The King William's College 2004 Quiz

A UK college creates an annual quiz for their students. Here's the Questions and Answers from a previous year, if you want to get an idea of just what sort of esoterica you're seeking.

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Re:Do Europeans Know this stuff?

[mccalli]

Speaking as a UK resident, I can pretty confidently say that....no, we haven't a clue about all that stuff. I can say this with great confidence, having dismally failed at the similarly-themed BBC quiz University Challenge [bbc.co.uk] for decades now. That link is to a search, not the homepage. Just read some of the comments about failing spectacularly...

Cheers,
Ian

Re:Do Europeans Know this stuff?

[Marvelicious]

I went all the way through and got 5! Christ, I'm loaded with useless info and thats all I could come up with! Ob-fucking-scure!

Re:Do Europeans Know this stuff?

[tehshen]

Why is everyone doing so well? I got one! 1! I'm half average!

Re:Do Europeans Know this stuff?

[Gorath99]

I actually did quite well with my 5 correct answers, considering the average score of only 2. I must admit though, that this is largely due to the fact that section 7 is thematically tied to my country of birth. Had I been smart enough to figure out that some sections have a theme to the answers as well as to the questions, then I probably could have doubled my score.

Re:Raise your hand...

[Walt Dismal]

From a part of the test they never release to the public: In 2004, what famous cowboy specialized in on-line nerd erotica?

Re:Raise your hand...

[Space cowboy]

Well, it wasn't me, but I did get 9 on that test :-) Still pretty dismal perfomance...

Simon

Re:Raise your hand...

[DrEasy]

Cowboy Neal?

Ken Jennings

[Mozillabird]

They should have asked some of these questions to Ken Jennings while he was still on Jeopardy. My bet, 10% correct.

Re:Ken Jennings

[cioxx]

He still would have won. Remember, it's not that Ken Jennings was superior in every discipline that no amount of ambiguity could make him lose. The reason he was victorious is because he was better than the contestants on the panel.

Throwing these hard questions at him wouldn't have been enough. First, you would need someone who could beat Jenings in regards to accessible (easy) questions.

I like to consider Jenings' string of victories not as Jenings vs. Knowledge, but Jenings vs. Weak peers.

Re:Ken Jennings

[jrl87]

I got 25-30 , I wasn't really counting, but I did get more than 10% correct and I'm certain Ken can beat me, so I think that your guess is wrong.

A good deal of the questions (after I looked at teh answers) actually weren;t that hard to answer if the question had been straight forward. In my opinion most of the difficulty in those questions is not knowing what the answer is, because almost anyone can memorize answers, but having a broad enough knowledge of the topic in order to understand the question

Re:Ken Jennings

[Hawkxor]

Agreed.
Anyway, they're very hard but really not too obscure if you understand the background behind a topic. I knew an average of 2 or 3 from each category, mainly because I could make inferential guesses from the questions (and I knew almost all in a few categories, like Jazz).

Those questions are so easy...

[MisanthropicProgram]

and the answers are wrong! The correct answer to all of the questions is "CowboyNeal"!

Now, back to the eggnog!

Re:Those questions are so easy...

[luvirini]

Correct.. the right answer is "the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle" or same thing said in some other way.

Re:Those questions are so easy...

[mordors9]

Heh, I can answere one anyway :-) 1 Sauron

Quick...

[Packet Fish]

someone, for the love of god, get James Burke on the phone.

You know you are screwed...

[fermion]

when you can't even read the instructions. I assume this is latin, and I just discovered that google does not have a latin translators, the bastards.

"Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est"

It seem to say something about write down the stuff you make up to the best of ability yours, but I will leave the real translation to those who are smart and well educated.

All I can say is that the test seems to over useless stuff. Give me a quiz over Star Trek or South Park or AT

Re:You know you are screwed...

[bc90021]

It means:

"To know where you can find anything, that in short is the largest part of learning."

Three years of Latin + a confirmation by Google. ;)

Re:You know you are screwed...

[Ed Bugg]

"To know where you can find anything, that in short is the largest part of learning."
Three years of Latin + a confirmation by Google. ;)

And the answer to the question is of course "Google" (where you can find anything, that is). Guess that's why Google didn't exist til I was already out of school.

