8 Secrets to Winning on Jeopardy
4. Stay Clam
No, that’s not a typo. This bit of advice comes from a young student who let her nerves get the best of her on a tryout for Back-to-School Week. Her mis-texted advice to a friend: “When u get 2 Hollywood and ur about 2 film ur show, remember 2 STAY CLAM above all else. No matter what happens in the game, don’t let urself get intimidated or nervous.”
Textual spoonerism notwithstanding, this is good advice in an unintended way. Make like a clam and keep your mouth open only as long as you have to! I don’t know how many times I’ve seen a player blow it by giving too much information. For example, when the answer to a clue is a person, give only his last name if that is sufficient. Say Tesla and you’re right. Say Nicholas Tesla and you’re wrong. (It’s Nikola.) On occasion you’ll need first and last name, such as with the few presidents who share a last name or in the case of fathers and sons and variations thereof. But if the first name is not required, play it safe and give only the last name.
That goes for other answers where the temptation to show off might lead you astray. In the category “Two Middle Initials,” the clue called for only the middle initials of the person in question. But one contestant got cocky and answered the clue with “Who is George Herbert Walker Bush.” No, Miss Smartypants, they were looking for “H.W.” That knocked the smarm off her face, and she was so shaken that she never really recovered for the rest of the game.
By the same token, do not shout out answers before you’re acknowledged by Alex Trebek. Sometimes a player blurts out the answer once he has it even though another player has beaten him to the buzzer. Especially don’t shout out the answer trying to beat the buzzer. Sometimes a player rings in and then takes interminable seconds trying to dredge the answer from the recesses of his brain. Just as the time’s-up sounds, he shouts out the answer—but too late. In both circumstances he’s just given a free answer to a fellow contestant.
Wish you’d published this a few months ago! I’m currently waiting/hoping for a phone call (maybe as early as this week) following my audition in Philly in late March…
Good luck!
OK but tell me they don’t give you a practice round or six in many of the same categories you see on the show.
Josh,
You do get practice before taping starts, but the categories in the practice rounds are not the same as any of the “live” categories.
Been there and done that – one-day champion, 20 Jan 2012.
Jeopardy is a daily must in my grandparents’ home. I watch 2-3 per week with them. I saw the Lord’s Supper one – and I got it wrong because of “Acts” (and looked it up afterward). I didn’t get to see the next day, so I didn’t know if they mentioned the wrong clue or not. But I KNEW it was screwy!!! Thanks for the affirmation!
I should have tried out for the college one – I knew enough extra crap as compared to my peers then. Now, I’m more average… sigh.
Actually, they corrected the answer (and gave the champ the additional money) in a short correction taped later and added to the same show the mistake occured on. The Acts reference was to an “upper room” but, obviously not the one of the Last Supper.
In my experience, it would have been better to have been able to sleep the night before!
I recall an experimental category that the producers/writers tried, and what an abysmal failure it was: Stupid Answers.
They would provide an answer, and there were many correct questions, and typically 1 incorrect question. As an example:
“Air France is NOT the official airline of this country.”
The correct question could be ANY country but France. The poor contestants were buzzing in and providing the 1 incorrect question. After watching their brains almost lock up trying to figure out the new pattern, Stupid Answers was retired after only 1 live tryout.
Marco
Actually, I’ve seen them use “Stupid Answers” several times. You’re right, though: it confuses the hell out of the players.
“8 Secrets to Winning on Jeopardy?”
Simply make sure you’re playing against Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, or Soledad O’Brien.
Excellent comment, truly a winning strategy.
Tom -
I’d love to know what you think would be an appropriate percentage range of correct answers on the practice test for you to recommend trying out? Limiting myself to 5 seconds per question, I got 46 out of 50, which doesn’t seem too shabby, but that’s with no living competitors, so I figure more in the 96-98% range would probably be necessary for a successful run on the show.
35 correct of 50 questions is the cutoff – or, it was in the spring of 1989, when I tried out for the show.
Answering the questions is only part of the audition. They also pick based on
p.c. conditions. They need a certain number of women, asians, blacks, weirdos, etc….. I aced every test given, made the last cut of the tryout (in Chicago, at the downtown Marriott) and got the “dear contestant” notice. Same thing happened for Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
I can just hear the producers discussing who to pick. Do you really want a 50 year old white guy who lives in a really expensive zip code?
Mr. LeMans
In our case, (a USO show in the Philippines) they took everybody who passed the test and ran us through a “demo show”. The test checks for your knowledge; the demo is a gauge of your enthusiasm and showmanship. You can be a genius, but if you’re as stiff as a board during the demo, you won’t be selected.
Maybe they don’t want people with bad attitudes. Just sayin’ …
What is “who gives a crap?”
That is correct.
ANSWER: This stuff on PJM
QUESTION: What is “out of place”?
Before my friend was set to appear on Jeopardy!, we held a mock game and used retractable ballpoint pens as buzzer analogs. First audible “click” after the question got to answer.
The big surprise for me (http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=496) was that there is a lighted rim around the board; the light goes out when Alex finishes the answer. If you press the button before the light goes out, you’re locked out for what SEEMED like forever. You as the viewer never see the lighted border around the board.
And EVERYTHING depends on the categories! My opponents had categories that favored them; I _stunk_ at those categories. But it was still fun!
There are still a few books out there that offer help from past champs. I used them to prepare for my 3-day stint on the show in 1994. But like Tom, I studied a lot of stuff (state facts, presidential facts) that never showed up on the board. I’m a professional musician, and in three days, there was only ONE music-related question. But I got a big-money question right because of a picture I had seen in a book a week or two before the taping.
The first two days, nobody got the final question right. The third day, one guy got it right and won. Seven years later, I was on MILLIONAIRE (and won $64K). Within a month, the guy who beat me on Jeopardy! was on with Regis and won $2 million. Grrr.
Thanks for the advice. Maybe someday I’ll get to use it.
I went through the selection process twice.. once here in Honolulu.. and once in LA
Both times I made it through to the end.. got to shake Alex’s hand..and was told the usual.. “Don’t call us… we’ll call you.”
Nobody ever called.. really don’t know why.
Hey, I used to live in the LA area and tried out every year after the syndicated version with Alex Trebeck came out. Made the final cut every time. On the sixth year I finally got the call. Keep trying – it can happen.