In December, the Guardian UK website posted the questions for the notoriously difficult King William’s College quiz or General Knowledge Paper (GKP) given to students (and parents) at King William’s College on the Isle of Man. In another article on, “The Story of the King Wiliams’s College Quiz” quizmaster Dr Pat Cullen discusses the impact of the Internet on the 106 year old quiz and attempts to Google and social media proof the quiz to keep it intellectually challenging. MacLean’s Canada article on the history of the quiz is simply titled, “The World’s Most Difficult Quiz. Really.”
While only section 2 relates specifically to geography and cartography, I estimated that about 70 of the 180 questions could be considered geo-spatial. These range from questions such as, “4 Who first used continuous and broken lines to indicate fenced and unfenced roads?” to 5 Where did close neighbours claim the invention of a device for observing at a distance? The answers to last year’s questions were posted in February, so you will have to wait a while if you get stumped.
The quizmaster Dr. Pat Cullen doesn’t live in a dusty library tower, he is also a birder and citizen scientist for the Isle of Man which is home to several rare species of birds.