Audition Emails

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Louisss
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by Louisss »

ElendilPickle wrote:
Louisss wrote:Yikes -- I'm disheartened to see that L.A. emails have gone out. I got a 45 on the test. Should I assume I've been skipped?

(Also: I read this site practically every day. Happy to make my first post in such fine company!)
Welcome to JBoard!

I got my email invitation in May for a June audition in Los Angeles. I think they do them fairly regularly through the year.

That's reassuring! Thank you. And by the way: You were a fabulous player, Lee Ann! My brother Jim was on the show last May, and we talked about what a wonderful game yours was.
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ElendilPickle
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by ElendilPickle »

Louisss wrote:
ElendilPickle wrote:
Louisss wrote:Yikes -- I'm disheartened to see that L.A. emails have gone out. I got a 45 on the test. Should I assume I've been skipped?

(Also: I read this site practically every day. Happy to make my first post in such fine company!)
Welcome to JBoard!

I got my email invitation in May for a June audition in Los Angeles. I think they do them fairly regularly through the year.

That's reassuring! Thank you. And by the way: You were a fabulous player, Lee Ann! My brother Jim was on the show last May, and we talked about what a wonderful game yours was.
Thank you!

I've gotten philosophical about the whole thing. Yes, I could have bet smarter on FJ, but thanks to me, Ashok and Kristin got into the Tournament of Champions. :lol:
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Re: Audition Emails - demographics

Post by phi »

Jeffreygallup wrote:Is anyone interested in the demographics of Jeopardy! online test passers and contestants? I'm interested in testing various hypotheses: that the selection process for in-person auditions is in fact a random selection, not based on how high the score is once the cutoff is met, or other demographic criteria such as age, location, or gender; that the cutoff is in fact 35; and that the actual contestants fairly approximate (or not) the demographic characteristics of the pool of persons who have passed the online test.

The hard question is whether there is anything which distinguishes, demographically speaking or otherwise, test passers from actual contestants. (personality! stage presence! humor! physical attractiveness!) Perhaps the answer is "nothing in particular," although I've seen a lot of speculation on what it takes to "pass" the in-person audition. If people would like to post their demographic or other characteristics in this year's audition thread, that would allow us to see possible patterns.
I very much respect the desire to settle questions that you and likely many others have wondered, but I don't know how effective a method this will be for doing that. I do know someone who scored below 30 on a test and who received an in-person audition, so either the producers made an error or the cutoff is not always 35; if this has happened to anybody else, I'd be very interested to hear it.

I *do* think one might be able to answer these other questions more empirically, by looking through j-archive and seeing the percentage that various demographics win. For example, I would imagine that men and women who appear on Jeopardy! have an equally likely probability of winning. If it turns out that one gender seems to have a significantly higher win percentage than the other, that would be a sign that there's some demographic selection bias. (This assumes, of course, that scores on the test correlate with performance on the show, and that there's no average difference in buzzer reaction times between men and women; I don't know for sure, of course, but I'd certainly imagine this is the case). You could do the same with other demographics, though I don't think it would work well with age since I do think that's probably inversely correlated with buzzer skill.

Has anybody done this? Would this even answer the question?
Last edited by phi on Tue Jan 22, 2013 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kickerofelves
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Re: Audition Emails - demographics

Post by kickerofelves »

phi wrote:This assumes, of course, that scores on the test correlate with performance on the show
I think that's a pretty big assumption.

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the_phil
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Re: Audition Emails - demographics

Post by the_phil »

phi wrote:(This assumes, of course, that scores on the test correlate with performance on the show, and that there's no average difference in buzzer reaction times between men and women; I don't know for sure, of course, but I'd certainly imagine this is the case). You could do the same with other demographics, though I don't think it would work well with age since I do think that's probably inversely correlated with buzzer skill.
I think you can't discount the fact that age/gender selection might not be completely independent. At some point, social conditions play a part in generating the base of a contestant pool, i.e. those that are interested enough to take the online test. You can't assume that group doesn't already have bias in it. Further, you can't assume that there aren't demographic trends in category strengths and weaknesses.

