The election of a house “Oracle” to co-ordinate their efforts is the first step for all Third Form pupils, on their road to complete the hardest and most cryptic quiz they will encounter at Oundle. Seventy questions, in many cases riddled to be partially Google-proof, tested all pupils on the whole scope of knowledge from literature to science to theology to arts to social history to geography to maths and more, all wrapped up in wordplay and lateral thinking.
The Triv Quiz is set up as a house competition, with the express aim of showing that things must be known and enjoyed before they can be properly explored, or answers and skills drawn from them (nescis nisis intellegis) – that is, the ability to source knowledge is not enough, since one first has to know what question is being asked.
It is also an exercise in research skill – pupils (and quite a few staff teams who threw their hats in the ring to give pupils extra competition) had ten days to ask anyone in the world for the answers, including their teachers, search engines, parents and so forth.
The range of approaches was instructive, and – perhaps of equal importance – pupils had an enormous amount of fun and head-scratching delving into obscure areas of human knowledge to discover the answers. Congratulations to the Laxton Boys, who take the trophy this year from last year’s joint winners, St Anthony and Laxton Girls.
Question papers and answers are available here.
W Gunson