Maximum Learning Speed + Luck Magnifier: A trivia nerd becomes a trivia god

[Trivia Nerd]

Strong 2nd place finish tonight. We were actually first going into the finals but one team got the question right and jumped us.

What I'm really happy about is that I basically did the first half solo, my other teammate told me he was going to be late (he got to meet the drummer from The Police so I don't blame him) so he didn't show up until the halftime question. Until he showed up I only got two questions incorrect.

[Trivia Nerd]

Another win last night (Thursday).

They've posted trivia league standings. 13 weeks in , at the Thursday night venue we're leading with 71 points, the 2nd ranked team has only 31.

[Trivia Nerd]

Another strong 2nd place finish for Wednesday night, not bad since that night has only half our normal team.

Jeopardy is now accepting registrations for their online test, the first step to auditioning for the show. Just signed up, my test is in two weeks.

[Trivia Nerd]

Had a serendipitous "lucky" moment last weekend. Took a road trip with my roommate to St. Louis on Saturday for a bodybuilding competition; a friend was there competing in the bikini division (her first show). The line to buy tickets was ridiculously slow; we waited at least 45 minutes, and prejudging had already started. When we got to the ticket window, a woman came up to us, said her friend was going to be on stage soon, and offered to buy our tickets (for both prejudging and the night show) in exchange for letting her cut in front of us. Since the tickets were $65 per person I wasn't about to complain.

Met Phil Heath (four time Mr. Olympia) at the show and got a picture with him. Keep in mind I'm about 5'8" 200 lbs with an athletic build: in "normal" settings I'm the big muscular guy. I look like a toothpick next to him.

My friend didn't place in the top 5 in her class, but I'm pretty sure she was in the top ten based on how she was called out in prejudging (though they haven't released the official results yet). Either way I'm inspired to compete again sometime later this year. I've done a show in men's physique three years ago, and I'm considering what set of subs would be ideal to use during contest prep. Until then I'm going to continue the MLS/LM combo for at least a few months.

On the trivia side of things, we had no trivia on Sunday (Easter), a 3rd place finish on Tuesday, a 2nd place finish on Wednesday, and a 5th place finish tonight. We were in the lead before the finals tonight but couldn't deliver on the final question since we were short one person (our resident music expert: if he were there we would have had a perfect game). Still, it was just three of us against the collective minds of many much larger teams so I don't feel bad.

[Trivia Nerd]

Another strong 2nd place finish for Wednesday night, not bad since that night has only half our normal team.

Jeopardy is now accepting registrations for their online test, the first step to auditioning for the show. Just signed up, my test is in two weeks.

Do you wonder if the way you test determines how they question you on the show?

I don't think so, the online test is just screening applicants. If I were to pass, then I would be invited to an audition. If I impress them at the audition, then I'll be on the short list to be called onto the show. So it's a several step process.

I'm actually kind of nervous about it, because even though I passed the practice test, the randomness of their questions could mean the test I take next week would have a lot of stuff I don't know, in which case it would be another year until I could apply again.

I read through J! Archive (the repository of past episodes) regularly, there are some days where I know nearly every question, and some in which I fail miserably. Since Jeopardy basically quizzes people on the entirety of human knowledge there is a lot of luck in at least getting topics you're familiar with.

(And, I'm finding that a surprising amount of questions I encounter on my trivia nights are reworded clues from past episodes of Jeopardy, so I'm making an effort to pay close attention and take notes on what I don't know.)

[Trivia Nerd]

Going through a bit of a dry spell lately, had a third place finish on Thursday but no other wins of note.