The Khoja Community in London has been made proud once again as Fatima Sheriff, a master’s student from Imperial College, has won the 51st University Challenge TV show along with her team.
Fatima Sheriff
Hailing from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, Fatima Sheriff is studying MSc in Science Communication at the Imperial College, London. Fatima not only excels in academics but is an active member of non-academic activities as well. Her specialist subjects are literature, feminism, human anatomy and neuroscience, and she is the President of the Quiz Society. Fatima is also a freelance film critic.
In an interview for Imperial college’s website regarding the University Challenge, Fatima answered a few burning questions about the challenge. She shed light on their preparations for the challenge, saying that all her team members individually made flashcards for their specialist topics apart from Max, who is a very efficient learner. Their primary method of practice was watching a lot of old episodes of University Challenge together and trying to answer before the teams did on screen, but otherwise, they played a lot of different kinds of quiz. She stressed that her team played in UK Quizbowl tournaments together, which were daunting at first but were a good experience for getting used to a buzzer and facing academic competition.
Fatima was the only female member of the team. When she was asked about her experience, she joked that she had little competition when it came to being best dressed. Being the shortest on the team, even though they were sitting behind the University Challenge desk, throughout the whole experience, she was wearing heels, and they actually had to make Michael’s (one of the team members) seat lower, so the height difference wasn’t as stark. She mentioned that she felt that their team fit together well because she could focus on her passion for women’s history, knowing that the other members would cover the rest. She also struggled with an inferiority complex but realised it was mainly inexperience because she had never done professional quizzing before. Now that she’s moved past that, she is the President of the society and has a supportive community of female quizzers from other universities.
University Challenge TV show
University Challenge is a British television quiz programme that first aired in 1962. The current title holders are Imperial College, represented by Fatima’s team, who won the 51st series of the show on 04th April 2022.
Imperial College has won University Challenge for the fourth time – making it the TV quiz tournament’s joint most successful team.
The Khojanews team congratulates Sister Fatima Sheriff, her family and the Khoja community, especially in London, for this astounding feat.