Re:You know you are screwed...

[cwernli]

According to the the guy who's maintaining the quiz [guardian.co.uk] it means:

"To know where to find anything is, after all, the greatest part of education."

I admit it's similar, but definitely more elegant.

Re:You know you are screwed...

[Anonymous Coward]

I suppose the English language equivalent would be, "Nobody knows everything. But, everyone knows something. You don't have to know, you just have to know who knows."

Re:You know you are screwed...

[tootlemonde]

Or, as Samuel Johnston put it:

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

--Boswell's Life of Johnson, Chapter 33 [adelaide.edu.au]

uuh.. google

[luvirini]

Funny how google seems to be my first thought for finding these..

And true enough quickly looking at the first section I was able to find answers to 9 withing few minutes... The last one would require probably few more minutes..

In a way it is strange how much information is searchable... and how the action of searching the web has taken over. Back when younger we were supposed to LEARN the history...:)

Re:uuh.. google

[Jonathan]

Exactly. That's why non-realtime trivia contents are meaningless in the modern epoch.

Re:uuh.. google

[ignipotentis]

Back when younger we were supposed to LEARN the history...:)

I agree with this, to a point. The big things like the major wars (why and what for) and polical ideals and so on we should learn. The minor points such as dates and who cooked apple cobler in maine on the second of november etc is pointless to memorize. We should learn the major concepts, and know how to find the details when we need them.

Just my 2cents.

Re:uuh.. google

[luvirini]

Well, when I learned history theexact dates ans such were not my forte. I did actually answer an essay that composed a full test with only one year.. and that wrong. But still got 5+ of 6 points for the proper analysis of how the events went and what they caused. I think such thing is much more important that trivia type questions as given above.

Re:uuh.. google

[MicklePickle]

The big things like the major wars (why and what for) and polical ideals and so on we should learn.

Well, remember that history is written by the victors. So we should also learn about the small wars as well, and from the opposite side. Then we can get a much better perspective of what really happened instead of propaganda.

Re:uuh.. google

[jpkunst]

The minor points such as dates and who cooked apple cobler in maine on the second of november etc is pointless to memorize

I mostly agree with you, but I think the dates are not so minor as is often argued. After all, knowing the order in which things happened is pretty crucial for being able to understand them.

JP

Re:uuh.. google

[japhmi]

I would say that dates are important to know, in general. Especially for the young, who are working on learning memorization skills, and who need to have a variety of information as 'maps' in order to know where to place later info.

Re:uuh.. google

[jokumuu]

Seems someone was faster, though I did find all the answers for the first section.

I do concur with the thought of how information retrieval, atleast fot the first cut has changed.

Ofcourse if you want to actually be sure of something you still need to do proper study of the references.

Re:uuh.. google

[fiddlesticks]

coupla point from the FA

'Q2: How do you make the quiz Googleproof? "I do put the questions through Google, and change some to make it more unlikely that the answers will be thrown up immediately, but there is only so much I can do in that respect." Q3: What do you consider to be cheating? "There's nothing I would regard as cheating. If you want to do it entirely through Google, good luck. The only question is, will it reduce your pleasure if you do so?" That is, perhaps, the best question Cullen has posed so far, to which the correct answer is: "Yes." [guardian.co.uk]


also, in earlier years 'If you weren't sure of the answer to a question, but it had nothing to do with Bruges, Delft, Dickens or Austen, it was probably Queen Elizabeth.'

in even earlier years, success would be rewarded with half a pint.

I believe Alan Cox does this quiz every year.

Re:uuh.. google

[luvirini]

ofcourse, in every case I had to think instead of putting the question directly to google. For example the easy query resulting in correct answer for first question is "1904 gundal ship" nothing fancier needed..

Re:uuh.. google

[gl4ss]

and sometimes it IS as much fun anyhow, if you consider it as a research test rather than the usual "how much tidbits can you fit in your head from the gazillion quizbooks?" as to what quizzes used to be.

(bar quizzes are too changing from cellphones and google..)

