Online Test Recap & Discussion (Central), October 5, 2016

[bomtr]

if south dakota and leukemia aren't counted, they should be. not a very good pin for a qualifying test. if they ARE correct, i also have 44, as opposed to 46 last night, with a for real tomorrow. I dropped in Julius Caesar instead of Antony (oops), Adele and Mr. Robot, pffft, Mendelssohn. In my mental filing cabinet, I have shoved Keats, Byron, and Shelley all in the same drawer. Gonna have to do some maintenance there.

[dhkendall]

Yeah, I found this one on the whole tougher. 36 right tonight with the following wrong:

2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 20, 23, 26, 31, 32, 37, 38, 43

4. Never thought about the possible SD answer. When I drove to Kansas City for my Jeopardy! audition last summer (and still in the contestant pool from that, so this was just for fun too), we drove I-29 the entire way, from the start to finish (as it starts just a few miles from my sister's house and ends just a few miles from where we were staying in KC!). I wanted to stop in Omaha for lunch on the way back, just to say I'd been to Nebraska.

Technically, not all of the Iowa-Nebraska border is the Missouri River. Carter Lake, Iowa is now on the western side of the river and is otherwise surrounded by Omaha.

Ah, I knew there was something I should have visited in Omaha when I was there, I'm a border enthusiast and I would have loved to have visited that pene-exclave!

10. I'm assuming "Denison" would have been "close enough" for the test?

31. Just listened to this song recently! Should have known it!

32. The "maxed out" part really had me scratching my head and couldn't' get there in time. (Plus I couldn't' decide whether the other part was "steer" or "bull", two very rhymable words.)

38. Also thought it was 2/3

47. At first thought Columbia, but then remembered Brown is an ivy! Yay! (Another must-study J! thing, know your Ivies!)

I would say this test was about average for me. I really, really, really don't like the inclusion of algebra on the test. It is really hard (for me) to switch from Adele and Brown to solving for y.

Then I'm afraid J! isn't your show. They do that all the time, especially when someone is trying to institute the Forrest Bounce. As a wise boardie said to a not-so-wise one, if your future J! opponents are lurking here, they know to Forrest Bounce every chance they get if they're going to play you.

[StevenH]

This test felt way easier to me. I got a 42 on this one, after a 34 on my real one on Tuesday.

[Ultraman]

I'm a border enthusiast and I would have loved to have visited that pene-exclave!

The J! interview team would either totally dig that fact about you or shout out an instant "next!"

32. The "maxed out" part really had me scratching my head and couldn't' get there in time. (Plus I couldn't' decide whether the other part was "steer" or "bull", two very rhymable words.)

I too was confused by maxed out, so I switched focus to rhyming bull down the alphabet and fortunately F happens quickly. "Satiated male bovine" would have been better wording.

I would say this test was about average for me. I really, really, really don't like the inclusion of algebra on the test. It is really hard (for me) to switch from Adele and Brown to solving for y.

Then I'm afraid J! isn't your show. They do that all the time, especially when someone is trying to institute the Forrest Bounce. As a wise boardie said to a not-so-wise one, if your future J! opponents are lurking here, they know to Forrest Bounce every chance they get if they're going to play you.

They do hop around a lot, but for actual math questions I'd say "on occasion" rather than "all the time". The absolute worst case scenario is you would see one category of it. And even then they'd probably vary the questions and you'd likely not see five questions of solve for y. Also you have the hope your opponents aren't quick at math. And you also have the hope that any particular question might not actually be about the category.

A few particular weaknesses shouldn't be enough to dissuade anyone from trying out for the show. But, yeah, the show is what it is, so you have to accept the entirety going in.

[badgerfellow]

41 again. Couldn't think of what word/title goes in front of Robot, ended up mixing sci fi to get "I, Robot." Misread #47 to say "last alphabetically" as opposed to "first alphabetically." Despite all of that, thought this test was slightly harder, but it's likely due to the higher focus on literature, a weak point of mine, compared to yesterday's test.

[jjwaymee]

I thought this was slightly harder than the east coast test. At least for me, there weren't as many clues that elicited a reflexive answer; there were a few more that had to be puzzled out in 15 seconds. The subject matter seemed to be slanted more toward literature than Tuesday night. It also featured the return of the dreaded math question!

Amid the uncertainties about a couple of responses (Iowa, lukemia) I scored it as a 41 vs. the 43 I got on Tuesday.

