According to Wikipedia, on 6th april 2008 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiz), a quiz is a form of game or mind sport in which the players (as individuals or in teams) attempt to answer questions correctly. Quizzes are also brief assessments used in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abilities, and/or skills.

Origin of the word QUIZ:
There seems to be different opinions on the origin of the word “quiz”. It is likely, that the term just has been seen or heard from different sources at different times. Of cause there is probably an element of guessing as well, since it is hard to document things like that precisely.

In 1847 the word apparently appears: "She com back and quiesed us", which could be a hint of its origin. Quiz as a test could be a corruption of the Latin “Qui es”, which means "Who are you?" American Heritage says it may be from the English dialect verb “quiset” (perhaps abbreviation of “inquisite”), which means ”to question”. In any case it is probably from the same lingual root as the words question and inquisitive.

Legend says that in the 1780s Daly, the manager of a Dublin playhouse, laid a wager that a new word of no meaning should be the common talk and puzzle of the city in twenty-four hours. As a consequence of this; the letters q u i z were written with chalk on all the walls of Dublin, with the effect that the manager won the wager.