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Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm
by talkingaway
davey wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:39 am To be a bit contrarian - I found the Wed test (43) a little easier than Tuesday's (41), thought most of my misses on Wed were in the second half. As long as they get a certain number of passers, I don't know why they would care about the perceived relative difficulty of certain tests. You can't watch the show and believe that they're only interested in the highest end trivia minds...
Absolutely this. They just want three people who won't humiliate themselves and leave 20 Triple Stumpers on a really easy board. Even if knowledge bases overlap, and some questions on the show are deliberately easy for play-along people who aren't uber trivia-heads, fine tuning the test-to-test reliability for the Tues/Weds/Thur test probably isn't a priority. Plus, the written test at the audition can be an equalizer. I assume they invite like 200 people to the audition, and then only 100 or so get to go back and play, right? (Numbers may be wildly inaccurate, but that was my experience way back in 2000 with Millionaire auditions.)

Plus, they want interesting folks. They have about 2 minutes to fill when they come back from the first commercial break - they want people who interact well with Alex, who are relatable, and who the people at home will root for. Getting on J! isn't a strict meritocracy - maybe more so than, say, "Millionaire", where you're on stage alone and have to show some personality multiple times, but there's still some "soft' factors that go into contestant selection. I'm sure J! could fill up their ranks with doctors, lawyers, librarians, and teachers from NYC and LA, but they also want a large cross section of North America. And even if the goal were to be a strict meritocracy, I think a 15-minute, 50-question test has a pretty wide margin of error when it comes to determining who's a better overall trivia player.

Anyone from last year remember how soon they send out audition emails? I would imagine it's a month or so before the audition in the selected city to give advance notice while still avoiding a ton of cancellations.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:44 pm
by threearruda
seaborgium wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:19 pm
hbomb1947 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:39 am For no. 48 (RHYME TIME, "one scrawny small equine"), I had "Skinny hinny," which I think fits the clue (rather than the apparent intended correct response of "bony pony"). Judges?
See above—I'd take it (and not just because I came up with it also)!
Add on one more "skinny hinny" response so thanks for the discussion on this and I'll count it too. I thought that set of questions gave a nice challenge, 41/50 here playing off the video (thanks for that sherder)!

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:58 pm
by John Boy
38 for fun on the Tuesday test, then--ta-daaaa! 38 today for real. Go figure. What is it they say about that hobgoblin of the mind?

Interesting "variety" of clues: 4 on book/literature-related subjects, 5 (!) on subjects related to TV/Movies/Actors, and one each on video games and superhero comics.

And ZERO on Big-4 sports, with the only sports-related clue being about World Cup Soccer. This was certainly a novel challenge for me, as none of the above comes anywhere near my sweet spot.

I am ASSUMING/HOPING that they will accept my answer of "747" without the word "Boeing," ya think?


If nothing else I must qualify for a persistence prize, as I have now passed an officially-administered J! contestant quiz in each of five decades. Alert the Contestant Coordinators. :roll:

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:19 pm
by slam
talkingaway wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm
davey wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:39 am To be a bit contrarian - I found the Wed test (43) a little easier than Tuesday's (41), thought most of my misses on Wed were in the second half. As long as they get a certain number of passers, I don't know why they would care about the perceived relative difficulty of certain tests. You can't watch the show and believe that they're only interested in the highest end trivia minds...
Absolutely this. They just want three people who won't humiliate themselves and leave 20 Triple Stumpers on a really easy board. Even if knowledge bases overlap, and some questions on the show are deliberately easy for play-along people who aren't uber trivia-heads, fine tuning the test-to-test reliability for the Tues/Weds/Thur test probably isn't a priority. Plus, the written test at the audition can be an equalizer. I assume they invite like 200 people to the audition, and then only 100 or so get to go back and play, right? (Numbers may be wildly inaccurate, but that was my experience way back in 2000 with Millionaire auditions.)

