Over spring break, while her friends were lounging pool-side in the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, Tufts senior Katie Winter was holed up in her Medford apartment, working on her honors thesis and watching Lifetime movies in her pajamas.
Sound awful? According to Winter, it was. But on St. Patrick's Day, the senior got an unexpected boost that came in the form of a phone call from the contestant executive at the game show 'Jeopardy!' inviting her to be one of 15 college students to participate in the show's annual college tournament. Winter's episode of the show, which was taped just days ago, will air on May 8.
Winter, an English and American studies major hoping to work in undergraduate college admissions, said that she had long harbored a secret ambition to play the game. Winter's love for the game stems from its difficulty, she said.
"I think it's the hardest trivia game show," Winter said. "I think that people respect the fact that it's difficult."
During the fall of her junior year at Tufts, Winter took the online test for the College "Jeopardy!" Tournament, which consists of 50 questions on a variety of topics. Winter never heard back from "Jeopardy!" her first time around, but she decided to give the online test a second go last fall.
Although participants do not receive their scores, Winter said that she felt that she had done better the second time.
And she had. Last December, Winter received an e-mail asking her to attend a "Jeopardy!" audition at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in Manhattan. During the audition, Winter took another 50-question test, played a mini-game with other candidates and was interviewed by contestant executives.
According to Winter, "Jeopardy!" interviews over 3,000 college students for its college tournament - and as only 15 students actually make it to the tournament, Winter had less than a 1 percent chance of being selected.
Winter said that while intellectual smarts are important to the game, contestant executives also want participants to be outgoing and personable.
After learning in March that in less than a month she would be participating in the College "Jeopardy!" Tournament, Winter had to begin to balance her studies with preparation for the game. Twice a day, Winter watched recorded episodes of "Jeopardy!" while holding a ball point pen to act as a buzzer. She also studied J! Archive, a Web site that archives games of Jeopardy and is often used by the show's contestants.
But because Winter had to finish her senior honors thesis the day before she left to film the tournament, she was forced to focus the bulk of her energy on school during the period leading up to the tournament.
In her preparation, Winter said that she thought it would be pointless to attempt to constantly study topics she thought might appear in questions.
"There's very little you can do to cram all the knowledge in your brain," Winter said. "You could study all of Shakespeare and get a question on something totally different."
Instead, Winter believes that the most important thing in preparing is to practice hitting the buzzer. According to Winter, "Jeopardy!" executives said that 90 percent of the time, two out of three contestants know the answer to the question, but if they buzz in too early or too late, they do not have the opportunity to reply.
"The key to 'Jeopardy!' is not knowing all there is to know in the universe or being the most intellectual person in the world," Winter said. "It's a game of strategy, hand-eye coordination and sheer luck."
Realizing that strategy was important, Winter decided that she would attempt to relax and simply have a good time participating.
"My key was 'grace under pressure,'" Winter said. "I just wanted to go in and have fun."
Due to contract issues, Winter was unable to divulge details about her performance on the show. Throughout the three-day filming process, the contestants were almost constantly under surveillance in order to ensure that no cheating occurred. Winter was assigned a security guard and was not even allowed to speak with other guests at the hotel because of concerns that she would run into a "Jeopardy!" writer.
"It was almost in a militaristic fashion the lengths they go to ensure fairness," Winter said. "And I respect that."
On the first day of filming, Winter and the other contestants had to sit in a locker room for hours until they were randomly called up to compete. In an effort to make sure that contestants could not study or receive information, they were not permitted to watch other games or carry iPods, cell phones or reading material.
Instead, the contestants wat-
ched movies such as "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby" (2006) that had been pre-approved by the writers.
During the time spent sequestered in the green room, Winter said that the contestants, who were mostly college sophomores or juniors, bonded.
"There was a range, but really I found that these were very bright, very extroverted individuals," Winter said. "If they went to Tufts, I'd be friends with them."
In terms of the potential the show provided her for celebrity encounters, Winter said that she had limited interaction with Alex Trebek. Describing him as a "bona fide professional," Winter said that while Trebek does not attend rehearsals, she believes he is a friendly host.
"He doesn't seem like a celebrity or a prima donna," Winter said. "I think he genuinely enjoys what he's doing. He comes across as a normal guy. He's very witty. He's also clearly a very, very intelligent person."
The first round of the college "Jeopardy!" tournament consists of five games of three people each. The five winners of these games, plus the four contestants who had the next highest scores, make it to the next round. In the final round, there are three players who participate in two games. The player with the highest total score at the end of the two games is declared a winner. Regardless, every player receives at least $5,000.
But because the players' primary goal in the first round is to make it to the next round, it is better to bet conservatively during final jeopardy, rather than risk losing it all, as many adult players do. During the first round, Winter said that contestants were not allowed to know how their peers fared so that they themselves would not know how much to bet in their own games.
While playing, Winter said that it was necessary to concentrate on questions in addition to blocking out distractions such as audience members, technical problems and a school band that was on stage - a task that required an enormous amount of mental energy, she said.
"After participating, I really felt like I had blacked out," Winter said. "It took me a few hours to figure out what the categories were and what the final question was."
Despite the conventional view that the collegiate version of "Jeopardy!" is easier than the standard show, Winter said the level of competition remained exceedingly high.
"When you're up there, and you're with three people who are the same age and people who are exposed to the same things as you, you really don't have a leg up on anyone," Winter said.
Winter said that she was pleased with her performance and with the experience in general.
"I can't believe it just happened because it went by so quickly," Winter said. "No matter the outcome, you have to enjoy every single second. I now realize how difficult and challenging the show is in ways you never even thought. It's so much more than knowing trivia."
