University Challenge is one of the toughest quiz shows on British televison. Since 1962, teams of university students have went head to head in front of the nation, hoping to win the show’s title and prestige. There’s a lot at stake, but luckily Newcastle University are in safe hands…
Meet the Team
Starting from the left we have Rachael Beasley, a stage 3 undergraduate studying Fine Art. She’s doing her diss on the censorship of erotic art from the 70s and 80s.
Next is Rosie McCallum, a stage 3 PhD student studying Environmental Biology. She’s hoping to contribute towards a biodiversity offset, looking at the soil and insects on post-industrial land.
In the centre is Kit Fulman, currently studying stage 1 of his masters in International relations. He’s trying to apply an existentialist language within his discipline, believing that it hasn’t been explored enough.
Following him is Team Captain Dan Partleton, a stage 3 PhD student studying Biosciences. He’s developing antibiotics to target a pulmonary, bacterial pathogen. The focus is veterinary, but there’s some human crossover.
Last but not least is the team’s reserve Lily Tidman, currently in stage 2 of her PhD in History. She’s exploring the social history of the NHS in the late 20th century.
Nostalgia, Quizzing and ‘A Little Bit of a Joke’
The show’s continuity and prestige has made it incredibly significant to British culture. It was this reason, one of nostalgia, which made Lily, Rosie, and Rachael want to apply. Lily remembered playing it every week with her sister and parents, whilst Rosie, watching it ever since she was a teenager, called it a ‘staple’ in her household. She always thought it would be nice to aspire too, but never thought she’d actually be on it. Much like Rachael, who trying out annually since first year, quipped it became ‘a little bit of a joke’ to her. Rachael’s love for the show though was also more of a slow-burn, enemies to lovers situation. As a child she hated getting the questions wrong, but began to enjoy it it as she got older… *cough* *cough* as she got more questions right.
Aside from the sentimental side, they all acknowledged their love for trivia and quizzing too. Particularly Kit, who gained a love for quizzing from his dad. For him, he signed up partly because of his hunt for a new team to quiz with: as a PhD student, most of his quizzing friends from his undergrad days have took off. With national television-worthy members, he’s definitely chosen the ultimate team.
Team Captain Dan also acknowledged his love for trivia and a pub quiz. Whilst the others felt sentimental though, Dan truthfully ‘just saw the QR code [and] thought it would be funny’. Fair enough, Dan.
The NUSU Quizzes
The team told me about the two rounds of quizzes that NUSU held for the show’s applicants. They were approximately 45-60 minutes each: one a written exam with around 30 questions; which determined whether you were chosen to take part in the following buzzer round.
Rachael found the process stressful. She’d applied annually since the first year of her degree, and mentioned the irregularity each time. It’s been slightly different each year and she’s never confidently known what to expect. She commented that applicants weren’t just being tested on their own knowledge and ability, but how compatible they were as a team. In the buzzer round, they were not only marking down what you got right, but the genre of what you got right. Due to the breadth of questions asked on the TV show, the adjudicators had to ensure there was a range of knowledge across the team, rather than 5 members all with the same specialty.
Revising… Bananas?
The shows nature made the quizzes tough to prepare for. Dan acknowledged how it’s really hard to prepare for something when you don’t know what you’ll be tested on, as Rachael remembered sitting for 10 minutes thinking ‘what the hell is the name of that banana’. Easy one to slip up on.
They advised future applicants to prepare using online quizzes, shouting out Sporcle in particular. They also all agreed that just watching the show is a great way to prepare. It allows you to experience the questions as they gradually get more difficult. Rosie also advised ‘don’t linger’ on the written exam. Do the questions you know then go back to the ones you’re struggling on (don’t spend 10 minutes thinking about bananas basically).
Rachael had even managed to find an old PDF from one of the Cambridge Colleges that had found its way to google (much to Dan’s dismay who hadn’t seen it). With Christ College being the shows current title holders, her ‘guess [that] they’re really serious about it’ sounds pretty accurate.
Although you can do as many Sporcle Quizzes, and find as many Cambridge College PDF’s as you can, ultimately, anything could come up. Lily’s main advice was to ‘Relax and try to enjoy it, because to a degree there’s only so much prep you can do’. A large part of what makes the show so exciting is the luck involved!
