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about 4 years ago

Facebook: Beacon of Penn State Trivia

facebookIf you can make your way through the various “Miley Cyrus getting back with NICK JONAS!” and “Chris Brown on Rihanna nude pics: It wasn’t me!” celebrity gossip ads (both legitimate ads that I have seen), you can find a quiz on Facebook entitled “Are You A True Penn Stater“. This quiz asks fifteen questions to test your Penn State knowledge, and then gives you a result based on how well (or poorly) you did.

Naturally, when I first took the quiz, I got the result “You Bleed Blue and White”, which is the highest ranking possible from what I know (unfortunately, the quiz doesn’t give results on individual questions). There are some fairly basic questions on the quiz, such as “What is the name of the Football Stadium?” or “What street separates Campus from Downtown?”, and then there are some trickier ones, especially if you’re not familiar with Penn State’s history or the Paterno family tree. At points, the quiz begins to sound like an old man trying to be “hip” and “with it”, specifically when it talks about “The Thon”.

I retook the Facebook quiz intentionally answering the questions incorrectly. The result? Nittany Lion. “You know enough to fit in with other Penn Stater’s”. Try to get a lower score, if you dare.

There are plenty of other Penn State questions that could have been asked, such as “How many Furry Conventions does Graham Spanier attend per year?” or “Which student-run alternative media source is totally better than the Daily Collegian?”. Let us know what YOU would have asked.

  • Dj Ryan

    In all honesty, I would have asked a land grant question. about the actual history of the university. bet a lot of people don’t know that…

  • http://nittanywhiteout.com Devon

    What Penn State figurehead was recently arrested for DUI?
    Graham Spanier
    Joe Paterno
    Guido D’Elia
    The Nittany Lion

  • George

    Devon, the way your question is worded implies that the answer is Guido D’Elia, when this is not the case.

  • http://nittanywhiteout.com Devon

    How so, George?

  • George

    While Graham Spanier, Joe Paterno, and The Nittany Lion are all long-standing and widely-known figureheads, Guido D’Elia does not enjoy the same level of name recognition (especially outside of the football community). When I first read the question I thought the name had been chosen to make the answer seem obvious.

    While 85% of University Park students read The Daily Collegian, I suspect the percentage that could recall from November 2008 that ‘The Nittany Lion’ is the correct answer is significantly lower. Also, the story was picked up by only a few news outlets.

  • http://nittanywhiteout.com Devon

    That’s the point, George. Throwing ‘em off the trail.
    /evil laugh.

  • George

    Well played sir.

    I’ll have a go, then:

    The ‘B.’ in ‘Graham B. Spanier’ stands for:
    A. Brahms
    B. B.
    C. Birch
    D. Bobby
    E. Basis
    F. Braalw!

  • http://thorsteinveblen.blogspot.com veblen

    While in graduate school at Northwestern University in the 1970′s, Graham Spanier was co-author of paper titled

    A. What every university president should learn from Machiavelli’s The Prince.
    B. A history of the use of the washboard in Dixieland jazz bands.
    C.Fetishism: A study of late middle aged males with a proclivity for dressing up in college mascot uniforms.
    D.Mate swapping:Perceptions, value orientations, and participation in a Midwestern community.
    E. The edifice complex: How a university president can borrow his way to a lasting legacy.