Review
'As well as putting your most smug relatives to the test, this book is an entertaining way of encouraging unusual thought and debate' --The Oldie
'Test your knowledge and see where you rank in relation to the nation's elite with this light-hearted and informative quiz book. Featuring actual questions taken from undergraduate admissions interviews' --Woman and Home
"The book celebrates being 'clever' in its widest possible sense, championing the free thinker, the alternative, the individual, the power of deep thought." --Judges Comments, Society of Authors Education Award, 2010
"A great book to dip into...you can hardly stop yourself wanting to see the next question." --Evan Davis, BBC Radio 4, 'Today' Programme
"'Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxbridge Questions', brings together the toughest, most esoteric examples of the genre, and writer John Farndon - a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge - sketches out winning responses to each." --Daily Telegraph
"immense fun to read and surprisingly inspirational." --Forlorn Hope, Ops-Centre
'Test your knowledge and see where you rank in relation to the nation's elite with this light-hearted and informative quiz book. Featuring actual questions taken from undergraduate admissions interviews' --Woman and Home
"The book celebrates being 'clever' in its widest possible sense, championing the free thinker, the alternative, the individual, the power of deep thought." --Judges Comments, Society of Authors Education Award, 2010
"A great book to dip into...you can hardly stop yourself wanting to see the next question." --Evan Davis, BBC Radio 4, 'Today' Programme
"'Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxbridge Questions', brings together the toughest, most esoteric examples of the genre, and writer John Farndon - a graduate of Jesus College, Cambridge - sketches out winning responses to each." --Daily Telegraph
"immense fun to read and surprisingly inspirational." --Forlorn Hope, Ops-Centre
Product Description
A wonderful collection of oddly brilliant questions and answers taken from the infamously challenging Oxbridge interviews. 'What happens if I drop an ant?' 'What books are bad for you?' 'What percentage of the world's water is contained in a cow?' The Oxbridge undergraduate interviews are infamous for their unique ways of assessing candidates, and from these peculiar enquiries, professors can tell just how smart you really are. Cambridge-educated John Farndon has collected together 75 of the most intriguing questions taken from actual admission interviews and gives full answers to each, taking the reader through the fascinating histories, philosophies, sciences and arts that underlie each problem. Oxford graduate Libby Purves lends her own thoughts and reflections on what it's like to have your mind stretched in unusual ways in a thorough introduction. This is a book for everyone who likes to think they're clever, or who thinks they'd like to be clever. And cleverness is not just knowing stuff, it's how laterally, deeply and interestingly you can bend your brain. Guesstimating the population of Croydon, for example, opens a chain of thought from which you can predict the strength of a nuclear bomb ... and that's just the start of it.