Plus, they want interesting folks. They have about 2 minutes to fill when they come back from the first commercial break - they want people who interact well with Alex, who are relatable, and who the people at home will root for. Getting on J! isn't a strict meritocracy - maybe more so than, say, "Millionaire", where you're on stage alone and have to show some personality multiple times, but there's still some "soft' factors that go into contestant selection. I'm sure J! could fill up their ranks with doctors, lawyers, librarians, and teachers from NYC and LA, but they also want a large cross section of North America. And even if the goal were to be a strict meritocracy, I think a 15-minute, 50-question test has a pretty wide margin of error when it comes to determining who's a better overall trivia player.

Anyone from last year remember how soon they send out audition emails? I would imagine it's a month or so before the audition in the selected city to give advance notice while still avoiding a ton of cancellations.
In the dark ages before the online test, people were invited to an audition based on sending in postcards and later sending in emails. At those times, after a brief intro, they would administer an in-person test. The contestant coordinators then graded the test while they entertained everybody in a Jeopardy-type way, often by showing a video. Then the contestant coordinators would call the names of the passers which was typically only 10% to 20% of the people in the room and everybody else was sent away. Then you played the mock game including an interview session.

Now, everybody invited to an in-person audition both takes an in-person test and gets to play the mock game. So, I'm not sure what you're referring to about 100 out of 200. Since everybody invited now gets to the mock audition, the room typically contains about 20 to 30 people.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:19 pm
by ilcap
Took the test on Tuesday for reals and got 47. Playing along with this on Youtube I got 44.

The stuff I missed was Anne (I'm hopeless on royal family stuff), Hasbro (guessed Mattel), cold cream (had absolutely no clue), 747 (wrote 737), habitat (just didn't come to me -- my brain came up with "biome" and "niche"), and Candy Crush (had no clue). I managed to get Black Widow as a lucky WAG.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:24 pm
by talkingaway
slam wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:19 pm In the dark ages before the online test, people were invited to an audition based on sending in postcards and later sending in emails. At those times, after a brief intro, they would administer an in-person test. The contestant coordinators then graded the test while they entertained everybody in a Jeopardy-type way, often by showing a video. Then the contestant coordinators would call the names of the passers which was typically only 10% to 20% of the people in the room and everybody else was sent away. Then you played the mock game including an interview session.

Now, everybody invited to an in-person audition both takes an in-person test and gets to play the mock game. So, I'm not sure what you're referring to about 100 out of 200. Since everybody invited now gets to the mock audition, the room typically contains about 20 to 30 people.
Ah, I didn't know that - that's why i said the numbers may be wildly inaccurate, and they were. So it sounds like invites are fairly rare, even for those who "pass" the online test - assuming passing is 35/50.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:56 pm
by ALGebraist
hbomb1947 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:39 am For no. 48 (RHYME TIME, "one scrawny small equine"), I had "Skinny hinny," which I think fits the clue (rather than the apparent intended correct response of "bony pony"). Judges?
Ooh, sorry, the clue specifically said small, so the correct response is: What is a MINI skinny hinny? :P

Seriously, I'm sure it must be acceptable, but if TPTB were heading in that direction I would imagine they would have defined "equine" more specifically.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:22 pm
by Ultraman
talkingaway wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm Anyone from last year remember how soon they send out audition emails? I would imagine it's a month or so before the audition in the selected city to give advance notice while still avoiding a ton of cancellations.
Last year I took the test in April. I got an invite in May to a June audition in DC. Yeah, it seems like the timing is based on your audition city.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:34 pm
by John Boy
slam wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:19 pm
talkingaway wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm
davey wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:39 am To be a bit contrarian - I found the Wed test (43) a little easier than Tuesday's (41), thought most of my misses on Wed were in the second half. As long as they get a certain number of passers, I don't know why they would care about the perceived relative difficulty of certain tests. You can't watch the show and believe that they're only interested in the highest end trivia minds...
Absolutely this. They just want three people who won't humiliate themselves and leave 20 Triple Stumpers on a really easy board. Even if knowledge bases overlap, and some questions on the show are deliberately easy for play-along people who aren't uber trivia-heads, fine tuning the test-to-test reliability for the Tues/Weds/Thur test probably isn't a priority. Plus, the written test at the audition can be an equalizer. I assume they invite like 200 people to the audition, and then only 100 or so get to go back and play, right? (Numbers may be wildly inaccurate, but that was my experience way back in 2000 with Millionaire auditions.)

