True, but University Challenge is and as far as I'm concerned it always has been.

Mark

Thank god its elitist, otherwise it be just another weakest link dumbed down crappy quiz show, which is basically all you get

+1

Otherwise, TV is generally biased towards stupid people. What says educated people can't have their money's worth from their TV license fee too?

Okay I accept it is elitist, but since I do well at the questions I don't mind.

And anyway why does everyone seem to think elitism is such a bad thing?

I think that there is a form of inverted snobbery for many because they will never be bright so they revel in their stupidity.

I was once at a friends staying overnight and the three of us were watching an episode of mastermind. Well my friend and I did quite well and his ex girlfriend barely scored, she then laughed the whole thing off as useless. Why would anyone need that sort of knowledge was her attitude. Worst of all is that she is a teacher, and looks down on people without degrees. Yet the two people without degrees did far better than her.

The thing is that there are people who live for quizzes like that. MAstermind is about preparing for questions on your chosen subject. University Challenge is for students, and I really don’t mind the questions that focus on the strengths of the teams. They are all studying various subjects, so yes, the questions should reflect that. Mastermind is regurgitation of facts memorised for the duration of the programme’s needs.

What irks me about University Challenge is the surrounding assumption of a background in certain subjects. For example, it is expected that they have a classical education - no hence the Latin stuff that turns up. Knowledge of ancient texts, such as The Iliad seems to be a theme. Last week they had questions about opera, which caused one team to falter. I was asking myself - who in that age bracket listens to opera to such minutiae that the can recognise it from a small snippet?

It is an old fashioned snobbery - if you go to university, you should know all this tuff. It’s like being asked at your grammar school interview to describe the works of Jonathan Swift (which happened in the days of the 11+ and school selection - oh, by the way, how’s your Shakespeare, and can you do this calculus problem?).

I would do terribly on a University Challenge team. I may be able to pick up on questions in my area of expertise, but I would fare badly on the more “general knowledge” questions simply because I do not have the grounding that the programme expects.

Here’s an episode of University Challenge you may enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxA0a5G6ccg

Yes the inclusion of latin and opera does put the non public schools at a slight disadvantage, but when there are hundreds of questions it is does not make that much difference it is the breadth of knowledge that helps. I definitely have my weaknesses as far as some subjects but last week I got 17 starters and 23 bonus questions. Some I had no chance getting but that is the fun of the show.

?!?

Mark

No need to be surprised. While my general memory is shot to pieces my semantic memory (facts) is still as good as ever.

It was more surprise at the fact that you appear to have counted the questions you got right, and then categorised them.

Mark

Well one hand for starters and the other for bonus questions. The bonus questions can be problematic because they can have a one easy answer and two much harder ones.

You got 17 fingers on one hand and 23 on the other? Freak.

Mark

Unless he's using binary counting on his fingers?

I also use toes.