tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post4323622764221465691..comments2024-03-12T12:54:32.926-07:00Comments on Life After Mastermind: Mastermind - Semi final 1/6Londiniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-77111810578544024542010-04-13T03:12:11.071-07:002010-04-13T03:12:11.071-07:00Today I can't see any of the three comments th...Today I can't see any of the three comments that I know have already been posted on this. what is the matter with this %$£!! blog ?Londiniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-16105493577974161432010-04-10T04:54:31.521-07:002010-04-10T04:54:31.521-07:00Right - to continue: -
As regards tricks to doing...Right - to continue: -<br /><br />As regards tricks to doing well, they’re not really tricks, but here’s the best advice I can give. <br />1) Prepare thoroughly. Learn your specialist subject inside out. <br />2) Build in an element of quickfire/under pressure testing to your revision. By the time of the show its really helpful to be used to chucking out answers to questions about your subject under top speed. <br />3) Try to work on your weak general knowledge areas as well – but ONLY when you are happy with your specialist subject revision. Specialist subject revision will bring you points – but there’s no cast iron guarantees that anything you learn for GK will come up. <br />4) I don’t know how true this is, but I have a friend who reckons on most specialist subject, the answers to between 6 and a dozen questions can be found on the subject’s wikipedia page. Might be worth checking out the page for yourself. <br />5) Try to get your head right for the show itself. If you’ve never been on TV before its really weird, suddenly being a part of something you’ve seen so many times before on the box. Accept that you are going to feel nervous, but also accept that you are allowed to enjoy the experience too. Remember that however calm your opponents on the day seem, they will be just as nervous as you are.<br />6) Get your strategy sorted out in your own mind before the day, and stick to it. Remember that passes are worse than wrong answers. However, dithering and then giving a pass or a wrong answer may be even worse. My advice to you would be to try to always given an answer in specialist, even if its wrong, but if no answer pops into your head on GK, then pass and move on quickly. <br />7) Trust yourself. If an answer pops into your head for any particular question then go with it. Sometimes they do ask blindingly obvious things . <br />8) Don’t worry about the last question. If you get something wrong, then forget about it, otherwise you’ll not do as well on the next question as you should do. Dwelling on wrong answers leads to a pass spiral. <br />9) Don’t try to count how well you’re doing – how many answers you have right as the round goes on. You can’t do it – your brain has got enough to worry about as it is. <br />10) Get it clear in your mind as you go to sit in the chair that this is honestly not a matter of life and death. If you’ve learned your subject then you’re honestly not going to have a disaster. Its supposed to be fun – try to enjoy it. <br /><br />Do you mind me asking what your first specialist subject will be ? When you know that you’re definitely on I can try to put together a set of questions for you. <br /><br />I’m interested by what you say about University Challenge. Who took you off ? Was it the university, or was it the programme ? Getting on a TV show can be a funny old business, and its not always about who’s got the best general knowledge. Mastermind and UC are straighter than most in this regard, though. <br /><br />I hope that this helps. Let me know if there’s any other way that I can help you out.<br /><br />Best regards<br /><br />Dave C.Londiniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-32056683787337051032010-04-10T04:54:00.143-07:002010-04-10T04:54:00.143-07:00Hi Jonathan,
How are you ? As regards the Crime...Hi Jonathan, <br /><br />How are you ? As regards the Crime Prevention Quiz, yes, that was me . I used to ( still do ) dread the Crime Prevention stuff, simply because its so hard to find time in school to do anything with it properly. With the results that there are years when I simply can’t get a team together for it. Such is life. <br /><br />105 seconds for each round – GK and SS would certainly do the trick. As I say, I don’t think it would have made the slightest difference last night, because on that form nobody in the heat, and possibly in the whole of the series, was going to beat Kathryn. However it must alter the dynamic for the whole show. I will watch the rest of them with interest. IMHO it militates against the chance of an upset, but time will tell.<br /><br />As regards going on Mastermind, them asking you to change your specialist subject is a very good sign. They did exactly the same to me in 2006, and within a week ot two I heard that I was definitely on. I know a couple of people who have already been told for definite, so I shouldn’t think that they will keep you holding on too long, especially as the filming is beginning in May. <br /><br />I’ll be honest, I can’t give you a great deal of advice about what they tend to ask on GK rounds. Basically anything and everything. My advice would be to watch each remaining show on the iplayer where you can pause it. Make a note of all the questions you get wrong in the GK. Yeah, I know it’s a pain, but you don’t want to be sitting in the green room after your show thinking – if only. There might well be a pattern emerging, and it will give you a chance to see what your weakest areas are which tend to recur. Obviously your main task in preparation is to learn your specialist subject inside out. For each of my specialists I learned over 700 questions. <br /><br />I have more to say, ut am only allowed so many characters per comment that I'll need to put it in another comment.Londiniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07871325359167581176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5401280171563686515.post-80520803679313598252010-04-09T17:33:43.912-07:002010-04-09T17:33:43.912-07:00I don't like how the GK round has become, as y...I don't like how the GK round has become, as you have said, disproportionately important. It is rectified by dividing 30 seconds by 2! One minute forty-five for each round.<br /><br />Well done to this week's winner though...I think she is probably going to win the whole thing. Though, it only takes one set of stinkers to send you packing.<br /><br />I have applied for the 2010/11 series and I think I have made it on to the show. I received a call back clarifying my specialist subjects and they asked me to change one of them; they didn't explicitly say I had made it on the show. I'll get back to you on that though.<br /><br />On a separate note, I think I recognise you from the 'Crime Prevention' quizzes that were held at the Apollo Cinema, Sandfields. It was way back to the year when 'The Polar Express' was released as it was the trailer to this film that acted as the observation round. I was a member of the Cefn Saeson team...I think you were Cwrt Sart. Forgive me if I am wrong though. :)<br /><br />----<br /><br />I commented back in November on one of your posts about me possibly going on 'University Challenge' - I and the strongest member of the team (he was great) were taken off the team. Less said the better I guess.<br />Just wondering if there are any tricks to doing well on Mastermind...have you noticed any patterns in the questions they ask on the show? I have noticed for example that they have asked a few questions on 'Shameless' this year. (I love that show!)<br /><br />I feel I need to improve my GK a little before I appear (if I appear) on the show. I kept my score for each GK round in the last episode:<br /><br />Me v Contestant<br /><br />7 v 9<br /><br />11 v 16 -- Kathryn's set (I was pleased to get 11)<br /><br />8 v 8<br /><br />9 v 7<br /><br />9 v 12<br /><br />So I am almost there, but am just missing out by a couple.<br /><br />Thanks,<br /><br />JonathanJonnoNeathhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13431471120562591462noreply@blogger.com