which study aids would you use?
I’m particularly wondering about movies, ones with a historical context. Of course, there’s the DaVinci Code (I keed! I keed!).
Excellent, thanks. 
I’m working on memorizing countries, capitals and Presidents. I figure there’s no point in trying to memorize more than that. I retain more from magazines and movies anyway – they had a question the other day about those Ugg boots, my husband was like “wha?” Doggone People paid off!
My only real suggestion is to get the most recent edition of E.D. Hirsch’s Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and read through the New York Times for a few weeks. But I don’t think the tryouts will have much bleeding edge news. When you pass the test let us know and we can prep you for the show proper. 
If you’re auditioning for Jeopardy… dress well, smile a lot, and try not to sweat. Don’t worry about the knowlege - either you’ve got it, or you don’t, and no amount of cramming will change a thing. It’s 50% self confidence, anyway, and that’s the 50% you have to worry about.
Oh, and use the practice round to hone your buzzer reflexes. That’s far, far more important than memorizing state capitals
I knew a guy who tried out for Jeopardy four times and never made it through.
He was a trivia fanatic.
Just warning you that no matter what you do, it might not help.
I tried out for a few game shows (got on one) but was not chosen for the others…I don’t think I was considered perky and eye-candy enough for the others…and sadly, that is what they are REALLY looking for, although they deny the fact.
You could read the entire Encylcopedia Brittanica, and then you would have covered maybe a good 5% of all the potential questions you could be asked.
Moving thread from IMHO to Cafe Society.
Actually, I was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire almost 5 years ago. It was hilarious because the only reason I went to the open call was because my husband needed a ride (he hated driving in downtown Chicago), and I figured while I was there I might as well try myself. And then I ended up being on the show bwahahaha. And now Jeopardy giving me a shot. My poor husband, he’s better at trivia than I am, but can’t catch a break.
I’m a bit more intimidated by Jeopardy, of course (although the written test for WWTBAM was HARD!). I’ve got a month, so I figured I could probably learn something new & I always bomb geography (which is pretty shameful anyway).
But of course everyone’s right, it’s not what you put IN your head, it’s what you can get OUT.
I was cruising Wal*Mart last night, looking for a kid’s game or toy to use – nada! “Risk” is it! Geez, you’d think there’d at least be some puzzles or something.
And I totally agree with that other thread, it’s mostly luck. I ended up watching 2 days of taping for WWTBAM while waiting for my turn and there were some “decks” of questions that would’ve wiped me out early on, but others where I would’ve done much better than I did ($16k).
What about something like plain old Trivial Pursuit? Or Scene It?
Go to a bar and play Buzztime (formerly NTN). If you get on the show, the ability to answer quickly is just as important as your knowledge will be at that point. Plus, the odds you will study a question you wind up getting is pretty low, but honing game playing skills has a 100% chance of being useful.
When I was on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire”, and we did some practice rounds of the fastest finger question, the people on either side of me were quicker to the draw. But when the actual taping started, they both choked! Their finger skills were suddenly gone. So, get your reflexes in shape.
(As for the rest of my appearance, that was “The Day That Will Live In Infamy” for me.)
Do Tell!
Yes - one of my girlfriends just reminded me of NTN! Excellent idea! We used to do that all the time, when we lived right by a good bar, but I’d forgotten all about it.
I didn’t have to do the fastest finger part, I was on the daytime version hosted by Meredith Vieira. She is a genuinely nice lady.
This was a show that taped 12/13/00 and aired in January 2001. It was the second of 2 shows and EVERYONE was flaming out early. On the first show, a “know it all” went from 16k to 1k when he didn’t stop to think which of four characters was NOT fictional (I think “Casey Jones” was the correct answer). On my show, the first person to make the Hot Seat, a 5-time Jeopardy! champ, missed the 4k question (how many fingers in a Boy Scout salute). So the questions were harder than usual.
I was second into the Hot Seat, and made it to the 8k question, which was “What does a snood cover?” Sadly, it wasn’t “eye”, but “hair”. I slinked offstage with the other vanquished people.
My standard joke is that when they close my casket, it will creak closed with a “snoooooood” sound. :smack:
“Snood”? Aw, man, that’s heinous! “Snood”? Really? Who on earth would know that? Fickle finger of fate!
Fricking Pelican Brief got me. I had no idea, and was so eager to bust outta there with my winnings, I hopped off the chair & walked away. Ms. Vieira was like “Wait! Wait! Don’t you want to try your 50/50?” So I did, didn’t help. They edited it out somehow, you can’t even tell that happened, but I have witnesses.
But I did get to watch Kevin Olmstead, their $1m (daytime) winner, go all the way. THAT was COOL!! Neatest thing ever! He’s an interesting guy - he’d made it to the nighttime show before, but not past the “fastest finger” part. So he was still eligible to play again. He wrote the producers every single day for a YEAR. They finally relented and put him on her syndicated show.
sigh me - because Anne of Green Gables wanted a black velvet snood when she had to cut her hair short because of the bad dye job. The word must have really impressed me as a kid, never forgot it.