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I lost on Jeopardy, Baby...

So, I went to Philly for Jeopardy tryouts. First things first, I had a blast. It was so much fun and I can't wait to go again next year (you can try out once a year). The good news is I was by far not the dumbest one there. Not that anyone was really dumb, but I definitely held my own with others.

Here is how it went down. First of all, I will not be discussing any specific questions because there are still people planning on taking the test and we were instructed not to discuss the questions in a public forum- they specifically mentioned blogs and informed us that the producers look for posts on blogs (I sure hope they are using Blogdigger for that!) and they will not be happy if they find reference to actual questions given.

So I got to the Hotel in Philly where the tryouts were being held around a half hour before the test started. I automatically knew who the other Jeopardy wannabees were: They were the ones carrying around the same pieces of white paper with our 5 interesting tidbits written on them, some were reading, most were dressed pretty nicely, and basically everyone looked like they thought they were smart. I felt completely out of my element and I quickly hid that fact book I had been studying from since finding out I was going to go to tryouts. I struck up a conversation with a military man who asked me if I had ever been on TV before. Um, no. He had told me he had once been on the Discovery Channel. Honestly, I didn't care. When it was time to go in, I wished him luck and he responded the same way and then added, "Yeah, until you and I are standing next to eachother in L.A." Yeah, right.

Anyway, we entered the ball room and it basically looked like an SAT testing center. There were long tables with papers with 50 blank spaces and Jeopardy Pens at every seat. I think there were between 50-75 people there. I found an aisle seat and a nice 20 something year old girl sat down next to me. Everyone was a little nervous and hesitant, so basically we were all being on our best behavior. Then the contestant coordinators, Tony and Maggie introduced themselves and things began to get more comfortable. They then showed us a mock game board to explain certain Jeopardy categores like "Before and After", "Rhyme Time", "In quotations", and a few more. Each category had three questions and we were told to raise our hands if we knew the answers. This made me feel great because I knew roughly 85-90% of these questions and they weren't completely easy either!

After that, we watched a short video of Alex Trebek and the Jeopardy Clue Crew that explained the rules of the test. Basically, there were 50 questions, we had 8 seconds to write down each answer to the questions we saw on the monitor that Johnny Gilbert read. We didn't have to answer in the form of a question and spelling didn't count.

We took the test and I knew many of the answers, I guessed on a few, and a few I flat out did not know. I knew the one sports question asked, I didn't know some of the literature, but I surprised myself by being the only one around me who knew the Shakespeare question, I am annoyed at myself for not knowing the question having to do with a movie, but I was happy that I knew the TV one with no problem, I didn't know the obvious potent potable but then again, I don't really drink. When the test was over and we handed it in, the people around me compared answers. I knew a bunch that others didn't know and they knew some that I had no clue on.

We waited around 15 minutes for them to mark the tests and then they announced the four people going to the next round (I was not one of them). Originally they said that there is a certain score you must get to advance and it is always the same but they would not tell us what it was so that we wouldn't get anxious. I am not sure I buy this. I really can't believe that only four people got that magic score that sent them to the next round which by the way is a mock game to show off your personality (or lack thereof).

All in all, it was a fun experience from beginning to end and that includes studying. I will continue to watch Jeopardy religiously and I am serious about trying out again next year. I really don't care if I ever end up on Jeopardy but even this part was fun!

Posted by peninah at June 7, 2005 06:37 PM | TrackBack