The List: University Challenge

Jess Cotton:

Described as the “Alex Ferguson of University Challenge”, for 16 years librarian Stephen Pearson has been the driving force behind the rigorous selection and training procedures of Manchester University’s quiz team, leading them to three victories since 2005. Ahead of tonight’s final between Manchester and UCL, he gives five insights into what makes a successful team.
1. Fingers on buzzer
The ability to buzz in on starter questions is actually more important than pure knowledge. The starters are the key to a team’s success – even if a contestant has copious amounts of general knowledge, if they don’t have the instinct to buzz in straightaway, they’re simply not going to get the starter points. Contestants should buzz in even if they are not 100 per cent sure of the answer.
2. Team building
A cohesive team is essential. When picking the contestants I ensure that there’s at least one candidate who’s strong on literature, history, geography and science. The training sessions allow the contestants to understand when to leave certain questions to the expert in that field. The first practice session is for them to get to know each other as people as much as anything else. I use a similar format to business team-building exercises – there should be lots of bonding and harnessing of team spirit. I’m getting a bit old for it now, but I know that after the practice sessions current and previous contestants will go to the pub for, I’m told, informal mentoring over drinks.
3. The classics
Many of the University Challenge questions include clues which refer to the Latin and Greek derivations of words – particularly scientific terms. This means that people who know their classics can respond even if they’ve got no idea about the science involved. Kwasi Kwarteng, now an MP for the Conservative party, showed this to great effect in his performance as part of the winning Trinity College Cambridge team of 1995.