WWTBAM Bored

Someone on the Jeopardy! Board has posted that the Web site now states on-line testing will be available in late January 2008. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:Someone on the Jeopardy! Board has posted that the Web site now states on-line testing will be available in late January 2008. --Bob

Does anybody remember the date of the last one?

silvercamaro wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:Someone on the Jeopardy! Board has posted that the Web site now states on-line testing will be available in late January 2008. --Bob

Does anybody remember the date of the last one?

I did mine in 2006 -- March, I'm pretty sure. I auditioned in Philly in May of that year -- & it went very well -- but wasn't called. I remember being ineligible for last year's online test because I was still in the 2006 pool. I think the 2007 test was in January.

I just found the answers to my own questions. The 2008 on-line test are scheduled for Jan. 29, 30, and 31. Last year's final on-line test was Jan.25.

Also, the jeopardy.com site says that people who have had in-person auditions now are retained in the pool for 18 months.

silvercamaro wrote:I just found the answers to my own questions. The 2008 on-line test are scheduled for Jan. 29, 30, and 31. Last year's final on-line test was Jan.25.

Also, the jeopardy.com site says that people who have had in-person auditions now are retained in the pool for 18 months.

But can I still take the 2008 online test even though I'll be "in the pool" all the way through 2008 based on my June 2007 audition? At least I think it was June. Or was it April?

I'll check my e-mails and be right back.

April 29th.

So, I'm in the pool through October 2008. I wonder if it would be a waste of time to take the 2008 test.

TheCalvinator24 wrote: But can I still take the 2008 online test even though I'll be "in the pool" all the way through 2008 based on my June 2007 audition? At least I think it was June. Or was it April?

I'll check my e-mails and be right back.

I read the information as "no, you should not take the test" -- but if I were in your shoes, I'd read it for myself and make my own determination.

Also, the jeopardy.com site says that people who have had in-person auditions now are retained in the pool for 18 months.

Wow, I think I did read that before.

Even so.....November 30, 2007 minus May 16, 2006 = 18 months plus 2 weeks. So I may as well grab my towel & dry off till January

silvercamaro wrote:

TheCalvinator24 wrote: But can I still take the 2008 online test even though I'll be "in the pool" all the way through 2008 based on my June 2007 audition? At least I think it was June. Or was it April?

I'll check my e-mails and be right back.

I read the information as "no, you should not take the test" -- but if I were in your shoes, I'd read it for myself and make my own determination.

Here's the pertinent part from the J! Rules:

If you passed the online test and were invited to an "in person" interview, you will be in our active files for 18 months. If at the end of 18 months from the date of your in-person tryout, you have not been booked to appear on the show, you are eligible to take the online test again

It reads that I will not be eligible to take the online test again until 18 months have expired from my April 2007 audition. So, if I don't get the call before then, I'll take the 2009 test.

Cal:

I'm in essentially the same position as you having participated in a June 2007 audition after having taken the January 2007 on-line test. My reading is that I'm in the pool until December 2008 and then can retake the on-line test in January 2009.

I feel sorry for those people that didn't get invited to an in-person audition until August 2007. Because of those 2 months after me, they won't, under the rules as written, be eligible to take the January 2009 on-line test, but will have to wait until the January 2010 test.

Despite their extending the eligibility period from 12 months to 18 months (and they did mention 18 months at my audition), it doesn't give me much hope. I auditioned in NYC. I'm sure that next year they will also have auditions in NYC, probably around the same time. If they haven't called me in 12 months, why would they prefer me over the new crop of NYC auditioners? Sure, if one attended the auditions in some place where they don't go back every year (like Alaska, where they went this year), I can see them holding back some of those auditioners 18 months or more in order to spread them out.

So, I think this extension of the "pool wading" period actually hurts me.

The next part of my post may come off as sexist, but it's not intended that way. It may come off as sour grapes, and there may be some truth to that. (Remember, I'm about as MAWGish as they come).

