How the fuck do the contestants on University Challenge know all that random shite?

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I went to university and I can barely answer a single question per episode. Like really obscure, niche stuff. How?

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They’ve got no mates.

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I don’t remember anything from university but I could smash University Challenge to pieces. Being on it is one of my unfulfilled ambitions.

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They get given the answers, same as on They Think It’s All Over

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Which element was first discovered in 1743 and derives its name from the subjugation of a material matter first discovered in the rings of Saturn by which celebrated Panaman scientist who’s works include the Great wall of China and other indistinguishable

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Come on

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No and I’m afraid you lose five points

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Iridium

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It is iridium yes

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Joking aside, it’s pub quizzes ain’t it. I barely even went to college but my general knowledge is probably good just on account of spending years in boozers.

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Pushy parents

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Two guys in my department were on the team in third year. One of them would just sit and read Wikipedia all day every day.

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HAPAX LEGOMENON

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Idea: push pops for adults and the advert is don’t push your kids push a push pop.

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Can’t remember how general knowledge quizzes worked pre wikipedia.

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I know two people who’ve been on it:

One of them dropped out of uni in his second year, but didn’t want to move away from his then-girlfriend, so got a job in a book shop. It was a quiet shop in a sleepy town so he basically got paid to sit and read all day, every day, for three or four years. Went back to uni, got onto the team as captain, and won the series. He’s a proper genius who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of shit that normal people care about, too, like music and football. Often when you watch it, the teams will know the ins and outs of nuclear transmutation and what year Strauss wrote Der Zigunerbaron but won’t know that Milan play their games at the San Siro.

The other guy put it down to, whenever he was bored, he’d open the Wikipedia app, press random article and read it top to bottom. He got papped out in the first round though so what does he know.

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They read a lot and probably dont engage a lot with social media / stuff that isn’t that clever

As you can tell when they often don’t know popular music or culture

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I think some of the questions (particularly the more specialised bonus ones) are selected based on the subjects being studied by each of the contestants.

But a lot of it is just revision or being naturally drawn to accumulating knowledge too.

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I was on the reserve team for our squad one year. I just read a lot as a teenager and had a brain that naturally remembered a lot of facts. Tonnes of the questions aren’t really as complex as they seem, they’re relatively shallow, often the most famous thing about whatever the topic is.

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Aye, by the time the question has been read out in full it’s often quite gettable. The ability of some contestants to decode the question early on is very very impressive