Re:uuh.. google

[biggles2k]

In a way it is strange how much information is searchable... and how the action of searching the web has taken over. Back when younger we were supposed to LEARN the history...:)

Yes, but information retrieval is a necessary means to learning. Think of it this way: Back in the day,

(1) I probably never would have learned about this quiz because it's an esoteric test found in England.

(2) Even if I *had* learned about it, I never would have bothered to learn about the answers because it would have

Re:uuh.. google

[luvirini]

Indeed, but I do see a worrysome trend where the trivia like this is seen a knowledge, instead of understanding.

As in current society the "quick answers" type thing is seen as more valuable than actual understand in WAY too many cases.

Re:uuh.. google - World Changing

[theApolloProject]

ha, we were supposed to LEARN, but...

The world may be changing to one where the flow of information is so rich and accessible that we need not remember all types of abstract facts and figures; we'll just look them up when we need them. With such a world of data at our fingertips at all times, our minds will be freed from hard data to concentrate on concepts and ideas through more objective thought processes. I wonder if such limitless access to information could eventually change the way people think, en

Re:uuh.. google - World Changing

[jokumuu]

I agree, but one minor point: In most cases to really understand something, just looking up some quick facts simply will not do.

Thus one would need the "base data" or call it framework to place the facts found from sources line google. If that framework is not there the facts will be meaningless or even too easy to forge.

Re:uuh.. google - World Changing

[caswelmo]

I was always told in my undergraduate engineering education that we were "learning to learn". The idea being that it is more important to learn how to approach new topics, find information, discern fact from fiction, and apply both old and newfound knowledge than it is to remember the Navier-Stokes equation verbatim. This approach has proved very helpful now that I'm out in the working world.

I would imagine that the traditional humanities-related fields would find this approach even more critical. With

Interesting post..

[jtbauki]

I was thinking if they made an Slashdot Quiz how would it be, I wonder?

Slashdot Quiz

1. What is Raistlin Majere's middle name?

2. Name 10 species that existed in Middle Earth.

3. If someone offends you with a post, should you a). Flame him b). Flame him c). Flame him.

4. Name the past 10 iterations of intel's processor.

etc...

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[bc90021]

5) In Soviet Russia, what happens?

6) What kind of cluster are you imagining right now?

7) In Korea, what demographic group is particularly special?

8) Who is Cowboy Neal?

9) What is the best material for covering Natalie Portman?

10) Can you trust your computer to this quiz without its digital signature?

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[Frostalicious]

9) What is the best material for covering Natalie Portman?

Saran wrap?

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[bc90021]

Well, that might work, but the correct answer is:

HOT GRITS ;)

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[hazem]

I know the answer is "hot grits", but can anyone say where that comes from? A google search is somewhat fruitless, as most of the results point to slashdot and nerds.

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[mickyflynn]

Wikipedia explains it. This is like, my 9th account. I remember this shit starting. If this article isn't correct, then i have no idea. drugs maybe? [wikipedia.org]

Re:Interesting post.. (Further Questions)

[wyndigo]

Saran wrap?

Before or after the hot grits?

Historical Background

[kf6auf]

Here [guardian.co.uk] is another Guardian article with some more information about the quiz, as opposed to the quiz itself, which is ridiculously hard. It tells a bit about the author (quizmaster) of the quiz and other bits of useful information like the fact that they take the quiz once before winter break and then once after winter break after having some time to prepare responses using any means available (including the Internet, which is one reason it has gotten harder in recent years -- the author wants to make sure that google is all but useless).

Anyway, I'd hate to have to take one of these, and the last thing I want to do over break is look up 180 obscure questions.

Re:Historical Background

[jokumuu]

actually I did manage to find answers to all the 10 questions in the first section with google in less than 10 minutes.

Re:what's the answers to

[laura20]

The Viking Ship of Oseberg, King Sisavang Vong, the opening of the Heysham port (not completely sure on the last, it's a little vague.)

Re:Historical Background

[forkazoo]

Google seems to be no help with, "68 - 27 - 90 - 19" I'm stumped on that. Something superlative. I assume it is a very good score in cricket, or something like that...

