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S’porean whiz kid shines on UK quiz show, University Challenge with ‘doctoral exam’ level questions

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Singapore — A young Singaporean studying in London has been putting on a dazzling performance in the UK quiz show, University Challenge, which one Redditor described as “the one show that can really make a smart person feel stupid.”

Twenty-two-year-old Maximilian Zeng, a Biochemistry student at Imperial College, was featured in a Feb 13 CNA article, which spoke of “his lifelong ‘fixation’ with maps.”

But better yet, watch his truly masterful command of geography in action here:

And here:

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And here:

The former Hwa Chong Institution student told CNA, “I stare at maps for about four hours a day. Not in one stretch, but I just stare at maps when doing other things. I’ll just tab into Maps and tab out of it. I use OpenStreetMap; I hate Google Maps. I have OpenStreetMap open constantly; I’ll just tab in, tab out.

It’s kind of a… fixation. I have very little of a social life. So I have a very restricted set of interests. I just think of maps all day,” he replied gingerly.

I had a globe next to my bedside at like three years old, and I just memorised everything on it. And then I got my Geographica which was a (roughly) 600-page, A4-size for-scale world atlas when I was six years old. Again, I just spent all day looking at it.”

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The young Singaporean has not failed to impress, given the level of difficulty in the show.

“UC is more of doctoral exam on everything,” wrote another Redditor.

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Another imagined what Zeng would be like in NS.

Netizens on CNA’s Facebook page expressed how proud they are of young Mr Zeng.

/TISG

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