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University Challenge

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Reply 600

Original post
by sigbin
Yeah, they're pretty keen on mentioning the average age for each new team. There are no solid rules against entering a team of mature students, but the producers are highly unlikely to pick such a team. I guess they got sick of the letters from irate viewers.


Do the producers have any say over the team members from a given university though? I mean, isn't it decided by heats and so on within that university?

Reply 601

Each university (or college) is responsible for putting together the team of 4 (5 inc. reserve). The producers have no say over how the team is chosen - they only choose which teams appear on the show.

Reply 602

Well as yesterday went well, I'll shoot for the show next series I think!

Reply 603

Original post
by The Anti-Hero
Out of interest, is it unlikely for a first year student to make a UC team?

I always imagined that it would be.


One of the Birmingham team is a first year :smile:

Reply 604

I've applied every year to be on the team for UEA but I'm too damn dumb!!

Reply 605

Original post
by Witty Username
One of the Birmingham team is a first year :smile:


I suppose you just have to be pretty knowledgeable for your age? Presumably gappies have more of a chance? It would be great to try and get on it, i think i am going to have a go!

Reply 606

Original post
by emmanottinghil
I suppose you just have to be pretty knowledgeable for your age? Presumably gappies have more of a chance? It would be great to try and get on it, i think i am going to have a go!


I think as long as you have a broad (rather than necessarily deep) knowledge of your chosen subject, you're a valuable addition to the team.

Plus there are disciplines that tie in with others that you'll probably be decent at (for example a historian should have a fair grasp of geography) and everybody has their own hobbies and interests that may help.

The thing with UC is that "general knowledge" in the traditional pub quiz/Who Wants to be a Millionaire sense isn't really that useful!

Reply 607

Original post
by The Anti-Hero

The thing with UC is that "general knowledge" in the traditional pub quiz/Who Wants to be a Millionaire sense isn't really that useful!


Are you serious?

Let's examine the typical questions: being able to identify pieces of popular and classical music, and their composers and performers; being able to identify countries, their locations, their size, demographics and their flags; knowing about historical figures and events; knowing about science and maths; knowing about works of fiction and their authors; knowing about famous artists and theri works.

That sounds very much like general knowledge to me. The emphasis is on slightly more obscure concrete facts rather than the more popular trivia, but it certainly isn't anything more.

Reply 608

Original post
by emmanottinghil
I suppose you just have to be pretty knowledgeable for your age? Presumably gappies have more of a chance? It would be great to try and get on it, i think i am going to have a go!


I don't know about the gap-year thing, I was really not very good at the try-outs! And he's a physics student so I doubt he took a gap year anyway (AFAIK not many physics students take gap years).

But definitely have a go, when they went through the answers this year I had made some silly mistakes that cost me a few marks so hopefully I can improve on that.

Reply 609

Original post
by emmanottinghil
I suppose you just have to be pretty knowledgeable for your age? Presumably gappies have more of a chance? It would be great to try and get on it, i think i am going to have a go!


Unless they ask questions on lash, drugs or obscure sexual positions I don't think a gap year is going to help that much...

Reply 610

Original post
by Good bloke
Are you serious?

Let's examine the typical questions: being able to identify pieces of popular and classical music, and their composers and performers; being able to identify countries, their locations, their size, demographics and their flags; knowing about historical figures and events; knowing about science and maths; knowing about works of fiction and their authors; knowing about famous artists and theri works.

That sounds very much like general knowledge to me. The emphasis is on slightly more obscure concrete facts rather than the more popular trivia, but it certainly isn't anything more.



What I was trying to say, perhaps, is that a decent amount of specialist knowledge, knowing a handful of areas well enough to answer tricky and obscure questions. is perhaps preferable for a UC contestant than the absolute surface-level, jack of all trades knowledge that would get somebody by on a programme like Millionaire.

Of course, "general knowledge trivia" is ultimately going to be useful for any quiz, but I think people like the BBC's Eggheads team would flounder on UC simply because the emphasis on UC, in my opinion at least, seems to be on a level of comprehensive understanding rather than memorising lists of trivia facts.