Jim Laker's record haul

[fbform]

Yes. Those were Jim Laker's bowling figures against Australia in the 1956 Ashes at Old Trafford - he was the first bowler to scalp all 10 wickets in a test innings. (That feat has been repeated only once, by Anil Kumble against Pakistan in 1999).

Link here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/hi/english/static/in_ d epth/cricket/2001/ashes/legends/laker.stm [bbc.co.uk] (Scroll down to 1956 Old Trafford).

BTW, if you don't play/watch cricket, that was some good deduction on your part. The four numbers represent a bowler's sta

Re:Jim Laker's record haul

[forkazoo]

Right... I'm *still* stumped! :) Obviously, the question can't be reasonably answered!

Re:The answers are not clever

[zakezuke]

test: What is the average flight-speed of a sparrow?
a: african or european?
test: I don't know arrrrrggggggggg

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Why it is so difficult?

[mahesh_gharat]

Guardian Says: "The King William's College quiz: It's 100 years old and it'll still outsmart you."

Hey, It's 100 years old and that's the one of the reasons it is so difficult.

How am I supposed to remember the 100 years old history? I can't even remember the syntax for crontab entries. Everytime I have to go through the man pages. ;-)

We're not really esoteric..

[Tezkah]

We are not really esoteric, it's just that nobody pays much attention to us.

Intellectual torture?

[WizardRahl]

more like "the useless knowledge quiz"

Better Quizzes

[aleph+]

These questions are too hard. Does anyone know of any better Xmas quizzes? How about some that would be good for a mixed UK and US audience?

Peace,
Aleph

King William's College is NOT in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

The college is a public (in British sense) school on the Isle of Man - which lies in the middle of the Irish Sea and is not part of the UK

Re:King William's College is NOT in the UK

[temojen]

For those not in the UK, "public school" means what "private school" means everywhere else.

Re:King William's College is NOT in the UK

[belg4mit]

Well, that's exceedingly logical.
Reminds me of the Get Fuzzy strip where Bucky tells Satchel that by describing soccer as exciting he meant it was "fall in a hole and wait for Lassie boring".

Re:King William's College is NOT in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually it is - by public these schools meant they were open to all (+ thus usually needed to be boarding schools) as opposed to the local schools (usually called grammar schools) that required pupils to come from a certain town - prior to free education acts in the 19th century all pupils had to pay for education though some charity schools did offer free education to the poor

Abbas and Stoke

[nutznboltz]

Wasn't that a 70's concert?

It's 100 years old and it'll still outsmart you.

[Kickasso]

Google is 8 years old and it'll still outsmart this quiz. Next!

New Jeporady Category

[Anonymous Coward]

"Could I have Obscure and British for $1,500, Alex"

Re:New Jeporady Category

[BorgCopyeditor]

For something very much like that, you'd probably do just as well with the Totally Official Alt.usage.english Summer Doldrums Competition [alt-usage-english.org]. (Also, there are no $1500 clues on Jeopardy.) :0

Re:I'm SO SMART

[Col. Bloodnok]

5 successfully absorbed nitroglycerin in kieselguhr? ANSWER: Alfred Noble, inventor of TNT

Dynamite not TNT.

Re:I'm SO SMART

[liangzai]

Actually it is Alfred Nobel. 'Nobel' is not pronounced as 'noble", but with accent on the 'e'.

But not smart enough...

[ambrosen]

to do the 2004 edition of the quiz [guardian.co.uk].

FYI

[Lproven]

It freaks me out every time I see a mention of that online. It's the school I used to go to - indeed right now I'm only a few miles away, back on the Isle of Man for the holidays. We used to have to do that quiz every year and we all hated it!

Anyway, some information...

[1] KWC [kwc.sch.im] is not a 'college', really, despite its name. It's a primary and secondary boarding and school, these days, for boys and girls. (When I started there, it was male-only.)

[2] It's in the Isle of Man [isle-of-man.com] on the outskirts of the town of Castletown and the village of Ballasalla. This means it is not in the UK, strictly: the Isle of Man is an independant protectorate of the British crown. The Manx Tynwald is the oldest government in the world - 1,025 years of continuous rule.

