University Challenge

There are many lovely books for children on the Greek myths, and have also been some very good radio plays on the BBC. But I still have trouble remembering them - the things those gods got up to made no sense to me whatever.

This final sounds promising - I hope University Challenge is on youtube - I watch Only Connect every week - it is uploaded quite soon after broadcasting. There are some really attractive people on there, too!

Newquay I made exactly the same comment to my husband. How many state school people would have the knowledge of Latin required to answer the questions set on UC that evening?

Theoretically at least, a state education need not hold back your general knowledge in the long term but I can't see many people deciding to learn Latin after finishing their secondary education.

Great final. Congratulations, Balliol but was I the only one feeling uncomfortable at the wheeling out of Steven Hawking with his pre-recorded speech for the 'presentation?'

The poor man looked like he was barely conscious and unaware of what was going on around him.

I could be totally wrong of course but I felt he was being exploited.

Felt like you merlotgran
While full of admiration for Stephen Hawking, I have never felt quite the same about him since the film [hmm-2

Yes the presentation was uncomfortable to watch but in my experience people in SH's position can become very forceful and determined. Maybe he wanted to do it.

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that Stephen Hawking is still extremely mentally competent. Just because someone is disabled and has no, or different, facial expressions, etc., does not mean that they are intellectually affected.

I'm quite at some of the comments on here about SH - I think they are verging on the 'disabilist'. For example, 'the wheeling out' ' uncomfortable to watch' 'being exploited' - has anyone a shred of evidence that he is no longer competent and is being 'used' by others? And uncomfortable to watch? What does that mean? 'People in his position can become very forceful and determined' WTF? 'Maybe he wanted to do it' What on earth are you suggesting? The more I think about all these comments, the more distasteful I find them and disabilist. As I said, come back when you've got evidence for what I think are quite nasty gossipy comments about a man with an amazing brain who should be treated with more respect. If you'd made comments like that on MN you wouldn't know what had hit you by now.

What Rigby said, that!

(Have now caught up with everything on youtube - very worthwhile watching!)

I did not find Stephen Hawking embarrassing - he knows what he is doing. The kids were obviously in awe and totally honoured to be there with him. Would have loved to see what happened after the credits rolled and cameras were switched off.

No girls again, though.

I assume the colleges choose their own teams to put forward, so it would imply not many girls want to put themselves forward. Even when they do, viewers and the media are more interested in their sex appeal than their brains.
Yes, the questions on the Classics are elitist which gives the Oxbridge colleges an advantage, but colleges like Imperial and Bristol usually do well in Physics and Maths.

Stephen Hawkings regularly guests on 'Big Bang Theory' and obviously enjoys doing so - including jokes about himself. Anyone who doubts his mental awareness should read this article written last December www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/01/stephen-hawking-dangerous-time.

I'm afraid I still much prefer Bamber Gascoigne as a presenter. I find Paxman's air of disdain towards wrong answers quite insufferable at times - he does have the answers written down, of course. It's the disbelieving look on his face when a wrong answer is given. And although I'm sure he would do well on the classics side, I do have my doubts about his depth of scientific knowledge.

Can't watch it simply because of Paxman. Every time I see him I want to wipe that smirk off his face! (OK I feel better for that )

Badenkate and Sunseeker agree, he looks so disgusted by wrong answers that you expect him to preface what he then says with the word 'idiot!'

It's a pity that schools don't do Latin these days because it is a great help when learning other languages.
Although my DC didn't do Greek or Latin we had children's books of mythological stories of the Gods and Goddesses and heroes (and heroines!).

I did do Latin but it wasn't really stories of Gods and Goddesses, it was about Caesar's Wars etc
I think some U3A groups do Latin, whether it is for beginners or refresher courses I don't know.

Some people can read something once just for enjoyment and remember it instantly for years afterwards.

As two generations of state school children haven't done Classics, it would be virtually impossible to find teachers. Classical studies are still on some curricula but these don't include learning the languages, concentrating on history and culture.

My Ds state school taught Latin, Greek and Classics. DS state school taught Latin. They are in their early 20s.

I always find comments trying to defend any sort of "ist", a lot worse in the put down, patronise etc etc language than those that a poster is trying to defend in the first place.

I was quite disappointed in the final,I tend to listen now rather than watch as I also cannot stand Paxos attitude.
I think 'Monkman' got a bit too smug, buzzing in too early a lot of the time.
I heard an interview with one of the contestants on Radio 4 where he said that Cambridge get all the entered taems together from the various colleges and hold mock UC contests. Slightly gives them an edge perhaps compared to some of the stand alone Universities!.

I did 'A' Level Latin at school, back in the day. It did not help me learn any other language but it did help me get the 3 'A' levels I needed to get a university place. It wasn't Oxbridge but it was a great place to be, even if headmistresses were later to ban their charges from applying to such a den of iniquity. I met my wife at university .

I thought it was brilliant and I am awestruck at the knowledge these youngsters have at their fingertips. They have had the best education possible - that's why they won! It is University challenge after all, and it was the final, so I wouldn't expect to see competitors from the local comprehensive school.
We can't all be geniuses (genii?) ?

I wonder if anyone has crunched the figures for the number of state v independent school pupils, or male /female ( yes I know there was one transgender this time) , BME/White and overseas students v UK born on the teams? I seem to recall many of the teams having at least one overseas eg Monkman but he wasn't the only one. It's interesting if you look at those universities which have most and least in terms of state school intakes. A couple of years ago, Oxford had the lowest (57.4%) then followed by St Andrews Bristol, Cambridge (63%) Durham, Imperkal, U I erudite College, Edinburgh, Exeter and Newcastle (70%). All other Unis had more than 70%. I'd love to know the composition of the teams in terms of the demographics I've mentioned

Doh Durham, Imperial, University College

Rigby I had guessed Imperial but wondered about Erudite ( good name for a Uni though.)