Pure Pedantry : Did anyone else take the Jeopardy contestant exam?

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Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine focusing in Neuroscience. He is due to graduate in 2032. He received a BS and a MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University -- where he spent most of his time drinking heavily and building vegetable catapults instead of learning information that would now be eminently useful. When he is not failing terrifically to perform his sworn duties, he enjoys watching bad movies, ethnic food, and running.

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Did anyone else take the Jeopardy contestant exam?

Category: TV
Posted on: January 30, 2008 9:47 AM, by Jake Young

I took the Jeopardy contestant search exam online last night on a whim, and quite frankly it kicked my ass. Did anyone else take it?

The format of the test is 50 multiple choice questions for which you have 15 seconds to respond. Let me just tell you that 15 seconds is just enough time to choke and but not enough time to answer.

The questions are obscure (expectedly)...

Who was the only bachelor president? Buchanan, but I guessed Andrew Johnson
What is the longest river in Asia? Yangtze (guessed right)
Who painted Nude Descending a Staircase? Duchamps (which is one that I knew but choked)
What did the first president to leave the country -- Theodore Roosevelt -- go to visit the construction of? The Panama Canal
What is the first book of New Testament? Matthew (Also known as "questions Jake will not be getting correct")
Who composed the Fidelio? Beethoven
What is the capital of North Dakota? Bismarck (To which I responded Montpelier -- the capital of Vermont. People regularly confuse Vermont and North Dakota...smooth Jake...smooth...)
What is the capital of New Zealand? Wellington (I would have sworn Auckland, but who knew.)
Who was Lincoln's Secretary of State? Seward (This one tripped me because I think the clue suggested that the person who became Secretary of State ran against Lincoln, and I don't think Seward was one of the candidates in the election of 1860.)

Then there were a bunch of pop culture ones too...

Who won 8 Grammys in 2008 for the album Graduation? Kanye West (I take comfort in the fact that the people who got the New Testament question right probably did not get this one right).
Who directed Into the Wild? Sean Penn
Who was the first African American Woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress? Halle Berry (on the tip of my tongue I swear, but I was tempted to write "catwoman")

I don't remember any other ones. I would say that maybe I got half right, so I rather doubt that I will be hearing back from the people at Jeopardy.

Has anyone else taken this before? Is it worth taking again next year?

Comments

Where can we take it? I'd like to see how badly it beats me. But for what it's worth I would've gotten the Matthew one and still stood a chance of getting the Kanye West one right. Your statement might still stand, though.

Posted by: KKairos | January 30, 2008 1:19 PM

Go the jeopardy.com website, and you can register. Actually if you go today, you can probably still register for this year's depending on what part of the country you are in.

Posted by: Jake Young | January 30, 2008 1:36 PM