Organised by the NUS Business School, in-conjunction with The Tata Group, the 10th edition of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz Singapore saw a total of 164 participants (82 teams) participating.
Two teams (Ryan and Dylan, and Tianming and Yu See) from NUS Business School, who made it into the highly competitive top final eight-team stage, share their exciting experience. The preliminary round saw 20 questions across various topics addressed to all participants. This was followed by a short wild card round amongst teams ranked 7 to 14 based on the scores. Out of which 2 teams joined the 6 top scoring teams to make an eight-team stage final where they were further tested with five rounds of live, rapid-fire quizzing.
Ryan Quek and Dylan Chong (BBA and Econs Year 1)
Q: How did you decide to be quiz partners?
DC: We met during National Service, and ended up in the same sectional group last semester.
RQ: I have a thing about quizzes, and took part in other quizzing events in Singapore before. I had also watched previous editions of the Tata Crucible Campus Quiz on TV. So, when I found out the quiz was returning, I really wanted to sign up.
DC: Yes, and he needed a partner to form a team. I was free and curious, so, I thought – why not?
Q: How did you both prepare for the quiz?
DC: Actually we did not prep much.
RQ: Same here – we just went for the experience, really. You just won’t know what will come out, and there’s no point trying to guess.
Q: I heard you guys came close to finishing in third place! Were you expecting that?
DC: We went in with an open mind. Not much expectations actually.
RQ: I just wanted to go in and enjoy myself. However, I wasn’t expecting to make the finals, considering the seasoned participants were equally likely to know the answers as well. So, finishing in the top eight, was surprise enough!
RQ: After the preliminary round, I was shocked we managed to get so many questions right as a team.
DC: I was thinking “Oh my! We actually did it!”
Q: So, you planning to do this again?
DC: Yes. We feel like we might actually have a better shot at it with this experience.
RQ: I enjoy quizzing in general, so this is something I’d happily sign up for. And as the quizmaster said, this year’s champions are graduating, so they won’t be back next year. So yes, we do have a shot at this.
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Chen Tianming and Chu Yu See (BAC Year 3)
Q: How did you guys know each other?
TM: We knew each other from the same orientation group. We chanced upon this event way back when we were in year 1 and thought it might be interesting to take part together.
YS: Yes, we were stopped one day at Biz Canteen and was introduced to it. That was when we first took part, since we were only year 1s.
Q: So, this is not your first parade! Was it any different?
TM: It’s our second time participating. When we were in year 1, we finished in the Wild Card round.
YS: We were hoping to at least maintain a similar result. Thank goodness we did!
TM: Otherwise, we take it as a learning opportunity and to watch the event live.
Q: How do you usually prepare for the quiz then?
TM: We didn’t really prepare for the quiz but we are both inquisitive and we enjoy reading and sharing interesting things with friends.
YS: Yes, I enjoy reading random things and facts and as Tianming put it, being naturally inquisitive, we just happened to know some of the things quizzed.
Q: What went through your minds during the entire quiz?
TM: Honestly, we were shocked! We thought we had quite a number of wrong answers in the first round. We then tried our best along the way and made several lucky guesses that helped us through the wild-card round.
YS: A bit of luck is always needed! Especially if you don’t have a broad knowledge of everything quizzed. Sometimes we know the answers to the questions other groups are quizzed on, or we might not get questions from topics we’re comfortable with. However it’s still an interesting experience!
TM: The finals was definitely very exciting! We were standing next to the eventual winners (Rohan Naidu and Shivam Bhardwaj) who are also from NUS. It was amazing just watching them perform.
Q: So, we will see you again at the quiz next year?
TM: Definitely! It is a great experience and you really do learn a lot of interesting new things.
YS: It has been fun and the experience is extremely unique, When you’re placed on the spot and under the pressure of time, the entire situation becomes extremely tense.
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After an intense competition for the coveted Tata Crucible Campus Quiz 2017 title and trophy, defending champs Rohan Naidu (Yale-NUS College) and Shivam Bhardwaj (NUS PhD, Life Sciences) finally emerged as winners.
(L to R) Mr. K.V. Rao, Resident Director, ASEAN, Tata Sons, Guest of Honour -Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of Education, Rohan Naidu and Shivam Bhardwaj from National University of Singapore and Prof. Bernard Yeung, Dean – NUS Business School felicitating the cheque to the winners.
The quiz received student participation from prominent local institutions including Nanyang Technological University, National University of Singapore, S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Singapore Management University. The Guest-of-Honour for the evening, Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information & Ministry of Education, presented the prizes to the winning teams.
The Tata Crucible Campus Quiz Singapore 2017 was hosted by ace quizmaster Giri Balasubramaniam. The evening was graced by senior Tata leaders from Singapore and representatives from the local universities amongst others.