[Beth5]

Lots of clues in the Archive have the show clueing Leukemia as "cancer of the bone marrow", so I am certain that is what they wanted here.

This. Myeloma has zero hits in the Archive (outside of Michael McKean's playing for the International Myeloma Foundation during the Million Dollar Celebrity Invitational). They may accept myeloma, but leukemia is undoubtedly the response they were going for.

I agree. But boy is that a poor question, considering that there's at least one other completely correct answer. And so easy to fact-check! I don't know how such a clue gets approved, even to appear here in the test if not on the show.

Hey, am I the only doofus to brain-fart "Joliet University", which doesn't even exist?

No, you are not! I couldn't dredge Marquette out of my brain, so typed Joliet in frustration.
As for myeloma, as a physician I find it hard to believe that it would not be accepted. In fact, I did my Grand Rounds on the topic many moons ago when I was a resident.

[Perv Griffin]

36 here.

I went down the wrong track trying to rhyme things with "steer" and didn't think of "full bull" until a question or two later. I almost put that as the answer for the next guess I had to take, but elected not to waste an outside shot at getting lucky...

[econgator]

Looks like I slid in under the wire with a 37.

[kerryoakie]

I didn't prep for this year's test as much as I have for others in the past, and it definitely showed. Also, I was unable to take the Eastern test (even though I'm in that time zone) and staying up past my usual bedtime to take the test didn't help... I missed the last question because I didn't think about the actual instruments clanging, but the act of clanging an instrument. I put "strike" down just to have something and now looking at the question in the light of day makes it seem so obvious

However, I did answer the pop culture questions correctly and found some new areas to study that are missing from my brain bank.

[nlw44]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it already, but it's strange that they had two "Colleges & Universities" categories, #43 and #47, in this one test.

[Elijah Baley]

41 again. Couldn't think of what word/title goes in front of Robot, ended up mixing sci fi to get "I, Robot." Misread #47 to say "last alphabetically" as opposed to "first alphabetically." Despite all of that, thought this test was slightly harder, but it's likely due to the higher focus on literature, a weak point of mine, compared to yesterday's test.

I had the same experience; know it was "something Robot" so just left it at Robot. Now had they asked about Asimov's Robots ....

Literature and classical music - two weak subjects. I see "German" and "composer" and my brain stops at Wagner.

I also hate that I knew it was Marc Antony but my fingers typed Caesar.

And 15 seconds is a long time when you type Io or 3, but a heck of a lot shorter when you're trying to come up with something like symbols/cymbals.

[Ryno]

I agree with the consensus here, I think that this one played really tough. Got 37. Should be good enough. Made a few mistakes under time pressure (Brown )

Otherwise, got some good gets in there. Quite a few of those questions would have scored in the 30%/40% range and below if they were Learned League questions without the time crunch.

[DysonSphere]

A couple of questions for the group:
- Do you expect either "rowing" or "crew" will be accepted?
- Do you expect "cymbals" or "symbols" or both will be accepted?

Assuming "yes" to these, I believe I squeaked by with a 36.

[seaborgium]

48 Tuesday, 39 on this one. Quite a swing.

[mystcmage]

It seemed a bit tougher than the last one.
I needed a good guess on Iowa and cymbals at the last second to manage another 49, only missing on "defense".
Although, I ran it through my Pavlov matcher and it matched 35, which was 3 more than the previous test.
Here's hoping I remember to take it for real tonight.

[davey]

A couple of questions for the group:
- Do you expect either "rowing" or "crew" will be accepted?
- Do you expect "cymbals" or "symbols" or both will be accepted?

Assuming "yes" to these, I believe I squeaked by with a 36.

The clue said OR, so I see no reason you'd need both.
I'm on the "much harder than yesterday" side...There were few Tues I was doubtful on, many Wed. that were shaky for me.

[zlionsfan]

This was harder than Tuesday's test for me as well; 33 if Iowa and leukemia count. I wish my brain would spend less time replaying scenes from a movie and more time actually coming up with the title! (Yes, I'm picturing Tom Hanks talking, running, etc. instead of actually being able to remember an answer. THANKS BRAIN)

[lincoln23]

41 for real yesterday, to 39 today.

I enjoyed how (for me at least) two of the questions had answers that were easy if you remembered all the lyrics to Schoolhouse Rock.

[Silverfox]

I am glad that I took the test for real on Tuesday. This one was harder for me.
And once again Pop Culture was weak for me. And two questions on colleges did seem odd to me.