I’m waiting for the math question:
“If you have a bucket that holds 2 gallons, and a bucket that holds 5 gallons, how many buckets do you have?”
It really won’t be complete until they also ask “What’s the minus of 30 and 20?”
Also, there are certainly some college graduates (or high school 4.0 grads) who don’t know this sort of stuff, and not just because they don’t do well on stage under pressure (though that has a fair amount to do with it). I think some people manage to just put it out of their minds once they get through it. Other people may just be entirely unsure of their knowledge, and they can usually rely on someone else (or reference material) to get by.
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Awhile back, at my mom’s elementary school, the teacher’s assistants felt that they were being squeezed out by the People In Charge. The Big Wigs wanted to test the assistants, to make sure they were up to snuff. The TA’s felt the test was unfair because it was way, way, way too hard. It had things that they needed to study for, like finding an area of a circle and simple division.
I haven’t seen the show, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
Years ago I was watching Jeopardy when the subject “gemstones” was picked and I was sure I wouldn’t know any of them. Surprisingly, I provided the correct question for each answer. While watching the Fifth Grader show I occasionally run across a question that I give the wrong answer for. When asked what fraction of states it took to amend the Constitution I answered 2/3rds when I should have said 3/4ths. Brain fart, oops. I’ve always been a poor student of mathematics and if someone asks me how to calculate the radius of a circle I’d probably stare at them with a blank expression. I can’t remember the last time I had to calculate the radius of a circle.
Marc
Haha yes, that would be great. I can understand missing questions about obscure facts or formulas you haven’t seen in many years. Getting something like this wrong just means you didn’t understand the question, and that’s what makes me mad because I don’t think there’s any excuse for that. Thus why I was so mad about the y=3x question.
EDIT: Do the contestants actually see the questions written out like we see on the screen? Or do they just have Jeff reading them? That might change things…
From certain camera angles, you can see that they are looking at a large screen with the question written out.
Even given the diameter?
-FrL-
Thanks, my memory from watching the show was fuzzy.
Easy. 10.
Is that a binary joke?
If I didn’t have any pressure on me it wouldn’t take me long to figure out. If I had bright studio lights shining on me, a talk show host talking to me, and the knowledge that millions of people would be watching this, maybe not.
Marc
I think it’s a great show. It’s a good and healthy thing for America. You see,the losing contestants walk out via a corridor lined on both sides with 1950s-era shoe store X-ray machines, effectively sterilizing them. Yes, Jeff has to leave that way too.
One day, we’ll all thank the producers of the show.
Sam Stone - Those are the usual reasons, and I could possibly, maybe see it if there was a time limit. But each contestant is allowed to think over each question indefinitely…from one commercial to another if it comes to that…and the only “pressure” is from the occasional kid who completely misses the point. (“C’mon, answer already!” “You’re going to make a great ex-wife someday.” 
)
I still think there’s at least some degree of cherry picking, at the very least to ensure that there aren’t too many million-dollar winners. How many reckless gamblers have there been on Deal or No Deal? Wagering $475,000 against $500,000 would be nothing for them, and at least some of them would’ve been on the right side. They want to give the illusion that anyone can take home big money while ensuring that anyone who actually does get on has almost no chance of taking home big money.
Say, isn’t that exactly how casinos work? Pretty clever, I must say.
So the gamblers are 0-2, and two quitters ended up nailing the final question stone cold (after, of course, giving the wrong answer to “Would you like to get punched in the face on national TV if you made the wrong decision and get jack squat if you were correct?”) Wow. I don’t believe for a second that it validates the show’s setup; they’ve just had an amazing string of good luck so far, and luck never lasts forever.
Do agree that it’s way, waaaay too drawn out. And too much acting. (You think someone would anticipate untimely cuts to commercials by now…)
Antartica = no country
Australia = continent comprising (in order of size) the Australian mainland, New Guinea, Tasmania, and intervening islands
(per wiki)
So neither is right? Or was the question, which one is the name of both a country and a continent?
And here I would need the definition, since “yack” is a variant of yak (to chatter).
But for the most part, I find the show as unbearable as you do. 
I hat this show. i think it’s the absolute worst of the trend towards ultra-dumbed down prine time gameshows. The thing that gripes me the most about them is how these undeserving idots are handwalked with seemingly limitless cheats and, no time limits and insultingly easy questions all the way to a big payoff virtually everytime. They never have to do anything to earn the money. They can literally be wrong every single time and still be coddled to a six digit payday. I think the producers are under the impression that people watch game shows to see people win money, so they go to great lengths to make sure that nobody goes home a loser.
Maybe they’re right about some segment of the audience but I think that for anyone with even a glimmer of intelligence it just results in the endless frustration of a show which offers no challenge in playing along, interminable milking of trivia questions designed for children, incredibly annoying and brainless contestantants who seem to be cast only for mindless enthusiasm being handed gobs of money for doing nothing but successfully breathing through their mouths for 45 minutes.
I long for a prime time show where the questions are hard and winners are rare. How I’d love to see Ben Stein come back and humiliate these bozos.
And what’s with this new trend towards bringing every contenstant’s trailer trash family on the show to pollute the airwaves right along with them? It’s like watching Jerry Springer these days.
I’m afraid I don’t remember exactly how it was phrased. Now that you mention it, if it was phrased as you propose, it might explain (to some degree) why “North America” confused her (if she was thinking there is a country called “America”). Hmm.
For this one, it was definitely explicitly stated in the question that “yak” referred to the name of the animal.
By the way, I also hate the children on that show. Insufferable little hams. They should all be poisoned.
I think I would have narrowed it down to Australia and Antarctica and then been uncertain from there.