The heading on the J! site about the on-line test heralds "More Female Contestants on Jeopardy!" I have no problem with more female contestants, per se. What I do have a problem with is TPTB's blatant affirmative action. At my last audition, there were 21 potential contestants in the room, all who had passed the on-line test. Out of those 21, only 3 were women! I spoke to several other people who attended auditions last spring and summer and ALL of them reported huge imbalances of men over women at the auditions. (I make no claim as to why this is so. I'm not Lawrence Summers). Mine was the most extreme, but no one reported there being more than 1/3 women in the room. From a group of potential contestants with that sort of make-up, TPTB manage to put 52% (as claimed in the press release) women on the show.

Look, it's their show. They can and should do whatever they want to do to ensure ratings and the continued success of the show. But don't trumpet the on-line test for doing something that you basically manipulated the process to achieve. Under the old testing regime, they could have had a similar percentage of women contestants if they wanted. The on-line test gives them a bigger selection of eligible contestants each year because it enables them to audition a larger number of test passers (before, it was like BAM in that 85% to 90% of the auditioners were kicked out of the room after failing the test), but they could have easily put 200 women a year on the show if they had wanted to under the old regime.

slam wrote: The next part of my post may come off as sexist, but it's not intended that way. It may come off as sour grapes, and there may be some truth to that. (Remember, I'm about as MAWGish as they come).

The heading on the J! site about the on-line test heralds "More Female Contestants on Jeopardy!" I have no problem with more female contestants, per se. What I do have a problem with is TPTB's blatant affirmative action. At my last audition, there were 21 potential contestants in the room, all who had passed the on-line test. Out of those 21, only 3 were women! I spoke to several other people who attended auditions last spring and summer and ALL of them reported huge imbalances of men over women at the auditions. (I make no claim as to why this is so. I'm not Lawrence Summers). Mine was the most extreme, but no one reported there being more than 1/3 women in the room. From a group of potential contestants with that sort of make-up, TPTB manage to put 52% (as claimed in the press release) women on the show.

During my brain bus audition, there were 16 of us who passed the test and got an interview. Of these two were women. As near as I can tell, the only contestant who actually has gotten on the air from that group was one of the women (who admittedly had won $125,000 on prime time Millionaire). My own view is that probably ten of the sixteen would have made good show contestants.

I am a fan of the audition process, and I will probably take the online test if I have no other way to get through. I don't like it because my internet service can be very temperamental on occasion. I view my own experience at my audition as a learning experience. Obviously, I didn't do well enough and I think I know a couple of things I could have done better.

No quiz show is about getting the "best" contestants. It's about getting the best ratings, and daytime and early prime time viewing is a more heavily female demographic.

I just went though the J! Archive for this season. Nobody from my session has aired yet. There was one Surefire lock in our session. A Vice Division police officer from New Orleans. She hasn't made it on.

I hope Santa is good to me and I get a new computer for Christmas-so I can take the on-line test without getting disconnected in the middle of it!! My internet service (AOL) is also tempermental-it has the annoying habit of disconnecting at the most inconvenient times, like when I'm checking e-mail.

So now we know the dates-when will we find out where they are holding auditions next year? I bet Chicago will be on the list, they seem to go there every year.

silvercamaro wrote:I just found the answers to my own questions. The 2008 on-line test are scheduled for Jan. 29, 30, and 31. Last year's final on-line test was Jan.25.

So, all of us who took the first online test in March 2006 will finally be able to take it again...and so will all of the smaller group who took it in Janary 2007 but didn't get an audition invitation.

That's a drag considering that you don't even know if you're in the pool or not since they don't tell you if you pass anymore.

Or is it that if you passed the online test and were called to audition that you're in the pool and the second test was just to help them decide on people? I'll admit I just took the test for fun, so I really wasn't paying much attention at the audition.

They don't say explicitly, but it is assumed that as long as there is no reason to believe that one cheated on the online test, then the in person test "passing score" is fluid.

fantine33 wrote: Or is it that if you passed the online test and were called to audition that you're in the pool and the second test was just to help them decide on people?

