The quick-witted quizzers face Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge on BBC Two as they look to snare the series crown.
Team captain and Artificial Intelligence PhD student Kevin Flanagan said: “It was surreal walking onto the set for the first time and seeing our names in front of the seats.
“It was also really cool meeting the presenter, Amol Rajan, and Roger Tilling who does the voiceover. He's the one that shouts out 'Bristol' and your name when you buzz in, and he’s been doing it for more than 20 years.
“My friends keeping asking how we do, hoping I’ll slip up and tell them, but we’re leaving it a surprise!”
Getting to the start line of University Challenge is a feat in itself.
The quizzers were whittled down from 200 University of Bristol applicants, in a series of trials that included a 100-question paper and a mock University Challenge episode.
The team spent months learning facts, watching old episodes of the show and entering pub quizzes as they prepped for the qualification rounds.
Organic Chemistry PhD student Olivia Watts said: “Playing along with University Challenge a lot you realise it’s not the same as a pub quiz, as so much of it is about speed on the buzzer and taking risks on what the rest of the question will be.”
Biology student Ted Warner said: “More important than learning facts is quizzing as a team. You can tell when people haven’t quizzed together before – and you can tell when they’re mates.”
The last time Bristol entered the show was in 2022, when they made it to the final for the first time in the University’s history.
Medicine student Bridie Rogers said: “Watching that team is partly what inspired me to apply.“I really enjoyed our weekly practices but by the end I was like ‘I really need to not talk about quizzing for a while!' Now that the show’s back, I can’t wait to watch it.”
Ted was the reserve quizzer in the 2022 team. His experiences behind the scenes left him “absolutely obsessed” with University Challenge.
“Quizzing is really addictive!” he said.
The University of Bristol team will appear on University Challenge on BBC Two at 8.30pm on Monday, August 26.