Between the hours of 9-10 a.m. on January 17, the first RUMPUS event of the day had begun. Upstairs trivia was first, with students testing their academic knowledge against pre-set SAT math and reading questions. Downstairs was more of a jeopardy-style test, both events testing knowledge of all kinds. Many were confident in their abilities this time around since last year, when the questions were supposedly less rigorous. This year’s winner was Neville House, scoring 160 points with Thornwood, Summerbell, and Cooper trailing behind.

“I would say the history questions were the hardest to answer for my house, which is Thornwood. They were so oddly specific, I wasn’t nervous at all; I was just excited to be there. Although our strong suit, I would say, was the pop culture questions, like the brain-rot,” Thornwood freshman  Anna Berkeley Parsons said.

Although these opinions come from different houses, several students pointed to the same “oddly specific” history questions that left everyone in confusion. Here’s a perspective on what it felt like to be just one question away from first place.

“I was nervous because we were second overall, and so if we got more points, we could have ended up in first place. What I think tripped us up was the history and sports because they were way too specific and niche. It was so funny when everyone instantly got the Dubai Chocolate question right,” Senior Presley Dixon said, a member of Cooper House.

As time passed, the difficulty of the questions grew. Summerbell was making a slight comeback, and so was Moser when they tied for 5th in one of the score updates. Many students felt the pressure of how close the points were becoming. Furthermore, we must keep in mind upstairs trivia had wrapped up at 9:30 a.m. so their points were the final determination.

“I was pretty nervous but confident in Thornwood’s abilities this year. To me the history questions seemed the hardest, I don’t think I would’ve been able to get them either. The easiest questions were for sure the naming the human body anatomy because we had Coach Perkins-the anatomy teacher.” Thornwood sophomore Elle Howren said.

While Howren relied on confidence of her house’s abilities, others leaned on their vast experience to get them through trivia, especially Neville house. Preparation and experience makes or breaks a trivia table which is displayed in the moments leading up to Neville’s victory.

“I wouldn’t say I was nervous but more so over excited since I’ve been doing Dar Trivia since my freshman year. This is my third year and I knew we were going to have a good team. My group and I did very well with the science and the anatomy labeling, although the pop culture stumped us.” junior and Neville dorm prefect Lance Carroll said.