University Challenge

The Clare captain's quite fit...

I'll relay that on

I mae a horrific ****up, I know. Things were getting really tense at that point and my brain just kind of stopped working.

I mae a horrific ****up, I know. Things were getting really tense at that point and my brain just kind of stopped working.

Maybe . I study maths and go to Cambridge...

I thought you were really good, if not the best, on your team

What are you talking about? You got some really good ones (though, the guy next to you was a machine).
Was there even one maths question?

You're the mathematician from abingdon, right?
If so, excellent. A fellow oxonian (obviously not university wise).

Well, my friends aren't letting me live it down

@Perseverance: it's a team thing, really. We all chipped in at crucial points. And I made that howler :>

@ben-smith: there was the sum of two primes question, but I am truly shocking at mental arithmetic and I'm even worse under pressure. I don't know why my captain said 16 though. 9 isn't even a prime!

@everyone: thanks for your kind comments :>

OK, I want to settle this. Are the UC questions generally biased towards the Arts?
It certainly feels like that...

I don't think so - they generally have a balance and there are a lot of hard questions from things like microbiology, genetics, physics and so on. If you watch the show often you notice that teams from colleges that specialise in either a science or a humanity field tend to do a little less well, as your team needs to have broad knowledge areas to win.

From what I recall, there wasn't, for example, a single maths question yesterday (By which I mean real maths, not silly primary school mental arithmetic) yet I'm sure there were multiple questions on english literature.

Magdalen Oxford won last year with a grand total of zero scientists on their team. I don't know how that plays into your breadth theory.

How cool is it that you can just come onto TSR after the programme and chat with the contestants! Was it recorded ages ago, so it's all old-hat to you and you have to remember back?

OK, I want to settle this. Are the UC questions generally biased towards the Arts?
It certainly feels like that...

I didn't know Magdalen had no scientists last year, but they must nevertheless have answered a lot of science questions - i remember the final - presumably it's on YouTube still as well to check. I was being general - obviously there are going to be teams that have breadth without being on specific courses. I was thinking particularly of teams from colleges like Imperial or SOAS for example where you would expect distinct biases in knowledge.

The final last year had questions on the people mentioned in Bohemian Rhapsody