Yes, I believe that's how it works. Everyone who takes the audition is considered "in the pool", whether or not there's a snowball's chance of the producers giving them The Call.

fantine33 wrote:I'll admit I just took the test for fun, so I really wasn't paying much attention at the audition.

Those of us who have never been successful in getting an audition invitation from J! must hate you now.

MarleysGh0st wrote:Those of us who have never been successful in getting an audition invitation from J! must hate you now.

Don't be a hater, playa. Although if it helps you, hate away. Would it make you hate me more if I added that at first I wasn't even going to go to the audition?

YAY! Peacock will be thrilled that I've managed to annoy Marley already. One down, two to go!

TheCalvinator24 wrote:They don't say explicitly, but it is assumed that as long as there is no reason to believe that one cheated on the online test, then the in person test "passing score" is fluid.

Thanks, I remember them saying that everybody got to audition, but if they didn't actually state it, then I must've not been paying as little attention as I thought I was.

I'm pretty sure I passed. There were 5-7 (can't remember exactly now, I have the paper somewhere) that I missed and about 5 I never could remember. And I probably got those right because the last few strays that came to me were ones that were so easy they were just automatic answers, so I'm thinking that those were as well. They didn't say what passing was (or else that was while I was mentally chasing bunnies) but I would think that >40 would be enough.

fantine33 wrote:

TheCalvinator24 wrote:They don't say explicitly, but it is assumed that as long as there is no reason to believe that one cheated on the online test, then the in person test "passing score" is fluid.

Thanks, I remember them saying that everybody got to audition, but if they didn't actually state it, then I must've not been paying as little attention as I thought I was.

I'm pretty sure I passed. There were 5-7 (can't remember exactly now, I have the paper somewhere) that I missed and about 5 I never could remember. And I probably got those right because the last few strays that came to me were ones that were so easy they were just automatic answers, so I'm thinking that those were as well. They didn't say what passing was (or else that was while I was mentally chasing bunnies) but I would think that >40 would be enough.

They used to tell that 35 was a passing score. Now, they don't tell anymore, but the conventional wisdom is that it takes 35 to get past the online test. As long as the in-person test score is compatible with the online score, it is believed that someone can score below 35 on the in person and still be considered to get on the show.

woo woo I will be eligible, not having taken their test since the Brain Bus a year ago July. Or June. Doesn't matter any more, anyway.

I don't see myself doing better on a "can't go back to unanswered Q" computer test than on a paper one (they told us not to lose our place by going back, but you could pencil in a reminder in your answer, if you weren't sure of one).

If you take the online test and are selected, don't you still have to go to an audition and take another test? They used to have auditions around the country, but their site has not listed any for a long time.

Two years ago I went to a Jeopardy! audition in Memphis and passed the test but did not get the call. The same was true for my WWTBAM audition in New Orleans in 2001. I have given up on game shows.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

silvercamaro wrote:I just found the answers to my own questions. The 2008 on-line test are scheduled for Jan. 29, 30, and 31. Last year's final on-line test was Jan.25.

So, all of us who took the first online test in March 2006 will finally be able to take it again...and so will all of the smaller group who took it in Janary 2007 but didn't get an audition invitation.

More to the point, those of us who couldn't take the March test because we were already in the pool can take it and hope for the best.

elwoodblues wrote:If you take the online test and are selected, don't you still have to go to an audition and take another test? They used to have auditions around the country, but their site has not listed any for a long time.

Two years ago I went to a Jeopardy! audition in Memphis and passed the test but did not get the call. The same was true for my WWTBAM audition in New Orleans in 2001. I have given up on game shows.

Yes, you do have to do an in-person audition and another test, although my understanding was that anyone who was invited to the audition was already in the pool - the second test was a formality (perhaps to screen out cheaters) but the audition was still the deciding element.

I think that I am going to take the test again. I took it in March 2006.