Reply 611

Original post
by The Anti-Hero
I think people like the BBC's Eggheads team would flounder on UC simply because the emphasis on UC, in my opinion at least, seems to be on a level of comprehensive understanding rather than memorising lists of trivia facts.


I doubt that. The Eggheads would beat most UC teams hands down. Few UC questions call on a need for understanding, and almost all are susceptible to an informed guess. I normally achieve an individual score of around half the combined scores of both teams when watching UC, but I would typically lose to the Eggheads.

Reply 612

Original post
by around
Unless they ask questions on lash, drugs or obscure sexual positions I don't think a gap year is going to help that much...


LOL! We obviously had very different gap years. :smile:

Reply 613

Original post
by Witty Username
I don't know about the gap-year thing, I was really not very good at the try-outs! And he's a physics student so I doubt he took a gap year anyway (AFAIK not many physics students take gap years).

But definitely have a go, when they went through the answers this year I had made some silly mistakes that cost me a few marks so hopefully I can improve on that.


What did you get wrong? A profound knowledge of flags appears to be utterly essential, along with the ability to instantly recognise buildings and paintings of the world from rather second-rate photographs.

Reply 614

Original post
by Good bloke
I doubt that. The Eggheads would beat most UC teams hands down. Few UC questions call on a need for understanding, and almost all are susceptible to an informed guess. I normally achieve an individual score of around half the combined scores of both teams when watching UC, but I would typically lose to the Eggheads.


Well, take your "know about science and maths" example.

Would you consider the kinds of maths or science problems pitched on UC, which almost always include complex formulas, to require a "trivia level" of understanding of mathematics?

Reply 615

Original post
by The Anti-Hero
Well, take your "know about science and maths" example.

Would you consider the kinds of maths or science problems pitched on UC, which almost always include complex formulas, to require a "trivia level" of understanding of mathematics?


I answered that in post 611, but those questions are atypical, and maths questions certainly don't "almost aways include" such formulae.

Reply 616

I don't think my university has had a team for a few years or I would definitely go for it :yes:

Reply 617

Original post
by Good bloke
I doubt that. The Eggheads would beat most UC teams hands down. Few UC questions call on a need for understanding, and almost all are susceptible to an informed guess. I normally achieve an individual score of around half the combined scores of both teams when watching UC, but I would typically lose to the Eggheads.


They are hard to beat. There are categories I win often but in the final round I almost always lose to them - although I beat the other team not too irregularly.

Love that show XD

Reply 618

Original post
by emmanottinghil
What did you get wrong? A profound knowledge of flags appears to be utterly essential, along with the ability to instantly recognise buildings and paintings of the world from rather second-rate photographs.


Can't remember off the top of my head, but there were a fair few literature questions that I got wrong (not my strong subject).
The try-outs just had questions in a powerpoint document, there were no pictures to view and no music to listen too. However they did have questions about music and art.
I got the chemistry ones right, some of the physics, the music ones (awww yeah!) and then a selection of others. I got a simple German one wrong, I think at the time you panic and forget something which you later realise you know.

I'm not so sure about that, I think the ability to make lucky guesses is more useful!

Reply 619

Original post
by Good bloke
I answered that in post 611, but those questions are atypical, and maths questions certainly don't "almost aways include" such formulae.


I fail to see how you answered the question, really.

I've rarely heard straightforward, trivia-level maths questions on UC, though that's only my personal experience.

As for those sorts of questions being atypical, I disagree. I maintain that most of the questions asked, especially in the later rounds of the contest, require levels of specialist knowledge and understanding that goes far beyond that of 'general trivia'.

Taking history as an example, dates of well-known events, widely recognised figures and the like would be general trivia, but I fail to see how a question that requires an in-depth understanding of the work of Herodotus or knowledge of an obscure battle is "general trivia". If you define it as such, I'd like to know what you consider to be "specialist".

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