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Last Week's Quiz

Created by Danielle Ownbey
Edited by Eli Robinson

Read This First

  • Submit your answers by 12:31pm ET 5/18/26
  • Don't cheat. Cheating is bad. Using Google/AI/ChatGPT/Gemini IS cheating.
  • Trivia graders don't care about spelling (but try your hardest)
  • No negative points for incorrect responses (so guess to your heart's content)
  • Email [email protected] for clarification on any questions

Graduation season is upon us. Once again, we return to the annual ritual of trying to translate the school’s glitchy audio with your bleacher neighbors.

While school is awesome, it’s hopefully a launching point for the rest of your life.



We’ve picked some of our favorite folks for whom maybe school wasn’t the best place for their outlet. We’ll give you where they graduated, or at least attended, and you tell us the student.

Q1. Humes High School, Class of 1953: This future King once said, “I wasn't popular in school... I failed music—only thing I ever failed.” Accepting that challenge on both fronts, he left the building and immediately shook things up, becoming the biggest musician in America before his five-year reunion.



Q2. Cambridge, Class of 1831: Though his father sent him to Cambridge to study divinity and become an Anglican priest, this famed naturalist instead took up competitive beetle collecting, botany, and taxidermy, before graduating in 1831 and venturing out on the HMS Beagle that summer.



Q3. Juilliard, Class of 1976 (dropped out): A genie and Superman walk into Juilliard. It’s not a joke set-up: two actors were classmates and roommates at the prestigious school. Superman Christopher Reeve graduated in 1976, and who dropped out? Yes, exactly the one you’d expect.



Q4. Flying University, Class year unknown, University of Paris, Class of 1893: Because women weren’t allowed to go to college in Russian-controlled Poland, this radiant Nobel-winning scientist had to study at a secret school known as Flying University. Classes were held secretly in private homes in Warsaw, constantly moving to avoid detection by Tsarist police.



Q5. McKinley High School, Class of 1921 (dropped out): This cartoonist for the school newspaper dropped out and lied about his age to join the Red Cross in 1918 as an ambulance driver. He decorated the side of his ambulance with cartoons and even had some of his work published in the army newspaper “Stars and Stripes.”



Q6. Stanford University, Class of 1998 (dropped out): While college wasn’t in the cards in real life, her most iconic character graduated from “California University of Los Angeles” before famously matriculating to Harvard Law School to chase Warner Huntington III. "What, like it's hard?"



Q7. Valley Forge Military Academy, Class of 1936: Surprising absolutely no one who read his most famous book in their high school English class, this American author failed out of his Manhattan prep school and got sent to military school. At least he proved he wasn’t a phony.



Q8. Mission High School, Class of 1944: Before she went on to critical acclaim, this author’s dream was to be a streetcar conductor. And she did just that during World War II, leaving high school to become the first black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. Returning the next semester, she graduated and went on to write about her experiences in a very famous autobiography.



Q9. Manasquan High School, Class of 1954: "I was always against authority, hated being told anything by my teachers, by parents, by anyone… I created a record by being in detention every day for a whole year." This iconic actor, who later demanded that we handle the truth, spent his high school years handling daily detention.



Q10. John Murray Anderson School for the Dramatic Arts, Class of 1928 (dropped out): We love this fearless funny lady, but apparently her drama teachers weren’t impressed. She later joked, “All I learned in drama school was how to be frightened.” So she ditched the drama, turned to comedy, and never looked back.



TIEBREAKER School isn’t only for the young! Japan’s Shigemi Hirata currently holds the record for oldest graduate when he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Kyoto University of Art and Design on 19 March 2016. How many years old was Shigemi when he graduated?

Quiz is closed and your answers are now locked! Graders are grading and results will be sent on 5/18/26