Comments on: Test The Nation 2003

Test The Nation 2003

feelinglistless — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:03:16 -0800

The BBC tested the British nation again tonight. Amid imperial measurements and wierd science I managed to score 53/70. According to the overall results you can learn more reading books than using the internet. You can take the test online (via the magic of flash). See how well you do.

By: ~rschram

~rschram — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:28:34 -0800

People whose primary source of information is "talking to people" did really bad!

By: duckstab

duckstab — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:35:33 -0800

6. When do we eat pancakes? A Shrove Tuesday B Ash Wednesday C Maundy Thursday D Good Friday This has to be some kind of trick question, right?

By: Asparagirl

Asparagirl — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 16:54:29 -0800

120. Not as well as I'd hoped.

By: anastasiav

anastasiav — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 17:26:08 -0800

This has to be some kind of trick question, right? Hey! I know the answer to that!

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 17:27:36 -0800

123! And that's with my kid talking to me

By: jpburns

jpburns — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 17:34:40 -0800

I only got 123, but really bombed out on the perception part. Good thing I'm not in the visual arts. Hey!

By: vbfg

vbfg — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 17:37:39 -0800

This has to be some kind of trick question, right? In a way, but not for the reason you're thinking. I'm thinking it's almost a trick question because most Britons are more likely to refer to Shrove Tuesday as Pancake Day. I got 140 btw, with 63 out of 70.

By: bshort

bshort — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 17:42:01 -0800

130. I suck.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:02:18 -0800

117, but i don't feel bad, bec. i'm not british... what was that sports question: what's a haka??? and which is the county with the most coastline? and how many yrs is a term of govt. there?

By: carter

carter — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:03:54 -0800

CXL.

By: obfusciatrist

obfusciatrist — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:15:49 -0800

130, but I was eating dinner and participating in a conference call while doing it. I know of at least two questions where I accidentally clicked the wrong answer. I also have no idea what a phone pad looks like in the UK so I just assumed it is the same as in the US.

By: vbfg

vbfg — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:24:41 -0800

The Haka is a war dance performed by various national teams from the south Pacific, notably New Zealand, in both Rugby Union and Rugby League. The pic is of the climax of the most famous one, performed by the New Zealand RU team, in front of I think some bemused Argentinians. Max term of government is five years, but it's not a fixed term it is just a maximum. The county with the longest coastline is Cornwall which, if Wales is a pig's head, counts as the front trotter. (Look at a map, I'm not going mad. London is about where the arsehole would be :)

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:31:41 -0800

thanks vbfg! (I said i was from London to take the test, so i hope i didn't bring the city's average down)

By: vbfg

vbfg — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:34:22 -0800

More about the NZ haka, including something of a video. This has just reminded me of a very dirty Rugby League game between Wales and Western Samoa when the first fight had started before the haka was over. I must dig that tape out...

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 18:46:29 -0800

ka mate! : > the only thing we have that's similar maybe is when a football player does a little dance in the end zone after a touchdown, but that's more of a joyous spontaneous thing...or maybe cheerleading is more like the haka? (haka happens before the game, no?)

By: chaz

chaz — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 19:18:35 -0800

40 correct, but i didn't know what half that shit was!

By: vbfg

vbfg — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 19:20:40 -0800

Yes, entirely before the game. Order of ceremonies these days tends to include a minor opera singer of questionable, sometimes Australian, parentage doing a great disservice to the national anthems. Depending on which countries are playing you then get none, one or two hakas being performed. Sometimes if there's two they do it at the same time, most often they don't. Sides that don't do it like all the European teams, the South Efricens and the Aussies (spit) either watch politely, make obscene gestures, I've seen the odd camp dance done by England now and again, or they walk right up to the guys doing it and intimidate back. In the case of the Wales v Western Somoa game I mentioned they sometimes walk right up to them and just smack them in the mouth. After that, game on as per normal. BTW, the Rugby Union World Cup starts in Australia (spit) in about two or three weeks. There'll be plenty of opportunity to see it followed by at least a half decent game of footy, even if it is only Union and not League.

By: amberglow

amberglow — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 19:26:50 -0800

i'll look for a web feed of the opening ceremonies so i can see a haka, vbfg--thanks! (but i take it you're not a fan of the australian team?)

By: lowlife

lowlife — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 20:03:01 -0800

132, 54 right, but like obfusciatrist I was in a distracted state of mind and know of two items that I clicked the wrong answer for. It's been a few years since I lived in the UK, and some of those questions were very anglo-centric. Still, a bit of a laugh.

By: Nothing

Nothing — Sat, 06 Sep 2003 22:07:39 -0800

130, but I was translating Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics at the time, so my attention was mostly alternating between the papyrus scrolls and the Rosetta Stone. Plus, I was performing minor neurosurgery on myself, which caused some involuntary muscle spasms in my mouse clicking finger, causing me to inadvertently select the wrong answer on several (perhaps a dozen) occasions.

By: feelinglistless

feelinglistless — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 01:50:20 -0800

My score was a 130 also. We can grovel, but this is still miles ahead of the rest of the country if you look at the results.

By: skoosh

skoosh — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 06:19:13 -0800

53/70, "quotient" of 130, with a few answers (Pancake Day, Haka, Cornwall) gotten from reading this thread first. I took the other tests [National IQ Test (134, one question missed in each category) and the National Relationship Test (175 - "Lucky In Love" even though I'm not)] before catching on to the one that everyone else has been taking. I'm sure that if The National Quiz wasn't quite so UK-centric, we (non-Britons) could all have done a lot better. In any case, if my fellow Americans are doing what I do in the "let's find out more about you" section (i.e. answering accurately, if not exactly truthfully), we're all making Belfast look much worse than it should.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 09:09:58 -0800

129, 52/70, and I'm a midwestern USA'er with a hangover. I couldn't be arsed with some of the UK-centric ones.

By: jacquilynne

jacquilynne — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 10:53:01 -0800

My quotient was 121. I'm sure I could have done quite a bit better if I were British instead of just an upstart from one of the colonies.

By: i_cola

i_cola — Sun, 07 Sep 2003 13:16:47 -0800

Bloody colonials ;-) Well, I live in the cleverest city (Brighton) & I'm right near the front of the curve with 139. Despite the fact I was being attacked by a pack of wild dogs whilst doing the quiz. I'm so smart. I'm so smart S-M-R-T I'm so smart. [house burns down]

By: asok

asok — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 07:49:33 -0800

IE crashed before revealing the results page. Which is something it has been doing frequently since the last security patch. Probably just as well.