The more I think about it, the more I think you could spend weeks analyzing contestant demographic data. I dare say that there might be enough there for a zealous statistics graduate student might have his/her thesis topic.
MiloTheMayor
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by MiloTheMayor »

Hi, first-time poster and longtime Jeopardy viewer. I took the 1/8/2012 online test and received either a score of either 42 or 43. One thing I've wondered is whether the random sampling of those invited to participate in the in-house audition is based purely on the online test score, i.e., those with 50 get automatic bids to the in-house audition, followed by those who received a score of 49. Or does the computer basically select a random sample based on anyone who received a score of 35 or more?
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by Volante »

MiloTheMayor wrote:Hi, first-time poster and longtime Jeopardy viewer. I took the 1/8/2012 online test and received either a score of either 42 or 43. One thing I've wondered is whether the random sampling of those invited to participate in the in-house audition is based purely on the online test score, i.e., those with 50 get automatic bids to the in-house audition, followed by those who received a score of 49. Or does the computer basically select a random sample based on anyone who received a score of 35 or more?
Random. Or even if they do assign weights to different factors, it's pseudo-random enough that it looks random.
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MiloTheMayor
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by MiloTheMayor »

Volante wrote:Random. Or even if they do assign weights to different factors, it's pseudo-random enough that it looks random.
Okay, thanks for explaining. Much appreciated.
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deano
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by deano »

And… the official invitation for Sacramento has arrived.

It's on a Thursday afternoon. Really? A Thursday afternoon!?
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by kickerofelves »

deano wrote:And… the official invitation for Sacramento has arrived.
Congrats, and best of luck
deano wrote:It's on a Thursday afternoon. Really? A Thursday afternoon!?
Mine were all weekday mornings.

-a.
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ElendilPickle
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by ElendilPickle »

deano wrote:And… the official invitation for Sacramento has arrived.

It's on a Thursday afternoon. Really? A Thursday afternoon!?
Mine was on a Tuesday morning.

Have fun and best of luck to you!
CoachP
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by CoachP »

My audition was on a Thursday morning. Since the show is taped Tu/Wed (generally), auditions aren't held those days unless the show is on hiatus. Good luck!
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deano
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by deano »

Thanks. My last audition was a Saturday afternoon in Seattle, so I figured all the road shows were like that.
I auditioned once in L.A., and that was a weekday.

I think I'm spending a lot more time here and J!Archive between now and March 7.
Cortana431
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by Cortana431 »

Are auditions in other cities like NYC generally held on weekends or weekdays?
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Re: Audition Emails

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Are auditions in other cities like NYC generally held on weekends or weekdays?
Yes.

Seriously, I think it can be either. When I was called to an audition my first-choice city, it was on a weekday. The one time I couldn't make the date in my first-choice city, I was eventually given the chance to audition in another city -- and that was on a Sunday. I don't know if that was a coincidence or if TPTB were being kind because they knew I had to travel.
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alietr
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Re: Audition Emails

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I think the Washington ones have generally been on weekends.
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by kickerofelves »

alietr wrote:I think the Washington ones have generally been on weekends.
I auditioned in DC in 2010, and that was on a Wednesday.

-a.
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by alietr »

kickerofelves wrote:
alietr wrote:I think the Washington ones have generally been on weekends.
I auditioned in DC in 2010, and that was on a Wednesday.

-a.
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by kickerofelves »

alietr wrote: I do not remember inviting you in here! Damn kids, get off my lawn!
:lol:
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gamawire
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Re: Audition Emails

Post by gamawire »

Too excited! Just got my audition email for San Antonio (too bad I don't get to travel, but it does save me some money)! March 13 - who will be joining me?
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