University Challenge 2014-15

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    Is 35 points the lowest score ever?
  • R82n8R82n8 Posts: 3,656
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    Is 35 points the lowest score ever?

    Fifteen!

    Felt a bit sorry for them tonight, totally hammered.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
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    R82n8 wrote: »
    Fifteen!

    Felt a bit sorry for them tonight, totally hammered.

    They were lucky to get 35, with a couple of minutes to go they only had 5.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 672
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    R82n8 wrote: »
    Fifteen!

    Felt a bit sorry for them tonight, totally hammered.

    Sussex managed 10 (ten) in 1971. They were the 1967 and 1969 series champions as well. Record high is 520 (five hundred and twenty) by UC-Oxford in 1987.
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,567
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    Shocker last night. Three girls on the team and just the one bloke who saved them at the last minute from going down with just 5 points. Draw your own conclusions!
  • Jenny_SawyerJenny_Sawyer Posts: 12,858
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    The questions were hard last night, I only answered 7 correctly - it's rare for me to be in single figures; I usually get around 13 but my best score ever is 26 which was not a fluke as I've got it twice.
  • SupratadSupratad Posts: 10,402
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    Straker wrote: »
    Shocker last night. Three girls on the team and just the one bloke who saved them at the last minute from going down with just 5 points. Draw your own conclusions!

    I've drawn the conclusion that you think men are more intelligent than women,
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,567
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    Supratad wrote: »
    I've drawn the conclusion that you think men are more intelligent than women,

    I think men are, generally speaking, more nerdily acquisitive concerning facts and trivia which is why there are more men than women on UC.
  • petelypetely Posts: 2,994
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    Straker wrote: »
    Shocker last night. Three girls on the team and just the one bloke who saved them at the last minute from going down with just 5 points. Draw your own conclusions!
    I'm not sure you can draw any conclusions from a single instance. There have been some mind-bogglingly clever women on UC in the past.

    Brasenose were one of the teams featured in the behind-the-scenes programmes about qualifying. (I recall the woman on the far left explaining how her name was pronounced). However it seems as if she and the guy were the only ones who contributed. "Bastard" is always a good way to begin a quiz show :)

    However, the questions did seem more difficult. Either that or the Durham boys were exceptionally fast as I only scored 55 (to keep up the petty post point-scoring) - which means getting the answer out before the contestant does.
  • lundavralundavra Posts: 31,790
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    Straker wrote: »
    Shocker last night. Three girls on the team and just the one bloke who saved them at the last minute from going down with just 5 points. Draw your own conclusions!
    Supratad wrote: »
    I've drawn the conclusion that you think men are more intelligent than women,

    Was it last year or the year before when the female captain(?) of one team almost won the competition single-handed with only a little help from the male members of the team? 'Draw your own conclusions'.
  • StrakerStraker Posts: 79,567
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    petely wrote: »
    I'm not sure you can draw any conclusions from a single instance. There have been some mind-bogglingly clever women on UC in the past.
    lundavra wrote: »
    Was it last year or the year before when the female captain(?) of one team almost won the competition single-handed with only a little help from the male members of the team? 'Draw your own conclusions'.

    Exceptions that prove the rule. That you can recall single instances concerning female contestants just proves my assertion that "acquiring" facts/stats/trvia etc is more a male characteristic than it is a female one.
  • grumpyscotgrumpyscot Posts: 11,343
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    lundavra wrote: »
    Was it last year or the year before when the female captain(?) of one team almost won the competition single-handed with only a little help from the male members of the team? 'Draw your own conclusions'.

    Gale Trimble - 2009 - team disqualified after winning final.
  • LordBobbinLordBobbin Posts: 359
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    Straker wrote: »
    Exceptions that prove the rule. That you can recall single instances concerning female contestants just proves my assertion that "acquiring" facts/stats/trvia etc is more a male characteristic than it is a female one.


    Well quizzing is definitely more of a male than a female thing.

    In the most recent World Quizzing Championships, for instance, only one of the top 39 quizzers were female! (And there's nothing particularly 'male' about the types of question being asked.)

    The winners of last year, Trinity College Cambridge, came under fire for having no women on the team. But apparently they got every prospective contestant to fill in a set of questions, and the best woman finished only 15th - despite the college being 40% female.


    Nobody knows exactly why, but the desire to amass lots and lots of useless facts does seem to be a predominantly male trait. That's not to say that there aren't going to be some brilliant women quizzers. But men seem to work harder at competing and turning themselves into better quizzers. Hence, there'll be far more of them near the top.
  • JeffG1JeffG1 Posts: 15,243
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    Straker wrote: »
    Exceptions that prove the rule. That you can recall single instances concerning female contestants just proves my assertion that "acquiring" facts/stats/trvia etc is more a male characteristic than it is a female one.

