BBC GCSE quiz

[Vir Campestris]

Out of 7?

[Tim Lamb]

I forgot the % sign:-)

[charles]

when I took one of my A-Level maths papers (nearly 60 years ago), I got 252 out of 250 - a classmate got 254! (he became a judge)

[tim...]

I frequent do these silly newspaper quizzes where I have no idea of the answer

I often get 1 or 2 out of 10 :-)

Obviously I am an unlucky person

tim

[Vir Campestris]

I worked that out.

2/7 is 28.571428 (recurring) 3/7 is 42.85714

if my mental arithmetic is correct. :P

Andy

[Tim Lamb]

Undoubtedly. I was thinking tick box choice of 3 giving 1/3rd marks in an exam.

I actually got a 3 at *O* level maths! Much to the surprise of Jonnie Roscoe who had my name on his tombstone list:-)

[Halmyre]

Yes, I've never heard the expression either.

[Andy Burns]

See also: Dormitory village.

[charles]

perhaps you have to live in one (or near one) to know the expression

[NY]

I've heard the term "dormitory village" for years: I'm sure I learned in in O Level Geography in the late 70s. And although I'd not heard of "commuter village" before, its meaning is very obviously a synonym for dormitory village. That was one of the easier questions and came into the category of "you can work it out from common sense and prior knowledge", as you can with most of them except the Dido one which is "you either know this fact or you don't, but you can't work it out".

[The Natural Philosopher]

Which its hard not to have heard of at least once in your life.

I think the enzyme one was 'you either know it or you don't'

[NY]

I've evidently managed to get to age 53 without ever having heard of it.

Agreed - that's another 'you either know it or you don't'. I'd encountered the term in O level (and A level) Chemistry. If I'd done Biology I've have been even more likely to encounter it. I also knew because my dad worked as a research pharmacist so I heard quite a lot of medical terminology even before I started Chemistry at secondary school; not everyone would have that extra advantage!

The binary one was an interesting example of my not spotting the easy short-cut - that only one of the answers was even and the other two were odd (or was it the other way round?). Instead I did it the long way round: write down the headings 128, 64, ..., 2, 1 and add up all the headings where there was a 1. Sometimes in multiple choice they make it too easy by having only one plausible answer instead of at least two to make it less trivial and require you to work out the distinction.

The French one was cunning in that one of the answers was almost word-for-word translation of the French (so making it look plausible) except that the sense was diametrically opposite. Nice one!

[The Natural Philosopher]

that was crappy.

Because the 'correct' answer was nothing like the French original.

[tim...]

I have heard of it now because of that question

but until then I have never

and why should I?

tim

[tim...]

I managed to work it out from my cursory knowledge of science

I certainly didn't get told the answer whilst at school

I worked that out from my pigeon French as well.

I couldn't actually work out what the question and answer were, I just managed to get the sense of direction of the question and picked the one answer that was heading the same way.

tim

[Huge]

[26 lines snipped]

"pidgin".

You're welcome.

[Johnny B Good]

Just shows you that even the soap powder adverts have suffered from "The Dumbing Down" effect. I think a surprisingly large number of the older UK TV viewing populous may have been able to correctly guess the answer to question 1 from the free biochemistry lesson that used to be part of the earlier Bio-soap powder adverts. :-)

[tim...]

what's that got to do with my never having heard of some Greek rulers

written about by some Roman fellar that I have also never heard of

in some "book" that AFAICT isn't on the reading list for the average 15-16 year old

tim

[tony sayer]

We hear the lament every 11th of November;(..

52:00 in...

[NY]

I don't tend to watch the whole wreath-laying ceremony, even if I observe a minute or two's silence and thank all those soldiers in both World Wars (and all the other conflicts) who did a job that I wouldn't have the guts to do.

Well, I've learned about Dido and Aeneas. Hopefully I'll remember those names now.