Here’s How to Win ‘Jeopardy’ According to Past Winners

Amanda Edwards’ photo for Getty Images

Risk! have had quite a year. Amidst Alex Trebek’s Death, Mike Richards’ Controversy and contestant Amy Schneider Being the first woman to win over $1 million, there’s a lot going on.

But what brings people back day after day is the incredibly solid foundation of a fun quiz game. Sitting at home is one thing, but winning in the studio with the lights on in your face is an entirely different experience. That’s why it’s so impressive when people really do well on the show.

The New York Post recently compiled some of the past winners to find out what it really takes to be successful on the show. In a word, it takes the right combination of preparation, intelligence, and guts. Just being smart is not enough.

Austin Rogers, who has won 12 times and is close to $400k, says there are things to look out for.

“If anything has been on TV for 35 years, it’s going to have a lot of trends,” he said.

Rogers studied 11 hours a day for two weeks before appearing on the show. He used a fan-operated database called J! Storage, has a total of 48,000 clues dating back to 1985.

“I will open random games [on the archive site] and play them in my head. I notice what shows up the most. If a question says “artist in Iowa,” it has to be Grant Wood,” said Rogers. “And if it says ‘Thornton Wilder,'” the correct answer should always be, “Our town.”

He says the last one is something he learned the hard way.

“By some way [Thornton Wilder] is ‘Final Jeopardy!’ the only answer is I was wrong,” Rogers said. “But luckily I did well enough throughout the game that I still won.”

Another trend is related to painting, according to Rogers’ research on archives.

“It tells you that if ‘Cubism’ comes up, the answer is almost always ‘Picasso.'”

TV editor Jeffrey Williams said he took the advice of $2 million winner James Holzhauer.

“I got tips from Holzhauer and bought children’s books about world history, geography and presidents,” says Williams. “Holzhauer has correctly shown that if you understand how the clues are written, children’s level of understanding of the topics will provide signs large enough to get you on the football field. of an answer.”

The show also enjoys highlighting pop culture, so Rogers says he’ll do research on that, too.

“I have watched movies adapted from popular works that often pop Risk!: King Lear, Sensation and sensitivity, Biblical Documentary,” said Rogers. He added that memorizing superlatives like the highest mountains and state capitals would help a lot.

“There is no reason for a Risk! candidates don’t know those answers,” he said. “They are easily memorized with mnemonic skills or songs.”

For example: Robers learned the catchphrase “Geologist can find ore quickly through accurate data” to memorize the hardness scale of Moh minerals: Talc, Gypsum, Calcite, Fluorite, Apatite, Orthoclase, Quartz, Topaz, Corundum and Diamond.

Other tricks involve more reflexes than memory. Williams read a book called Buzzer’s Secret and learned that he needed to relax his arm “to increase his speed to hit the whistle.”

He also said “buzz while the host said the last syllable.”