Friday, December 30, 2005

The King William's College GKP

By way of young Thos. at the Coffee Shack, we learnt about King William's College on the Isle of Man. Said College appears to have been founded a few nanoseconds after the Big Bang, and has been going strong ever since. Wikipedia tells us that
Since 1904, the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper (GKP). The pupils sit the test twice; once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year, after having spent the holiday researching the answers. However, the test is now voluntary. It is well-known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are 40-50 for the unseen test and about 270 of 360 for the second sitting. Traditionally, the best scorers were given a free half pint of bitter, while anyone doing particularly badly was given a detention.
Apparently 2 points per question. Feel free to impale yourself against this year's edition. It is bloody difficult. You need to be very, very, very well up on your Eng. literature (classical, pulp etc.) and Eng. history. The Guardian carried an interview with the bloke who sets the paper.

Thos. also points us to the Financial Times Arts and Culture quiz, which is apparently what you attempt once you've been humiliated in the GKP. Then for some of us who, having been mocked by the FT quiz, are on the verge of applying asp to nose (in the manner of Cl.), there is consolation in the form of the KQA quiz.

This will be the last post of the year. Be happy.

14 comments:

D said...

kept wondering whether or not to send you the gkp and thought that you might think this is what i might be doing on the eve of the new year! never mind that i am!

happy new year.

will try the A&C quiz next yr ;)

La Figlia Che Piange said...

eesh, now I feel more ignorant. this has been the year of the ego trample.

D said...
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D said...

feel guilty about not telling you about this...

http://www.livejournal.com/community/kqaquizzes/

although am unsure you would have spent the 1st day of the year battering an already bruised ego like me!

Anonymous said...

[dharmendra] Not to worry. If you check out the KQA site, you will find that we have gone and humiliated ourselves in public there. Of course we spent the 1st day of the year battering an already bruised ego. Does it look like we have a life? Hmm?

[srin tintin] Not to worry, we are all sailing in the same caique, I say!

La Figlia Che Piange said...

eesh, lojja diyo na. oh, you dont understand bong, na? bhaloi.

kuffir said...

a happy new year to you ludwig..

Anonymous said...

[srin] What makes you think we donts understands bongs? Bhaloi new year to you too!

Anonymous said...

[kuffir] And to you, my dear chap, and to you!

D said...

much like holmes' companion, realized you had, after the results were announced. we do have a life, really - the one we are leading :)
see you on republic day

D said...
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D said...

by the way, the name of the question setter of the FT quiz is ludovic. is that an evil coincidence or what!? was dying to tell you...

Anonymous said...

[dharmendra] Pure evil coincidence. Much evil is afoot, and all the lands are being covered in Darkness.

La Figlia Che Piange said...

Arrey Ludesh, you are toh tomato pappu guy...now you know bong also. This is too bad.