Tomorrow is finally the first opportunity I have to actually be a contestant on Jeopardy!
I’m set to be an alternate for the last show of the taping day, with 50/50 odds I’ll actually make it on. That uncertainty is almost more nerve-wracking than the idea of actually playing the game. I must admit I think I’m keeping my cool fairly well, but the thought does occasionally form that I’ll just lock up and forget my name, let alone which Shakespearean play is set in Venice.
Honestly, my guess is that I won’t get on tomorrow although I will get the experience of seeing Jeopardy played and hopefully learn from it. Then I can continue to shove more knowledge – or actually, and more accurately, rekindle the brain cells that contained this stuff I no longer remember.
It’s been an interesting path in re-firing those brain cells. I’ve been using the following things and it’s felt pretty damn productive to do so:
- j-archive.com: Holy shit, this site has EVERY Jeopardy game that has been played on it. You can try your hand at every clue ever presented and if so interested, can see which of the contestants got it right as well as any commentary that happened. It’s kind of insane how much information is on it. But you get a good sense of how the clues are structured and what topics come up a LOT. Remembering what the clue category is IS ESSENTIAL.
- Brainscape App: I found this after Larry shamed me for making my own flash cards for the Presidents. It’s been amazing, and you can download all sorts of various subjects to study. The methodology the app uses to get you to learn something is cool, as if you didn’t know an answer, you choose the low end of a spectrum, which marks the clue as needing work, and so the algorithm will work to make sure those you need help with come back again and again. Love this app.
- World Almanac: Yeah, I read through the 2016 World Almanac once before the Audition last month. It helped. It’s also insane how much information is in that book.
- My 3D-triangular Presidential Flash Cards: I created 44 cylindrical (but triangular) cards of the Presidents, one side with their name, one side with their #, and another with their dates in office/any tragic trivia. THEY HELPED. But the mid-1800s Presidents are just a giant blur still. So of course those will be all 12 categories for me tomorrow. 🙂
Alright, that’s enough. I should get some sleep. I won’t obviously be able to tell too much about what happened if I get on, but if not, yay, more neuroticness for everyone for another week!