Individual Strengths
I’d – wrongly – then assumed, that when I asked them what they’d hope would come up, their answers would be confidently degree-related. However, they were more rogue than I’d expected.
Rosie, despite doing Environmental Biology, confessed she was ‘not amazing at the science questions’. She can do Ecology, but admitted when she watches the show, her strong points usually lie in Literature, Culture and Art.
The latter was passed to Rachael however, as Rosie noted she would be ‘taking the reign on arts’. Rachael then humbly admitted that her friends have the ability to identify more painters than she can. Having done a weird mix of a-levels like chemistry and biology, to then go into fine art, she said that she remembers a random mix of stuff, rather than facts from a particular specialty.
Lily also marked her breadth of strengths. Primarily geography and music, but also knowing a bit of politics and history. Reassuringly, our reserve is ready to cover all grounds in case something goes wrong.
Kit also would hate for his degree to come up: he commented ‘I would hate to introduce myself at the start of the program going ‘I do politics’ and then get all the questions wrong’. Instead, he too is hoping for Geography-based questions, and mentioned his strength of remembering dates.
Dan was the only anomaly. Although acknowledging he’s good at geography like Lily and Kit, he did admit to getting the biochem questions right every time. Though this didn’t stop his supervisors and examiners giving him a warning. If he gets any particularly easy questions wrong… he’s not coming back. No pressure then?
Pub Quiz Warriors
Despite the pressure, they don’t have anything to worry about. The team have had plenty of practice in a fair share of pub quizzes.
Dan humbly admitted he’s a second place warrior, however he proudly remembered winning ‘three times in a row’ once. This quickly him and his mates’ team name. But then it became ‘four in a row’, then ‘five in a row’, and so on. The pub stopped doing that quiz eventually.
Rachael also admitted she’d won a few pub quizzes. She’s frequently attends them, but she and her friends have been swamped by their dissertations. Relatable. She did mention however the Halloween live music quiz she goes to annually. Similarly to Dan, lets just say the organizers know her face now.
Whilst the others have won a few times, there’s no way of putting things modestly for Kit. Winning all their quizzes, is banned from his local pubs. I guess you’re forced to go as big as national telly, if you can’t go home to your local pubs.
Rosie made the valid point however that winning a quiz ‘depends on who you go with’. The strength of a team plays a major factor in their success.
The Team So Far and Going Forward…
When asked about their compatibility, Rachael admitted they’d only met at ‘this [and] one awkward photoshoot’ (which they can now make two, sorry guys x). Nevertheless, she thought they were a good team, with a broad range of knowledge. They’ve each got a range of individual strengths with common crossovers, making them a dynamic team that can fall back on each other for support.
They have plenty of time to prepare too. Filming doesn’t start until February, so they plan to distribute specialist subjects between each other and revise over Christmas.
In the new year, the team will then travel to Salford for interviews with the show’s producers. Rachael was the reserve in her first year, and mentioned how the producers have the ultimate power to decide who is (and isn’t) good enough for the screen. With no standardized procedure of curating a team, each university does it differently. The producers can’t trust each university to make a good team, and have to weed out the poor choices before filming begins.
Becoming TV Stars
Because although they’ve been chosen for their intellect, being on the telly is just as equally important to University Challenge. In presenting themselves to the nation, they willingly make themselves vulnerable to the public eye.
Surprisingly though, most of them were seasoned TV stars. Rosie for example, had attended the Mercury Prize, which had took place in Newcastle’s Utilita Arena earlier this year. Sitting front row with her friends, she was in the firing line of the camera. Kit too was caught in the back of shot filmed for BBC news, when his school had been visited as part of a story. Whilst Lily got papped when the Queen had visited her dad’s work. North Shields’ Dan also was told by his mate that he’d made it to the screen, through coverage of a St James’ match. Who knew that supporting the mags would rise someone to stardom…
Rachael was the only one who hadn’t had her 5 seconds of fame. She admitted she was ‘really scared’ knowing all her friends and family would be watching. Her friends hadn’t helped this anxiety either, teasing her with hints of a big screening in the University’s art department. She had the image in her head of all her lecturers gathered in one room, watching her get every question wrong. Frightening.
It’s undeniably nerve-wracking to be that exposed to public opinion, especially when you’ve got the added weight of representing your University on your back. But the team are a strong group of individuals, and The Tab wish them the best of luck x
