I'll Take Nerd Alert for $600, Alex

Remember that invitation I received to audition to be a Jeopardy! contestant?

Nailed it.

I'll Take Nerd Alert for $400, Alex

Remember when I took the annual online test to qualify to be a contestant on Jeopardy!?  I must not have done very well because I never heard from them.

But a life goal isn't something you attempt once and then give up on.  So, I took the test again this year.

And I passed.

I've been invited to audition in person in Lexington, KY next month!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit this: I haven't been this excited about something in years.

I'll take Nerd Alert for $200, Alex

Last night I took the online qualifying test to be a Jeopardy! contestant. 50 questions, 15 seconds to read each clue and type in your answer. Having never taken the test before but being a loooooong time fan of the show, I was relatively pleased with how I did. Questions ranged from Science to American History, Geography to Pop Culture, Literature to Current Events. It was a full spectrum of trivia.

I spent the rest of the evening obsessing over the questions I know I missed. Most of the time in trivia, you either know the answer or you don't. I'm haunted by the ones I know I didn't know last night. But, in true nerd fashion, I spent time studying each of those topics after the test and I can promise you that I'll never forget that particular author's name or the atomic make-up of that particular element again. Because trivia shouldn't just be about the regurgitation of accumulated knowledge. It should be about learning. Well, learning and showing off what a smarty-pants you are.

Unfortunately, they don't tell you your score and there's no way of knowing whether or not you will be invited to an audition. In the coming weeks I'll be anxiously checking my e-mail, hoping to qualify for the next round!