After disappointments with Brain of Britain and Only Connect this year, not to mention Eggheads, my next aim is to appear on Mastermind. I have been having a thought as to what I may consider as a specialist subject and would appreciate any advice from contestants who have tackled the black chair in the past.
My main consideration is this.....do I go for subjects I am already fairly strong on, or learn a totally new subjects for the show?
I can see the benefit of both. If I were to take a subject about which I am already passionate then a little of the groundwork is done. Coupled with the fact that it will be something I am naturally interested in, I can certainly see the advantages. However, my main worries are a) killing my interest in the subject with learning it for Mastermind and b) not revising enough, if lucky enough to get on the show, due to assumed knowledge.
I am steering towards applying for the 2015/2016 series with subjects I know little about at present. The tactic to success seems to be to choose something narrow and I feel, the way I learn, taking something new and devoting a period of time to soaking up everything and anything about that particular subject would be the way forward.
As you say, I can see the advantages to both sides. Are there any particular interests you could consider using?
ReplyDeleteHi Dan
ReplyDeleteThat’s an interesting one, and I’ll tell you for why. I’m currently in the middle of a challenge issued by an old non-quizzing mate of mine. Basically the topic of Mastermind and how you select a specialist subject came up, and I made the point that if you are methodical about it, you can probably do almost as well on subjects about which you have little or no prior knowledge, as you can do on those which you already know well. So he challenged me to prove it. I’ll write about it properly in LAM when it’s all over.
Still, while I think that you can learn almost anything, I do think that you’re better off to : -
1) Pick something in which you already have an interest. You are going to be living with that subject for weeks – well you are if you’re taking it seriously – so it needs to be something you actually can maintain an interest in.
2) Pick something you already have a decent level of knowledge about. However carefully you prepare it is really difficult to cover all the angles, and you never know, a little prior knowledge might cover something your revision wouldn’t.
3) Pick something you already have some revision sources for, otherwise it can get really expensive.
You clearly have an interest in Eurovision – and why not? – so that to me would be a pretty obvious choice of one of your specialists.
You should play to your strengths - Eurovision would be a good choice. The SS choice is so important. A decent score of 14 or more would seal the contest, given your excellent GK. Some very good quizzers have come a cropper with the SS in recent years and lost out. Make the right choice and you're in. I did Jeeves and Wooster in my semi, a subject that was already coming out of my ears and no way a chore to revise because it was a passion
ReplyDeleteDo what feels right and knock them dead