jeff6286 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 25, 2020 11:25 am
Yeah I don't think it was ever people saying 35 was "never" reported, just that for a number of years (maybe coincidiing with the introduction of the onlinetest but that's just a guess) they seemed to stop saying the number publicly so it was open to speculation. Based on the 2019 article I guess somewhere around then they decided there was no need for secrecy and started mentioning the 35 again.
Exactly so. Every time I went to a "cattle call" regional audition in the days before the online quiz, they would tell us flat out that 35 was the score to reach. Ever since then, in auditions and in the lead-up to online quizzes, they simply say that they're no longer telling us what the criterion is.
This means it MIGHT have changed but doesn't seem to have changed. Many, many people have come on the board since online quizzes began, saying they scored X (always 35 or more) and got an invite to an audition. I can't recall a single person who ever claimed to have gotten an invite after achieving a lower score, including myself.
Jeffreygallup wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:25 amEmpirically it is pretty clear that the passing score remains ~35.
Don't you mean "remained"? It is confirmed that as of 2020, the passing score is 35 (per this post) and in the '80s through early '00s it was 35 per discussion above; the question is whether it was consistently 35 in the interim, or did they ever vary it. As you point out, the empirical evidence points to a passing score having remained 35 out of 50 throughout the Trebek era.
I finally got around to checking my copy of the 2004 book This Is Jeopardy!, which has a few tests in the back, preceded by an explanation: "hopefuls must first complete a qualifying test with a minimum score", without stating what that score is. Page 229, with a picture of Tom Walsh on it.
Jeffreygallup wrote: ↑Mon Oct 26, 2020 1:25 am
Empirically it is pretty clear that the passing score remains ~35. Very few people who have reported here a score less than 35 have received in-person auditions, among them Seaborgium, as I recall. Perhaps the coordinators had mercy on him because they divined that he would be a champion, though that seems all too prescient on their part.
I only auditioned once, and that was in August 2007, after an online test in January. I've never known specifically how well I did on that test, beyond what could be inferred from getting an audition invite out of it. The last time I know of that I got less than 35 right on a test was in January 2009, when I decided enough time had passed since my audition (count the months!) that the contestant coordinators wouldn't mind if I took the test again. I got 34 right, but The Call came the following month and rescued me from any lasting regrets. To assert that I had 34 for a passing score is to assert that an online test directly got me on the show without needing to audition, which, just no.
especially considering it's a random draw of those who pass the test.
With your 34/50 score, is it possible you mis-scored your test? If you have any memory of the questions/answers, do you think there was a question on that test they may have thrown out due to error or other issue, thus allowing your 34 to be a passing score for that test?
Try reading the post again, slowly. The 34 didn't get him an audition, so there is no need for speculation about possible mis-scoring.
This sort of pleading to get a pass is why CPA exams have a pass rate of 75% and a fail of 70%. All scores in between are reprocessed and regraded and changed up or down as seen fit. And I don't blame the J! Folks for hiding behind a nebulous scoring goal to keep that kind at bay.
