The quiz - in its fifth year of annual competitions - is held in Timaru, Christchurch and Dunedin, and attracts more than 1500 pupils from years 6 to 10.
First up last night were the primary schools, with 53 teams of pupils from years 5 and 6 answering 10 rounds of questions to find a winner.
Teams came from Dunedin and East Otago.
Questions varied from "name the king of pop who died recently" to "what large company does Henry van der Heyden head?"St Clair School teams took first and second places, with 96 and 93 points respectively.
A team from Andersons Bay School was third, with 91 points.
The winning team, St Clair School 2, said it had gathered together all of the copies of Extra! handed out this year and studied each night for up to an hour, although one team member admitted to "cramming" yesterday morning.
Braeden McIntyre (11), a member of the winning team, said his dad would "have a heart attack" when he found out his son's team had won the quiz.
There were also about 53 teams for the intermediate years 7 and 8 section.
At one stage, the teams were excitedly leafing through pages of the ODT as they tried to find the answers for a round called "scavenger hunt".
The winner was Tahuna Intermediate 3, with 96 points.
Member Sandra Pang (12) had been in the team which won the same quiz last year with the first perfect score.
Aaron Anderson said the questions had been easier than those their teacher provided for practice.
Tahuna Intermediate 10 was second, with 95 points.
There was a tie for third, with Kaikorai College 1 and Columba College 1 both scoring 94 points.
