Probably the most difficult part of
getting on Jeopardy! (if you don't live in or aren't traveling to LA)
is just getting an audition. Of course, they travel all over the
country looking for contestants for the show, but thousands and
thousands of people put their names in on the website and they just
randomly choose people from those. If you live in LA or are
willing to go there, you can set up an appointment and get an audition
without this major luck factor. (They don't recommend flying to
LA just for a tryout -- the test is pretty tough, so it's probably only
a good option if you feel REALLY prepared and you've tried and failed
to get an audition near where you live.) I had submitted my name
on the website one time and didn't get picked, and then the next time
they came to Denver I put my name in again and got invited to the
tryout. Entering my name was kind of an afterthought--I just
visited the J! website one day, saw they were coming to Denver, and put
my name in. So, when I got a call from Bob from Jeopardy! a
couple months later I was at first a little befuddled and then pretty
excited. Fortunately, the call came in about mid-December and I
would be going back to my parents' house in Minnesota for about a week
and a half for Christmas, which would give me a good deal of free time
to prepare for the test.
My preparation strategy and my suggestions to any future test-takers is outlined below in excerpts from an e-mail that I sent a friend before he took the test. I believe he took the test in the summer of 2004, which was between the taping and airing of my ToC. Note the reference to Ken at the end!
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It's nice that they described the test format for you, I think I had to figure it out myself. Anyway, that's indeed how it works, 50 questions, they put them up on a big projection screen, and they're read by the recorded voice of either Alex or Johnny Gilbert, I don't remember which. You need 35 right to pass. You get a piece of paper and clipboard with 50 lines on it, and you don't have to write "what is" or anything like that. You get the amount of time it takes for the voice to read the question, plus about 8 seconds for each question, so it goes by pretty quick. The whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes, I would guess. (They'll go over all of this when you get there.) When I took the test, it was in a big room at a hotel, and there were 75 or so people in the session with me.
My preparation strategy and my suggestions to any future test-takers is outlined below in excerpts from an e-mail that I sent a friend before he took the test. I believe he took the test in the summer of 2004, which was between the taping and airing of my ToC. Note the reference to Ken at the end!
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It's nice that they described the test format for you, I think I had to figure it out myself. Anyway, that's indeed how it works, 50 questions, they put them up on a big projection screen, and they're read by the recorded voice of either Alex or Johnny Gilbert, I don't remember which. You need 35 right to pass. You get a piece of paper and clipboard with 50 lines on it, and you don't have to write "what is" or anything like that. You get the amount of time it takes for the voice to read the question, plus about 8 seconds for each question, so it goes by pretty quick. The whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes, I would guess. (They'll go over all of this when you get there.) When I took the test, it was in a big room at a hotel, and there were 75 or so people in the session with me.
A good place to start is to take a practice test and get a feel for what the questions are like. There'll typically be 50 different categories, and there will always be geography, mythology, Shakespeare, presidents, British royalty, and some of the other "classic" categories, as well as a few "rhyme time" type of things. There are a few places to get practice tests. Probably the best is the Jeopardy CD-ROM game, because the format on that is pretty close to the real test, and the difficulty seems right on. I have both the "2nd edition" (from when Alex still had a mustache) and the "2003" CDs, which each have a test on them. There's also a practice test in the new "This is Jeopardy!" book, which I think for right now may only be available at Barnes and Noble. That book is probably a good investment too, since it has a whole slew of Final Jeopardy questions in it from the past 20 years. Finally, there's a test put together by some contestants at: http://hometown.aol.com/tdciago/jeopardytest.html
The consensus is that this test is a bit harder than the real thing, so you should probably consider 31-32 to be passing for this one.
My process was to take one of the practice tests right away to see how I did. I think I got 32 right or something like that, so I at least knew I was in range of passing if I brushed up on a few categories. I then studied for a week or two and took the second test that I had and did a little better. Also, if you don't already, start watching the show every day, for two reasons. First, it gets you comfortable with the way the writers write the clues, and second, you can pick up a lot of material that way.
A lot of people think you can't cram a lot of information in your head in just a few weeks, but I found that it worked pretty well for me.
Here are some of the references I used.
- World Almanac, of course. Presidents, geography, Oscar winners, etc.
- An Incomplete Education, by Wilson and Jones. This is a fun read that goes through all of the things you "should have learned" in school - good for lit, art, history
- Dictionary of Cultural Literacy - available online at http://www.bartleby.com/59/, or you can buy the book
- British monarchs: http://www.britannia.com/history/h6f.html
Assuming you pass the test, then, you will get to play a mock game. The key here (from what I experienced and from what others have said) is that they're not really interested in whether you get them right or wrong, but it's how you play the game. Relax, speak up, be enthusiastic, always phrase in the form of a question, and pick the next clue immediately after you get one right. They're looking for people, obviously, who will project well on TV and not hold up the game or be especially boring. At some point, they will also have a little "chit-chat" session for everyone, similar to what they do on the show. So, come prepared with a couple of quips about yourself that reflect your personality and might make them laugh. (The story I used in the interview and subsequently on my first show was about storm chasing, how it's not really like Twister and how I've never seen a flying cow.) Finally, they'll ask you what you would do if you won the big bucks on
Jeopardy. Also come prepared with a clever answer for this. Looking back, I think 75% of the people said "travel" or "pay bills" or something generic like that. I said I'd buy an engagement ring for my girlfriend (which I actually did since then), and this of course elicited an "awww" from the other contestants and the coordinators and couldn't have hurt when they were deciding who to pick for the show. So, something interesting here is a good idea.
Another thing I found fun is reading the experiences of past contestants on the web. Go to my jeopardy page:
http://derecho.atmos.colostate.edu/~rschumac/jeopardy.html and then to "links", I've included some of them there, and from those links are even more links, so you can keep yourself busy reading about what other people have done. This made me more comfortable since I had some idea going in what the tryout (and later the actual show) would be like. Also, if you go to jeopardy.com, and then to "communicate" and "message boards", you will find the Jeopardy message board, where Jeopardy nerds like me analyze the games and so forth. There are lots of past champs that post to the boards.
Well, this is kind of long, but I had been meaning to write some of this down for my website anyway, so you gave me a good excuse :) The Tournament will air in September, and I'll be on the 23rd to be exact. While they don't give a bazillion dollars out for winning the tournament, I think the current champ (if you've been watching) might win that much. Actually, I know how much he wins, and it's a lot.
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