Hey SC

[elwoodblues]

Glad to hear you did well at your J! audition. How many people passed the test and got to play the mock game?

I went to an audition in Memphis three years ago and was one of only four to pass the test. But I never saw any of the other three on the show, and I never got there either. Hope you get the call.

[silvercamaro]

Glad to hear you did well at your J! audition. How many people passed the test and got to play the mock game?

I went to an audition in Memphis three years ago and was one of only four to pass the test. But I never saw any of the other three on the show, and I never got there either. Hope you get the call.

They've changed the process for most people. In late January of this year, something like 50,000 people (maybe more) across the country took an on-line test. Passers of that test were selected at random for in-person auditions in one of perhaps eight (?) cities. I was lucky to pass and luckier to be selected for Dallas, which was the closest place to my home. At the in-person session, you take another 50-question test but -- unless perhaps, one theory goes, the results vary greatly from the outcome of the computer test, implying the possibility of a ringer taking the first test -- no one gets eliminated at that stage, and everybody gets an interview and plays the mock game.

Each of the test sites seems to have three sessions per day for several days. Each session probably has 20-27 participants. (They were in Dallas four days, and that may be typical.) Supposedly, "everybody there" is in the pool. If my numbers are close to being right, 8 cities X 4 days X 3 sessions X 24 prospective contestants means more than 2,300 are swimming around, not counting the California and Brain Bus qualifiers. Obviously the odds aren't in anybody's favor for getting the call for one of less than 400 contestant slots per year.

I think Southern California residents still may take the test at the studio, but they seem to discourage anybody else from traveling a distance for that purpose. The Brain Bus provides another opportunity for people to give prospective contestants across the country a shot at trying out, but since that's usually a two-day process (taking a 10-question test on the first day and coming back to some other location the next day for the 50-Q test,) that's more difficult to manage if they're not close to where you live.

If you haven't taken the test since Memphis, go to the Jeopardy! site and sign up for e-mail notification of Brain Bus stops and next year's on-line test. You need to try again!

Thank you for your good wishes. I felt like I'd won the lottery (and I guess I did,) when I got the e-mail invitation to the in-person test, but the new way lets everyone be more relaxed, just knowing that no one will be bounced into the street after the in-person tests are graded.

[elwoodblues]

Thanks for the info. I did take the online test in January, but I don't know if I passed. I do know I was not selected. But there's always next year.

[silvercamaro]

But there's always next year.

Exactly. That has been my motto for most of the years of my life.