Beating Oxford in brain teasers

From the Swindon Advertiser, first published Saturday 1st Mar 2003.

THERE may not be a university yet in Swindon but that hasn't stopped people in the town beating Oxford and Cambridge in a nationwide general knowledge test.

Over 20,000 British families took part in what may be the biggest ever on-line family quiz conducted by Microsoft.

Out of the 30 major towns or cities included, Swindon came joint 23rd with Manchester. But families in the town still thrashed the hometowns of Britain's most prestigious universities, with Oxford scoring an average 52 per cent and Cambridge achieving 49 percent.

Mums, dads, and their children across the country battled it out by answering 10 general knowledge covering topics such as history, politics and art, which were drawn from a rotating 500-question database.

The questions were pitched at different levels of ability so the whole family could take part,

Swindonians like the rest of the nation, scored highest in science and the town's least favourite subjects were literature and entertainment.

In our vox pop of Swindon residents, Elaine Breski, 31, of Park North, even correctly answered the one question that stumped the whole country.

Not one contestant knew the answer to `What are the doldrums?' but Elaine knew it was an area of low atmospheric pressure over the equator.

Dr David Lewis, a researcher into intelligence and learning, analysed the results of the Microsoft competition.

He said: "It is a big mistake to confuse intelligence with general knowledge. A person can be very good at reeling off facts and figures but can still be as thick as two short planks."

Britain's highest scoring family are from from Marlborough. They won a holiday worth £15,000 but wished to remain anonymous. They correctly answered questions in the fastest time of 8.5 seconds.

Britain's brain boxes can be found in Brighton, scoring 87 per cent whilst families in Wolverhampton were the least knowledgeable, scoring just 36 per cent.

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