Concordia

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30 31
OMT News
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Summer 2015
“Despite being primarily a scientist, the wide
grounding in history, geography, languages
and many other subjects I gained at school
allowed me not only to answer questions, but
also to captain effectively.”
and turning around a 0-65 deficit
against Magdalen College, Oxford in
our second quarter final.
When we entered the competition I
don’t think any of us expected to win
and I would be surprised if we were,
on paper, the strongest team based on
the original application. For me, the
key point is that, motivated partly by
a fear of embarrassing ourselves on
television, we practised our quizzing
technique, improved our general
knowledge and worked as a team in a
way that most of the other participants
did not. It was, therefore, satisfying
to end up as victors, giving Caius its
first trophy, retaining it for Cambridge
and possibly also providing Merchant
Taylors’ with its first champion.
There is disdain in some circles
for the bastardisation of knowledge
supposedly encouraged by quiz
shows such as University Challenge
– rewarding recall, rather than
understanding. Certainly I would
agree that depth of knowledge is
not a prerequisite for doing well on
the programme, but I would also
argue that stimulating an interest in
matters beyond your own subject field,
particularly in the arts, is unequivocally
important. For example, it was no bad
thing that on several occasions whilst
preparing for the show I was forced to
confront how little I knew about the
history and culture of China, a country
which will no doubt be the dominant
power over the next century.
Finally, I would like to thank five
years’ worth of MTS teachers for their
immeasurable contribution towards
the bank of knowledge I was able to
call upon during the show. Despite
being primarily a scientist, the wide
grounding in history, geography,
languages and many other subjects
I gained at school allowed me not
only to answer questions, but also
to captain effectively. For anyone
interested in applying to be on the
show, I would, of course, thoroughly
recommend the experience and I am
more than happy to be contacted with
any questions.