Emma Stone is a decorated and talented actress, having already cemented herself among the Hollywood elite with Oscar-worthy performances in the projects that she undertakes. She has also recently turned her sites to the role of producer, and Time magazine named her among the top 100 most influential people in 2017. As though these accomplishments aren’t enough, Stone has also made clear that she is after a more cerebral accolade as well.
During an appearance on the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast in January 2024, Stone revealed that she is an avid fan of the competition quiz series Jeopardy!, and that she applies to be on the show each year in June. Before even being asked, she was sure to remark that she would not be satisfied with an appearance on Celebrity Jeopardy!, wanting to “earn [her] stripes” on the original series. On the Live With Kelly and Mark show, series host Ken Jennings remarked that Stone would have to go through the same casting process as other contestants if she wanted to compete on the regular series, noting they would love to have her while also observing, “I mean, that’s a hard show.”
With all this talk about the difficulty of the series, I’m reminded of moments in the family room watching the series as a bookish child, aspiring to one day be on the show. The discussion of Stone’s interest in competing on the series revived a curiosity held since childhood: how difficult is the Jeopardy! application process? I have a 4-year degree with a major in English Literature, and a Masters in the same subject. There are frequently topics on the quiz show I would feel confident tackling, and others I would shy away from – but everyone has their weaknesses. I know that as a Canadian, my American History game will be off, and the same goes for topics in the sciences. With no real intention of earning an invitation to join, here is what I learned by applying to the legendary quiz series to finally answer the question: just how hard is the Jeopardy! Anytime Test?
I Definitely Recommend the ‘Jeopardy!’ Practice Test
If I were truly hopeful of landing a spot on the series, I would be brushing up on U.S. History and Geography before attempting the Anytime Test, that’s for sure. But since this application is mostly to satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to simply take the test with significantly less preparation than I would normally dedicate to the task. Stone admits to making the attempt each year, which gave me the confidence to try as well, without worrying about the results.
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With that said, I definitely recommend playing around with the handy practice test generator that the quiz show site offers. The most challenging part of the practice tests prepares you for the experience of having to think of answers and respond quickly on your feet. In the competition series, you need to be able to read/process the clue, buzz in, and have the right answer on the tip-of-your-tongue. The practice quiz is similar, but a marked difference is that you need to be able to type your response to the quiz clue within 15 seconds of it appearing on your screen. It is a quick crash course on the testing conditions for the main event, the biggest difference being fewer questions, with the practice quiz featuring 30 questions and the Anytime Test comprised of 50.
The Anytime Test Was a Real Test of Knowledge
The first thing you learn with the Anytime Test is that you can only submit the test one time (but we already knew that, if Emma Stone is to be believed). The second important piece of information is that partial responses and misspellings could still count in your favor. And there is also a helpful reminder to add the Jeopardy! email to your contact list, so that your invitation doesn’t get lost in your Junk folder if you are lucky enough to earn an audition.
Overall, the Anytime Test was about as difficult as you would expect. Some questions the answer seemed obvious, others I knew the correct response but spaced in the 15 seconds, and still others I would never have been able to answer without logging some serious study hours. The best benefit of the practice test is that you get to look over the questions and the correct responses, whereas with the Anytime Test the results are whisked off to the Jeopardy! casting pool, whether you are prepared for it or not. There were more pop-culture leaning questions than I was originally expecting, although guessing the correct breakfast cereal name based on its cartoon representative was a poor consolation prize for being left puzzled about other questions in more difficult categories. The knowledge that the answers to some of the tougher questions will probably always be beyond me now stings less, however, knowing that the casting producers will see that I blanked on the question about which actress played a well-known childhood movie character.
Jeopardy! episodes air Monday to Friday on broadcast TV.
