correct answer. The current player gets to move their playing piece forward four spaces.

Should the current player guess wrong, they do not move their playing piece any spaces.

The rest of the players can also earn spaces if they guessed the right answer. Starting with the player to the left of the current player, each player reveals the answer they selected.

Should the player guess correctly and they are in the same grade as the question or are in a higher grade, they will move their playing piece forward one space. For example the player is in fourth grade and they answered a second grade question correctly. They will move their playing piece forward one space.

If the player guesses correctly and the question was from a higher grade than the player is currently in, they will move their playing piece forward one space plus an additional space for each grade that the question was above their current grade. For example a player in second grade solved a fifth grade question. They will move their playing piece forward four spaces.

Moving playing pieces — The current player was orange so they moved their playing piece forward four spaces. The green player was correct and they are currently in third grade so they move three spaces (1 + 2 spaces for being a lower grade). The blue player is in fifth grade so they only get one space for their correct answer.

Usually there is no punishment for guessing wrong on a question. The one exception is if a player is currently in first place and the question was from a lower grade than the player’s current grade. If you are in first and you guess incorrectly on a question below your current grade, you move your playing piece back two spaces.

After everyone has finished moving their playing piece, the round ends. The player to the left of the previous player starts the next turn.

Winning the Game

The first player to reach the finish space wins the Brain Quest Game.

Winning Brain Quest — The orange player has reached the finish space. They have won the game.

Brain Quest Game FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

Game Board
135 Cards
16 Answer Tokens
4 Playing Pieces and Stands
Spinner
Instructions

Year: 1993 | Publisher: University Games, Workman Publishing

Genres: Children’s, Education, Trivia

Ages: 6+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 30-60 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.