Which is why, perhaps, that Cambridge classics student Nadia Witkowski didn't quite manage to get a grip of the jelly wrestling competition rules at an end-of-exams celebration.
The 23-year-old graduate wore the requisite bikini, jumped into the pool and gave quite a good account of herself in the grappling department, easily overcoming her rather more svelte opponent.
But when the crowd decided the shapely blonde was the winner anyway, Miss Witkowski lost her temper.
Still covered in red jelly, she stalked away to the sound of the students' booing and punched a female spectator, leaving her with a bloody nose.
Then she grabbed a bottle of Lambrini and made for the exit, where she was stopped by two burly bouncers.
When they tried to confiscate the bottle, she punched one and butted the other, forcing them to call the police.
Officers arrived at the party at Trinity Old Fields, Cambridge, and Miss Witkowski was taken to a nearby police station, where she received a caution for common assault.
Last Sunday's jelly wrestling was part of a garden party organised by the Wyverns, an all-male Magdalene College drinking society, and part of a bigger tradition known as Suicide Sunday.
This year there was a blazers and bikini theme (that's men in blazers, women in bikinis) and a jelly-filled paddling pool.
One undergraduate who witnessed the incident said: 'The crowd gets to choose the victor by cheering - the fighter with the louder cheer wins.
Nadia had been a bit aggressive and probably wasn't as attractive as the other girl, so she was booed although she'd probably been the better fighter.'
Miss Witkowski, who hopes to go into law or investment banking, gained three As and a B at Denbigh High School in Luton and went to Trinity College, where she finished her exams this month.
Yesterday, back at her £700,000 family home near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, she refused to comment.
A Wyverns spokesman yesterday said her behaviour was 'unacceptable' and she would not be admitted to future garden parties.
A university spokesman was a little more stern and said the venue would not be made available for such parties again.
'The college deplores conduct of that kind,' he said.