university challenge quiz

Take these starters for 10 and we’ll tell you how well you’d do on University Challenge

This is the hardest quiz you’ll EVER take, by the way


It’s September – AKA the best month of the year. Why, I hear you ask? Because University Challenge is BACK, and I can finally spend my Monday nights pretending to be cultured again.

Honestly, I have no idea why people love it so much – and I’m including myself in this, too. Whether it’s Jeremy’s cutting wit, the ridiculously hard questions or the questionable fashion tastes of students who’ll be running the country in 30 years, something keeps me coming back for more. And, to be honest, I’m not complaining.

But let’s talk about those questions. Why is there so much unbridled joy in confidently shouting extremely-wrong answers to horrible questions? My weekly dose of serotonin literally comes from shouting things like: “Six!”, “green!” and “Romeo and Juliet!” to questions like, “what is the square route of seven if 39 equals X?”

So, I won’t lie. I want to see how well you do in this quiz, just to make myself feel better about never getting a single question correct. Frankly, if you can get at least one of these right, you deserve a coveted glass trophy, hand-carved by Jeremy Paxman himself, and presented to you by the ghost of Stephen Hawking.

Seriously. These questions are really, really hard. So hard, in fact, I don’t think you’ll get a single one right. You’ve been warned.

I challenge you to take these starters for 10 (based on real-life questions from the show), and we’ll tell you exactly how well you’d do on University Challenge:

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Featured image via BBC before edits.