Plus, they want interesting folks. They have about 2 minutes to fill when they come back from the first commercial break - they want people who interact well with Alex, who are relatable, and who the people at home will root for. Getting on J! isn't a strict meritocracy - maybe more so than, say, "Millionaire", where you're on stage alone and have to show some personality multiple times, but there's still some "soft' factors that go into contestant selection. I'm sure J! could fill up their ranks with doctors, lawyers, librarians, and teachers from NYC and LA, but they also want a large cross section of North America. And even if the goal were to be a strict meritocracy, I think a 15-minute, 50-question test has a pretty wide margin of error when it comes to determining who's a better overall trivia player.

Anyone from last year remember how soon they send out audition emails? I would imagine it's a month or so before the audition in the selected city to give advance notice while still avoiding a ton of cancellations.
In the dark ages before the online test, people were invited to an audition based on sending in postcards and later sending in emails. At those times, after a brief intro, they would administer an in-person test. The contestant coordinators then graded the test while they entertained everybody in a Jeopardy-type way, often by showing a video. Then the contestant coordinators would call the names of the passers which was typically only 10% to 20% of the people in the room and everybody else was sent away. Then you played the mock game including an interview session.

Now, everybody invited to an in-person audition both takes an in-person test and gets to play the mock game. So, I'm not sure what you're referring to about 100 out of 200. Since everybody invited now gets to the mock audition, the room typically contains about 20 to 30 people.
Exactly. I went through the "ancient" process (pre-online-quiz days) several times, and it was common for a room of 200 people to be winnowed down to 20 or so who passed the 50-item quiz. I have to imagine one of the reasons they switched to the current method was the pain-in-the-butt process of going through 1,000-2,000 or more test forms as they administered auditions like that several times over 2-3 days. Now they shortcut that by knowing everybody in the room (a much more manageable number) has already passed the quiz.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 3:07 pm
by Woof
bomtr wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 11:58 pm 48.

Missed the first. don't know nothin bout no tidyin up.
Missed the last. Feel like I probably should have thought of it.

Guess on Black Widow, but guessed right.

The rest was gravy, though Sorkin took a bit to summon.

Still for fun; tomorrow for real. Here's hoping it feels as easy as these first two.
Break a leg, bomtr!

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:41 pm
by RJRouge
I like that so many other people here agree that Wednesday's test was harder. My wife got upset when I said the same thing after they passed Tuesday's, even though they still managed roughly the same score on both nights. My 47 for fun compared to 41-42 for real certainly FELT like one was harder than the other.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:39 pm
by darkgreenblue
Well, once again I was happy with my recall of actual knowledge (most questions), and stumped on vogues that I do not and never will care about (Kondo; which of Brad Pitt's ex-wives won a SAG award). Yet I got Candy Crush, and somehow farted on Baltic Sea (oof! - so much for my love of geography).

We can talk about numbers, but since I never got to audition last time despite my best online score ever (at least 47, quite higher than the two years I did get called), I think we must accept a certain luck-of-the-draw factor regarding demographics, et cetera.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 5:44 pm
by ParrotRob
Ultraman wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:22 pm
talkingaway wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm Anyone from last year remember how soon they send out audition emails? I would imagine it's a month or so before the audition in the selected city to give advance notice while still avoiding a ton of cancellations.
Last year I took the test in April. I got an invite in May to a June audition in DC. Yeah, it seems like the timing is based on your audition city.
Agree. I took the online test in March of 2018. I didn't get the email invite to my audition until about a month before my September audition. It was so long (~5 months) that I had forgotten about it and given up on it when the email arrived.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 6:06 pm
by billiej
Took this one off the video. I thought it felt roughly equivalent to the Eastern test, as borne out by my similar scores (37 here vs. 39 when I took it for real).

