Tag Archives: quiz

amusements

Annual Impossible Exam 2025

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As is now traditional here (but slightly earlier than in recent years), we once again we bring you this year’s King William’s College General Knowledge Paper 2025-26.

For over 120 years the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper. 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 spending the holiday researching the answers. The test used to be mandatory but these days participation is voluntary. Since 1951 the quiz has been published in the Guardian.

The quiz, which is always 18 sets of 10 questions, is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers. The best scores are around 12% for the unseen test and about 70% for the second attempt – and of course the average scores are going to be very much lower than this.

The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition” – something my father always impressed on me as “Education is not knowing, it is knowing where to find out”.

You can find this year’s General Knowledge Paper on the King William’s College website at https://kwc.im/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/GKP_2025_26.pdf and in the Guardian.

I’ve not yet tried this year’s test myself, but unseen I don’t normally have many more clues that the KWC pupils!

Enjoy the quiz as a break from festive preparations, or keep it to amuse the family over Christmas!

history, memes

December Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

British History

  1. In what year was the Battle of Culloden? 1746
  2. How many monarchs reigned during the 19th century? 4 – George III, George IV, William IV, Victoria
  3. Who, in 1835, produced durable silver chloride camera negatives on paper and conceived the two-step negative-positive procedure used in most non-electronic photography up to the present? Henry Fox Talbot
  4. Charles Dodgson is remembered as an early photographer, but what else is he famous for? The Alice in Wonderland books (as Lewis Carroll)
  5. In what year was slavery abolished in the British empire? 1838
  6. What links playing cards in 1588; windows in 1696; candles in 1709; wallpaper in 1712? All were taxed starting in those years

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

history, memes

December Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

British History

  1. In what year was the Battle of Culloden?
  2. How many monarchs reigned during the 19th century?
  3. Who, in 1835, produced durable silver chloride camera negatives on paper and conceived the two-step negative-positive procedure used in most non-electronic photography up to the present?
  4. Charles Dodgson is remembered as an early photographer, but what else is he famous for?
  5. In what year was slavery abolished in the British empire?
  6. What links playing cards in 1588; windows in 1696; candles in 1709; wallpaper in 1712?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

memes, science

November Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Physical Science & Mathematics

  1. What are the three states of matter? Solid, liquid and gas
  2. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? Marie Curie
  3. Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun? Nicolaus Copernicus
  4. Which is the largest planet in the solar system? Jupiter
  5. In mathematics, what is the mathematical constant approximately equal to 3.14159 known as? Pi
  6. What subatomic particle has its name taken from James Joyce’s work Finnegans Wake? Quark

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

memes, science

November Quiz Questions

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Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Physical Science & Mathematics

  1. What are the three states of matter?
  2. Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize?
  3. Who discovered that the earth revolves around the sun?
  4. Which is the largest planet in the solar system?
  5. In mathematics, what is the mathematical constant approximately equal to 3.14159 known as?
  6. What subatomic particle has its name taken from James Joyce’s work Finnegans Wake?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

October Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Classical & Ancient World

  1. What is the name of the home of the Greek Gods? Olympus
  2. Which body of the water was called mare nostrum by the Romans? Mediterranean
  3. Ask and Embla are the Norse equivalent to the Christian what? Adam and Eve
  4. What was the name of the Egyptian God of the Sun? Ra
  5. In Roman mythology, who is the goddess of the sewers? Cloacina
  6. Which word derives from the Latin for “sand” and originally denoted part of a Roman amphitheatre that was covered with sand to soak up the blood from combat? Arena

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

history, memes

October Quiz Questions

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Classical & Ancient World

  1. What is the name of the home of the Greek Gods?
  2. Which body of the water was called mare nostrum by the Romans?
  3. Ask and Embla are the Norse equivalent to the Christian what?
  4. What was the name of the Egyptian God of the Sun?
  5. In Roman mythology, who is the goddess of the sewers?
  6. Which word derives from the Latin for “sand” and originally denoted part of a Roman amphitheatre that was covered with sand to soak up the blood from combat?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

books, memes, words

September Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

Literature

  1. Which Tolstoy novel begins “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”? Anna Karenina
  2. Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016? Bob Dylan
  3. Who wrote A Child’s History of England? Dickens, 1853
  4. Who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in Nov 1850? Tennyson
  5. Apart from his novels, what is Anthony Trollope remembered for? Introduction of pillar boxes to UK
  6. Which two-word term was popularised by a 1948 Robert Heinlein novel of the same name, which inspired a science fiction franchise centring on a character named Tom Corbett? Space Cadet

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.

books, memes

September Quiz Questions

5 Comments

Each month we’re posing six pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As always, they’re designed to be difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so have a bit of fun.

Literature

  1. Which Tolstoy novel begins “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”?
  2. Who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016?
  3. Who wrote A Child’s History of England?
  4. Who succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in Nov 1850?
  5. Apart from his novels, what is Anthony Trollope remembered for?
  6. Which two-word term was popularised by a 1948 Robert Heinlein novel of the same name, which inspired a science fiction franchise centring on a character named Tom Corbett?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

August Quiz Answers

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Here are the answers to this month’s six quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

General History

  1. How long, in days, was the year 46BC? 445 days; the longest year in human history. It had three extra leap months inserted by Julius Caesar as preparation to make his new Julian Calendar match up with the seasonal year.
  2. According to the 1516 Bavarian Reinheitsgebot, what are the only ingredients allowed in beer? Water, barley & hops, although yeast was also used but not stated.
  3. Who was the first woman to die in an aviation-related incident? Sophie Blanchard (a balloonist who died in 1812)
  4. In what year was the Battle of Lepanto? 1571
  5. In 1800, the capital of the USA was transferred to Washington DC from which city? Philadelphia
  6. The War of Jenkins’ Ear (a term coined by British historian Thomas Carlyle), 1739-1748, between Britain and Spain, was fought where? Caribbean

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2024.