Re:FYI

[gihan_ripper]

I've a question for the parent, and something of a riddle, so not entirely off-topic!

The Chairman of the Mathematical Institute at Oxford posed the question: which part of Great Britain is not part of the United Kingdom?

We both agreed that the Isle of Man is not in the UK, but it seems unclear whether or not it's in Britain. Do you know what the official answer is? Is the Isle of Man part of Great Britain?

Re:FYI

[pmc]

Phrased like that the answer is a trick answer - Great Britain is (geographically) the big island that contains most of Scotland, England, and Wales. Therefore the only part that isn't in the United Kingdom are (a) those parts that are occupied by foreign consulates and embassies, and (b) the terminus of the channel tunnel rail link (which I think is technically French - certainly the clocks are an hour fast).

Sure it wasn't "Which part of the British Isles is not part of the United Kingdom"? - A: Eire and

Re:FYI

[pmc]

Berwick-upon-Tweed - it was at war with Russia for 113 years: the declaration of war mentioned B-u-T but the peace treaty neglected it.

But it has always (well, since 1707 anyway) been part of the United Kingdom.

Re:FYI

[Alioth]

Ah, so you're also enjoying the wind that was trying to rip the slates off my roof last night then :-)

Re:FYI

[Lproven]

Airy, wasn't it? Staff were carefully escorting people on and off the aircraft steps at Ronaldsway. Small pensioners were nearly being blown away. Most entertaining.

After a adolescence of Manx winters, I went for a stroll during the "Great Hurricane" of 1987 while at University in leafy Surrey. I thought there was a bit of a blow on, but nothing special - I'd walked the dog many times in far worse...

likewise

[midgley]

Oldest and longest enduring democracy for that matter.

Seeing that RDF feed popping up in Evolution gave me a frisson, I was there.

Re:likewise

[Lproven]

Indeed. If you were a landowning male of voting age, anyway. Wouldn't want untermenschen such as women voting, after all, would we?

P.S. Hi, Adrian!

Re:FYI

[dismentor]

Wooh! Hurrah for the slashdot subsection of the King William's College Society.

Re:FYI

[Lproven]

Aaargh! They're everywhere!

The college *NOT* the UK!

[Alioth]

King William's college is NOT in the UK! It's in the Isle of Man, which is neither part of the UK nor part of the European Union.

Since we're talking about my home (and a general knowledge quiz that eminates from there) I thought I ought to point this out.

Re:The college *NOT* the UK!

[ender81b]

Wait.. I knew a girl from the Isle of Man. I thought it was technically a part of the UK (they handled foreign affairs) and such. Then again, I guess she DID have a Isle of Man passport, not a EU passport. Hrrm. Is it like an crown territory or something?

Re:The college *NOT* the UK!

[Alioth]

It is not even technically part of the UK. It is a self-governing British crown dependency. I have a Manx passport ("British Islands: Isle of Man" is what's printed on the front and inside - otherwise, it's pretty similar to a UK one, and conveys pretty much the same meaning, for example, I can travel on the US Visa Waiver program to the United States).

Without googling...

[Deadstick]

6.2 The Glacier Express Railway.
8.5 M/V Esperanza.
9.5 Mt. Brandon (St. Brendan the Navigator, said to have discovered North America).
10.6 Einstein.
10.7 Orson Welles (Citizen Kane)
11.3 The burning of Rome (Nero).
11.10 The Chicago Fire.
14.7 John Brown ('s Body Lies a-Moldering...).
14.10 German WW1 storm troops, later the Nazi SA.
15.4 The time zone of the Republic of Kiribati.
15.8 A cherry picker.
17.5 Look before you leap.

rj

Re:Without googling...

[wk633]

I'll add:

1.8 St. Louis (Olympic Games)
12.9 Roger Bannister (4 minute mile)
18.9 Hurricane Charley (ok, I needed google for the name)

Re:Without googling...

[Deadstick]

OK, Google cleared that up, but 15.4 would seem to be valid only for certain values of "decree"...seems pretty unilateral on Teburoro's part.

rj

Obscure country

[dronkert]

Cool, a whole Dutch section (7, in which town).