Season 26 2-time champion: $38,801 + $2,000.
Elizabeth Galoozis - A Reference Librarian
Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 24, 2010
What can I say that other winners haven't already? I guess I'll just describe my own personal Jeopardy! story, and hopefully it will be entertaining.
I've been watching the show for years - though I can't remember how many- with family and friends. I always thought I might do well on the show - I was on the academic competition team in high school, and not only was our team pretty good, but it was the most fun I had during those years. Every afternoon during my unemployed summer of 2008, I watched Jeopardy! in its 3:30 Chicago time slot and knitted my way through a blanket for my niece, who was born in December. It was then that I really started learning some of the question patterns and frequent topics. Eventually I got a job and moved to the Boston area, and in February 2009, I saw ads for the online test during the show. I almost missed it, because I record the show and often watch several episodes in one sitting. So I took part in the last offering of the online test that very night, the test meant for the West Coast. And I put it out of my head until April, when I was emailed to come audition in person. Without hesitation, I added a Tuesday off to the three-day Patriot's Day weekend, and pinpointed the hotel where the audition was taking place. Unlike others, I didn't study for the audition. I guess I was a little sure of myself - and I also thought of the audition as a "why-not" kind of thing; I never really expected to get on the show.
I expected to have to audition more than once. For a couple of months, family members would ask "Have you heard anything from Jeopardy!?" As if I would have found out and not immediately told everyone I know! Then one day in November, I was staffing the busy reference desk of the academic library where I work.
I was expecting a call from someone else, so I had my calls forwarded to the desk. I was in the middle of explaining something to a patron when the phone rang - so I had her start filling out an online form while I went to answer it. The woman on the other line asked if it was me, and then said, "This is Maggie from Jeopardy!" I was in shock, and had to ask her to call back so I could finish my shift. Maggie wanted me to come to LA on December 7 and 8, a Monday and Tuesday. I counted up my vacation days and said yes, then pretty much called everyone I knew. My mom and grandmother decided they would come with me, and we worked on travel plans.
Then came the preparation. I had already read Ken Jennings' book, so I knew I'd prepare watching the show and "buzzing" in with a pen, and by making flash cards for topics I needed to study. I read Karl Coryat's blog for an idea of the heavy-hitter categories (which I had an inkling of already from watching the show). Luckily, I work in a library, so I had plenty of study materials on hand. My main source for preparation was the New York Public Library Desk Reference - a book I knew would identify "major" scientists and have handy lists of things like the world's longest rivers. I made flash cards of things like world capitals, the current Cabinet, and facts about the Oscars.
I largely ignored literature topics - as an English major, librarian, and constant reader, I figured I was set on those. You'll see how that turned out later. I studied on the bus and in waiting rooms; I mentally went through all the presidents in order while getting an MRI. I didn't spend every waking moment with my cards, though - I didn't want to prepare for hours, end up losing, and feel like I'd wasted time. I also talked to another librarian I work with who was on the show twelve years ago, and she helped me with some topic areas and strategy.
One subject I knew I definitely had to brush up on was the Bible. I never went to Sunday school or read the Bible, so all I really knew were literary references to it. I checked out a book from the library called The Non-Churchgoer's Guide to the Bible, which was perfect - it outlined the major "plot points," pointed out interesting facts, and made useful analogies for the books' relationships to each other. I'm dwelling on this book because eventually, it won me my first Final Jeopardy! I also read a lot about wagering - which I knew would be the hardest part for me. By the time the taping rolled around, I had a handle on what to do in many situations, and just hoped I wouldn't be in one that was more complicated.
I got to California on Saturday around midnight, and figured I would fall right asleep. Instead, I got about two or three hours of sleep that night, and two or three Sunday night - the night before the taping. I guess I was just nervous and excited. I was really upset Monday morning that I wouldn't do well because I was so tired, but my mom and grandma got me to pull myself together, drink some strong coffee, and be excited instead of nervous. That wasn't hard once I got to the studio. Everyone there, from the contestant coordinators to the makeup artists to the other contestants, couldn't have been nicer. I was also reassured to find that the current champion was only a one-day winner - I'd been worried about facing off against a seasoned player. Once we got into rehearsal, though, I was intimidated by his speed on the signaling device, and the way he seemed to know all the big-money questions. So I was definitely relieved not to be pulled for the first game. I spent the game carefully observing him buzzing in (since my own buzzing in rehearsal had been pretty bad), and then watched him lose in Final Jeopardy!
Then it was the second show of the day, and I was up. The categories are mostly a blur now - I'm repeating what other people have said, but the game, especially Double Jeopardy!, goes by incredibly quickly. By the time Final Jeopardy! rolled around, I was in second place with $11,000. The category: Religious Words. I thought I had a pretty good chance in this category; I figured it would be an etymological question. I spent longer than I probably should have trying to figure out my wager - but I finally got to an amount I thought would put me in the lead if the first-place player missed, and would keep me ahead of the third-place player no matter what. Then came the question, and I thought: I'm so glad I read that book about the Bible. It was about a word that only appears twice in the New Testament; I knew right away it was "Christian." I felt so lucky, because I never would have guessed that - I just happened to have read it. When the first-place player's answer was revealed, I knew I'd won. I looked up at my total - $15600 - and thought for the first time - hey, that's money! Alex asked me if I knew or guessed the answer, and I told him I knew it. I looked out at the audience and saw my mom and grandma grinning and jumping up and down. I couldn't talk to them until later, but I knew they were proud of me. Then I did a "winner's circle" interview, and I have no idea what I said. Seriously, if you watch it, and you know me, disregard anything I say. And if I didn't mention or thank you, it's because I was kind of out of my mind at the time.
After winning once, I was a lot more relaxed, and just had fun. I hit a lot of categories that served me well, like "Buried in Westminster Abbey" and "Their first number one pop hit." (In that category, I answered the $1000 clue - "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" - correctly with "Michael Bolton." Backstage, another contestant said to me, "You could tell you were kind of embarrassed to know that one.") I made the same good guess at my second Final Jeopardy as the other contestants (a depressed artist in the 1880s? must be van Gogh!), and won my second game by a dollar. And then came my third Final Jeopardy!
For both of my last two games, I was in first place at Final. I knew how much to wager, and I was comfortable with the categories. This time, it was "Kings and Literature." As the clue - which asked for the king about whom Shakespeare wrote his only trilogy - was being read, I realized I didn't know, and that my guess of Henry V probably wasn't right. The woman in third place ended up answering correctly and winning with a doubled score. At that moment, I was disappointed, but then I remembered that I'd just won two games of Jeopardy! (and $40,001!) and that I would have been glad just to be on one episode.
I wish that a couple things had gone differently. I wish I'd gotten my Daily Doubles right, I wish I'd wagered more in my second Final Jeopardy!, and I wish I'd studied Shakespeare more. But those are details. I did much better than I thought I would, I had a lot of fun, and I met some other interesting people. |
