University Challenge - Class of 2014
Paul_Culloty
Posts: 564 Forum Member
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A two-part series, currently on BBC Two, we see all the stages of the series from team selection to the winnowing of the university teams to 28 and finally, the TV stages.
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The dodgy camera work and the awful background music is putting me off though.
My favourite UC contestant.
Yes, I spotted her as well!
I had hoped (even though I thought it was impossible) that the teams chosen for the TV series were selected on the sole basis of their academic excellence. It' is a pity that there seems to be a significant role for the traveling band of "media luvvies" to exclude teams based arbitrary factors such as on how they come across in personality interviews and how they would appear on screen.
Best line from the programme: If I'd wanted an easy life I'd have gone to Oxford.
Don't you mean him?!
yes I agree somewhat, and next week's preview looks like something straight from X Factor...
Hopefully it's mainly based on knowledge and you only fall down with the 'personality' bit if yours is really bad
I think part 2 is tonight.
It does explain why on most teams you get one person who never answers anything, and manages to look intelligent (whilst not contributing anything useful) on the bonus questions.
It seems each university runs a test to come up with 5 contestants (one reserve) Picking the 5 highest scorers may seem the fairest way, BUT, it doesn't tell you if you will freeze under pressure, be too slow on the buzzer, or end up with 4 people who all know the same things, and 4 people who don't know the same things. If it was me, I would select from the top 8 or 10 to get the best balanced team. As far as I can tell, there is nothing to stop them doing that- it's just that most don't.
I did not find it surprising that they looked at other factors apart from the ability to answer the trial questions. I think they said that the results of the trial questions were all very close so they need something else to select teams, similar to what happens with actual university selection itself where most entrants have very similar exam results.
It's up to each university as to how they select their team - some take it very seriously like Manchester who pick a year in advance & spend a lot of time training, whereas others are more lax. When I did it, our college hadn't tried to enter a team for years, so the girl who actually bothered to get the application together was automatically the captain (in fairness she was also a very good quizzer!) We then had a couple of mini competitions to pick the other members of the team, and like you said, it was a mix of people who got high scores and getting a good balance of knowledge. Our top scorers were all studying humanities, so in the end we ditched one and went for someone who had a shot at getting the science questions.
Then for the actual auditions it's a mixture of a written test when you send the application in, the quiz that you saw last night on the program, and a chat with the producers, which is partly to see how you get on as a team, and how you'll come across on tv - there's no point in them picking people who score really highly on the test but freeze up when they have to speak in public. Then the teams are picked based mainly on the quiz scores, but I think a couple of other things are used as tiebreakers - getting a good mix of institutions, they don't want just Oxbridge colleges and traditional quizzing powerhouses like Manchester & UCL all the time, and getting a good mix of students - I have a suspicion that part of the reason our team was chosen was that we were all in our 2nd year of undergrad, and it made a contrast to the increasing number of teams dominated by grad students. You aren't going to get on the program if you don't get good scores on the quiz, but once you get those scores there are other factors that influence who they pick.
Don't start that nonsense again. >:(
Miss Neiman was in the Manchester team in 2010. I remember her quite clearly, she's very bright, and how Jeremy said, "Miss Neiman, you may now turn over your braille card".
Funny the things you remember!
I've just googled her and she's also been on Mastermind
It was only the last quarter of the programme that was actually about UC at all.
I think they were for the next series.
i was reminded of starter for ten, great film and book too
Yes, and it starts next Monday, 14th July at 8 on BBC2.
This programme obviously has some appeal. So in this respect, they were successful.
I don't think they get through automatically but it will be a factor when they make the selection. I presume the previous winner would have to do really badly in the test quiz to be not selected.
I think it is inevitable that they would show the teams receiving the news of their selection or failure to be selected. They could not really do programmes on the 'journey' from universities putting teams together, entering, being tested and interviewed then miss out them being told whether or not they were selected.
It' wasn't even very well done as one of the first team-members to be told remarked on how manipulative the phone call was (a thought I had, myself, while watching the programme, even before the guy made the comment) - and someone is a different team called it "mean", the way the BBC staffer strung the team along before telling them they had succeeded.
One must wonder if the other reactions: the ones not included in the show, were simply unbroadcastable. ;-)