Wednesday, January 4, 2012

My Jeopardy! Journey - Preparing for the Audition

This is part two of a blog about my Jeopardy! experience.  For part one, follow the link at the bottom of this article.

I came home in early May to find an email from Jeopardy! inviting me to an in-person audition in Kansas City.  The audition was on a Tuesday in June at 11:00am. After I RSVP’ed, I went to the Jeopardy! message board to see if anyone else had posted about receiving an audition. A few had, but all of them reported having auditions that weekend before. I would soon find out that I was attending the last audition they would hold in Kansas City. I figured this was a good thing, right?  Fresh on their minds?

Most people don’t start prepping for the show (i.e. studying) until after they’ve gone through the audition, or for many, until they get the call asking them to come tape.  I, however, am a worrier.  I would hate to show up to the audition and fail the written test.  In Part 3 of this blog, I will talk about the actual audition, including that written test, in detail.

So, I begin studying.  In college, I bought a few books on a whim as I was thinking about the possibility of being on the Jeopardy! College Tournament.  First, I bought this:














And then, I bought this:

 











These are both books that break down crucial facts that “anyone going on a game show or playing trivia should know.”  So, I thought it would be a good idea to read them.  I studied them, learned many new things (and recognized some errors in the first book), and also spent time reviewing the Jeopardy! Archive – www.j-archive.com. I also searched online for audition stories from other folks who had gone through the process before.  However, I didn’t stress myself out too much about it, because at some point you just have to leave it up to fate.  I knew I couldn't study everything. I tried to see the bright side - if this whole Jeopardy! thing didn't work out, the studying I did wouldn't go to waste because I would likely use the knowledge at some point at local trivia I play each week.

Mostly what the studying helped me with was feeling confident.  When audition day arrived, I was confident that I had at least made an effort to be prepared and knowledgeable about how the day would go.  Onto the audition…

For part one of this article (The Online Test):  The Online Test

 

25 comments:

  1. Funny you mention errors in Ferrill's book, as I've heard bad things about it. A highly successful J! champ even sent me a private message telling me to be careful when it comes to that book. I never opened it again and even threw it away later. (Talk about being a "worrier," I guess!)

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  2. Yeah, there are quite a few errors you can catch by reading the reviews on Amazon. It's good for drilling in "Pavlov" responses, but for stuff I had never heard, I double checked it, so in essence, I had twice the exposure to some of the material.

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