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:20 pm
by Golf
talkingaway wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:32 pm I assume they invite like 200 people to the audition, and then only 100 or so get to go back and play, right? (Numbers may be wildly inaccurate, but that was my experience way back in 2000 with Millionaire auditions.)

Plus, they want interesting folks. They have about 2 minutes to fill when they come back from the first commercial break - they want people who interact well with Alex, who are relatable, and who the people at home will root for. Getting on J! isn't a strict meritocracy - maybe more so than, say, "Millionaire", where you're on stage alone and have to show some personality multiple times, but there's still some "soft' factors that go into contestant selection. I'm sure J! could fill up their ranks with doctors, lawyers, librarians, and teachers from NYC and LA, but they also want a large cross section of North America. And even if the goal were to be a strict meritocracy, I think a 15-minute, 50-question test has a pretty wide margin of error when it comes to determining who's a better overall trivia player.
Millionaire didn't have auditions in 2000, it was all phone qualifying. About as merit based as possible. That's why an asshole like me was able to make it on stage. No song and dance required.

I ran the numbers on getting on stage during that time. 4 shows per week, therefore 4 chances to play the phone game. Estimated if you answered all three round 1 questions correctly you had a 1 in 60 chance of getting a callback to play round 2. For round 2 estimated you were 1 of 300 competing. If you answered all 5 questions correctly you had a better than 50/50 chance of getting the call to travel to NYC. So if you were a decent player and attempted all the phone games, you should have gotten at least one opportunity if not more to play round 2 each season. Then it's just a matter of taking care of business in round 2. So a good player attempting every phone game probably should have made the stage within 3 full seasons. What baffled me was the number of good players that simply didn't try. After all, it was free and took next to no time at all. But countless times in talking with top players they either forgot to try consistently, or didn't take or make the time or whatever.

Yes, Jeopardy does want as big a cross section as they can get without the contestants being overly watered down. And that's why there aren't three studs or studdettes on stage every show. The meritocracy on Jeopardy isn't as good as prime time Millionaire was, but better than syndicated Millionaire.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:42 pm
by jeff6286
Golf wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:20 pm What baffled me was the number of good players that simply didn't try. After all, it was free and took next to no time at all.
Wasn't it a 1-900 number? Not entirely free! Or was that maybe just at first and it was soon switched to 1-800?

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:46 pm
by MarkBarrett
jeff6286 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:42 pm
Golf wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:20 pm What baffled me was the number of good players that simply didn't try. After all, it was free and took next to no time at all.
Wasn't it a 1-900 number? Not entirely free! Or was that maybe just at first and it was soon switched to 1-800?
https://youtu.be/Au0dIISL9IE?t=1318

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:03 pm
by Golf
MarkBarrett wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:46 pm
jeff6286 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:42 pm
Golf wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:20 pm What baffled me was the number of good players that simply didn't try. After all, it was free and took next to no time at all.
Wasn't it a 1-900 number? Not entirely free! Or was that maybe just at first and it was soon switched to 1-800?
https://youtu.be/Au0dIISL9IE?t=1318
Am relatively certain it was changed to an 800 number at some point. There is a non-zero chance I'm wrong however.

This brings up a potentially interesting question though. How many here would pay $1.50 to take the Jeopardy online test? Especially since that would narrow the field.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:16 pm
by mas3cf
In my mind, this one was noticeably tougher than Tuesday's. 47 on Tues, 43 on this one... and that was with a couple lucky guesses.

Re: Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), January 29, 2020

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:18 pm
by True North
Golf wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:03 pm
MarkBarrett wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:46 pm
jeff6286 wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:42 pm
Golf wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 7:20 pm What baffled me was the number of good players that simply didn't try. After all, it was free and took next to no time at all.
Wasn't it a 1-900 number? Not entirely free! Or was that maybe just at first and it was soon switched to 1-800?
https://youtu.be/Au0dIISL9IE?t=1318
Am relatively certain it was changed to an 800 number at some point. There is a non-zero chance I'm wrong however.

This brings up a potentially interesting question though. How many here would pay $1.50 to take the Jeopardy online test? Especially since that would narrow the field.
I’d probably pay ten times that! :lol: