Uni Challenge - Imperial

[brainiac]

Anyone else find the Imperial contestant Brandon smug and annoying, brilliant though he is? And why is he allowed to have 'Brandon' written in front of him on the desk when his name is Brandon Blackwell?

I wish the producer would tell all the students to introduce themselves with their full name - 'Hi, I'm John' etc just sounds naff and juvenile.

[sunny-dave]

It's OK - he self-identifies as a 'pillock' ...

[ morning, brains - hope all is well with you? ]

[naomi24]

He's self-identifying I expect. It's all the rage!

[grumpy01]

So niche now don’t watch it anymore.Enjoy Only Connect though.

[brainiac]

Morning, s-d. Well he sure doesn't do himself any favours - maybe he's going for Monkman/Seagull notoriety?
Is he the first contestant 'outta Queens'?

[bhg481]

He is American, remember; they are a completely different breed of people from those raised in the UK.

[Peter Pedant]

yah - we concentrated on - full name reading XYZ

because well heeled undergrads at Oxbridge dont study
they read .... ( 1971)
against open uni - the first time and we tied but they made a mistake in scoring so it was an excuse to have the half hour all over again !

close games are more interesting than one where one side sits on the other 300-50

as NIgh will confirm ( the worlds fave Prez cd be the next nobel prize winner in micro - he is so good at it maybe and so on) Americans really dont do humility or moderation

[jim360]

He's called Brandon, rather than Brandon Blackwell, because he was in between surnames at the time of filming. Some family business that is personal to him and no concern of everybody else's.

As to his perceived smugness, at least he backs that up with his performance. One of the best at this format around. And it's a concentration face -- he's not so bad in person.

[Ken4155]

Quite often teams who progress into the latter stages of the tournament will introduce themselves by their first name only. As for Brandon? The guy is good - annoyingly so - but very good. If he were a racehorse, he'd be handicapped to the hilt:-)

[Mamyalynne]

I found Brandon a little brash at first but he has grown on me and proved himself as a valuable team member.

[Prudie]

I hope they win - just because of him. He's not really smug and if you look behind the façade there's a fragile individual (I think). On top of that he has an outstanding broad knowledge.

[andy-hughes]

Anyone who can understand, much less answer, the pointlessly tedious plethora of science and maths questions gets my vote!

[mallyh]

my favourite is the chap on the corpus Christi team surname wang

[nescio]

andy hughes,
"plethora of science and maths questions"? There are rarely more than a handful and I would regard the vast majority of them to be at best A level standard, not degree level

[jim360]

Better than the pointlessly tedious literature and arts questions. :P

[andy-hughes]

nescio - // andy hughes,
"plethora of science and maths questions"? There are rarely more than a handful and I would regard the vast majority of them to be at best A level standard, not degree level //

As a regular viewer, it does seem that the number and complexity of science and maths questions has increased over recent series.

Since I don't possess A Levels in maths or science, the questions remain a meaningless distraction to me.

[andy-hughes]

Jim - // Better than the pointlessly tedious literature and arts questions. :P //

I think on average, that viewers are more likely to have read the books or seen the art that features on those questions, than to have an inkling about questions which only a specialist can understand, much less answer.

[brainiac]

I agree about the increase in highly-complex maths and science questions, andy. I always listen to what the four contestants are studying and if there are no specialist maths or science students I think "they're stuffed". Teams from the likes of SOAS or the Courtauld are always, therefore, going to be at a disadvantage.

How can somebody be "between surnames"?

[Peter Pedant]

yeah we asked Bamber Grass-groyne ( 1971 - yes for it was he) why there werent more science qq
and HE said because no one can answer them when he put em in

and all the bright undergradz squealed yes but if you included them then....

I got all the films of 1969 right
but wondered why it was expected that the younger generation were supposed toknow about it

[naomi24]

//How can somebody be "between surnames"? //

Pass.

[Peter Pedant]

// How can somebody be "between surnames"?//

because you use one for some things and the other for toher things ?

British afro caribbeans - yeah oK and he isnt - frquently use a double barrelled name and take both the mothers and fathers