    Ha! I see what you did there. You have used the word 'prove' in two different senses. :)
  • talentedmonkeytalentedmonkey Posts: 2,639
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    Supratad wrote: »
    I've drawn the conclusion that you think men are more intelligent than women,

    No its just women spend too long thinking about something and making a decision, "Shall I press the buzzer now, I think I know the answer... oh too late".
  • valkayvalkay Posts: 15,726
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    Straker wrote: »
    Shocker last night. Three girls on the team and just the one bloke who saved them at the last minute from going down with just 5 points. Draw your own conclusions!

    He was the only one who got any questions right, one girl lost them 5 points which he had earned.
  • atgatg Posts: 4,260
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    valkay wrote: »
    He was the only one who got any questions right, one girl lost them 5 points which he had earned.
    Sometimes the answers to astronomy questions amuse me, but I really hoped he had got his wish and something like "Name the famous open cluster in the constellation Taurus the number of visible stars in which has in the past been used for assessing people's eyesight" was going to come up. What was the question that the girl confidently said "Sirius!" to?
  • snoweyowlsnoweyowl Posts: 1,922
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    This ageing male really likes University Challenge. I admire the aspiration and the fact that the students look like proper people with real hair and a lack of decoration.

    Compare this to the X Factor where unemployed is the most common occupation and easy money the desire.

    I do tend to take a fancy to the more attractive girls. I've spotted two previously and both were captains and were winners. The oxford captain fitted the bill but sadly they weren't very good. Even I knew the answers to several questions they flopped at. But they were up against it. Their opponents were red hot. They only really stumbled on the preserved railways, all of which I knew, but I was left standing by most of the questions they answered.

    The standard has improved enormously since it was revived.
  • valkayvalkay Posts: 15,726
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    snoweyowl wrote: »
    This ageing male really likes University Challenge. I admire the aspiration and the fact that the students look like proper people with real hair and a lack of decoration.

    Compare this to the X Factor where unemployed is the most common occupation and easy money the desire.

    I do tend to take a fancy to the more attractive girls. I've spotted two previously and both were captains and were winners. The oxford captain fitted the bill but sadly they weren't very good. Even I knew the answers to several questions they flopped at. But they were up against it. Their opponents were red hot. They only really stumbled on the preserved railways, all of which I knew, but I was left standing by most of the questions they answered.

    The standard has improved enormously since it was revived.



    I am surprised that some of the girls are attractive, when you consider that they were probably the school head girl and swot, with no interest in boys or popular culture and too busy studying.
  • Z StardustZ Stardust Posts: 430
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    atg wrote: »
    What was the question that the girl confidently said "Sirius!" to?

    Think it was which is the largest constellation? Sirius is a star of course, and the other team's answer isn't even a constellation either AFAIK.

    The answer was Hydra.
  • atgatg Posts: 4,260
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    Z Stardust wrote: »
    Think it was which is the largest constellation? Sirius is a star of course, and the other team's answer isn't even a constellation either AFAIK.

    The answer was Hydra.
    Ah yes. I think I knew too much and immediately thought Eridanus, although that might be the longest one, and then Cetus because of the extra waffle in the question about sea creatures.
  • Alex_B1Alex_B1 Posts: 403
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    petely wrote: »
    However, the questions did seem more difficult. Either that or the Durham boys were exceptionally fast as I only scored 55 (to keep up the petty post point-scoring) - which means getting the answer out before the contestant does.
    I don't think the questions this week are particularly difficult - I judge on how many I can answer, and I can answer more than usual (e.g. the Eero Saarinen and hydra questions that none of them can answer). I don't think the Durham boys are particularly good either, they gave some appallingly wrong answers (islets of Langerhans in the kidney? Falklands in the Northern Hemisphere?), I suspect a few of the losers from previous weeks can beat them (one team seemed to be very good but got beaten by an even better team so might not even qualify for next round). They were just lucky that they met a really bad team.
  • ffa1ffa1 Posts: 2,833
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    The amount of time Corpus Christi Cambridge wasted conferring was disgraceful. Surely those bits could be edited down? Made for a very frustrating watch. At least they're out of the competition, so we won't have to put up with their farting about again.
  • atgatg Posts: 4,260
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    ffa1 wrote: »
    The amount of time Corpus Christi Cambridge wasted conferring was disgraceful. Surely those bits could be edited down? Made for a very frustrating watch. At least they're out of the competition, so we won't have to put up with their farting about again.
    Agreed, but they were mostly trailing so tough do-dos to them.

    However they were done out of 10-25 points on the Italian region question when the guy clearly said "Cal-ay-bria Calabria". There was an obvious edit at that point too. They would almost certainly have qualified as high scoring losers had it been given,
  • ffa1ffa1 Posts: 2,833
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    atg wrote: »
    However they were done out of 10-25 points on the Italian region question when the guy clearly said "Cal-ay-bria Calabria".

    Slightly harsh, but I'm not sorry for them! Maybe Jezza was as fed up with them as I was.
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