WWTBAM Bored

Hi folks! I'll be taping soon (finally!)

I watched the first few seasons of WWTBAM as well as the last couple and just wanted to make sure I didn't have any gaping holes in my knowledge. Is there anything that gets asked about far more than it seems it should? I've been brushing up on Greek/Latin roots because it seems like there's one of those every couple episodes but I haven't noticed any other trends. I know other quiz shows tend to really like presidents or world capitals and that WWTBAM is more pop culture-y (which will surely be my downfall, just trying to be as prepared as possible).

kaw92 wrote:Hi folks! I'll be taping soon (finally!)

I watched the first few seasons of WWTBAM as well as the last couple and just wanted to make sure I didn't have any gaping holes in my knowledge. Is there anything that gets asked about far more than it seems it should? I've been brushing up on Greek/Latin roots because it seems like there's one of those every couple episodes but I haven't noticed any other trends. I know other quiz shows tend to really like presidents or world capitals and that WWTBAM is more pop culture-y (which will surely be my downfall, just trying to be as prepared as possible).

Congratulations! I don't recall having you on the Audition List so if you'll provide your particulars (audition date, confirmation that you received a video interview, and taping date) I'll be happy to add you.

I think your best resource is probably the transcript threads, which all can be found in a separate subforum of this Bored. Good luck! --Bob

Congrats, and best of luck!

IMHO reviewing transcripts is a great way to prepare. It gives you an idea of what topics the writers like to use, at various levels. Also pay attention to the way the questions are written. Most of them contain excess verbiage that's no help, but some have hidden clues. And think about when to use lifelines. So many times, a player eliminates one or two answers, and then is surprised when 50/50 removes the same ones. Similarly, study what kinds of questions the audience has a good grip on.

Decide your goals beforehand. To win the really big money, you'll have to take chances, so think about how much you're prepared to risk.

Have fun!

Please remember that the 50/50 is not random. They'll explain this to you when they prep you, but so many contestants forget. The show leaves up the right answer, of course, but also leaves what they think is the best distractor.

At one point the show went over to a random choice of the 3 wrong answers, but currently are back to "best distractor".

Studying Latin roots will always help immensely in a trivia game

Anyone have good links to online Latin/Greek roots to study?

triviawayne wrote:Studying Latin roots will always help immensely in a trivia game

Not necessarily
Sometimes too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It cost me $93,000.

It's hard to jam more in your head at this point, but I would be brushing up on pop culture. The questions for your show are probably being written about as we speak, so stay current on blockbuster movies, hit songs, TV shows and general internet nonsense and gossip.

Peruse People and Entertainment Weekly for the next few weeks. It may save you from having to blow an ATA lifeline.

earendel wrote:

triviawayne wrote:Studying Latin roots will always help immensely in a trivia game

Not necessarily
Sometimes too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It cost me $93,000.

not having that cost me two lifelines...

triviawayne wrote:

earendel wrote:

triviawayne wrote:Studying Latin roots will always help immensely in a trivia game

Not necessarily
Sometimes too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It cost me $93,000.

not having that cost me two lifelines...

I'll trade you.

earendel wrote:

triviawayne wrote:

earendel wrote: Not necessarily
Sometimes too much knowledge can be a dangerous thing. It cost me $93,000.

not having that cost me two lifelines...

I'll trade you.

You'll trade your $32K for Wayne's $5K? What a deal!

A rough comparative knowledge of the geography of the world.

How many miles is it across the USA? Across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe? Around the Equator? Across a time zone? Across a degree of longitude?

themanwho wrote:A rough comparative knowledge of the geography of the world.

How many miles is it across the USA? Across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe? Around the Equator? Across a time zone? Across a degree of longitude?

oh, this is good. i noticed that there have been a good number of questions boiling down to "Which of these countries/cities/etc is north/south of the equator", i'll take a look at that as well

themanwho wrote:A rough comparative knowledge of the geography of the world.

How many miles is it across the USA? Across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe? Around the Equator? Across a time zone? Across a degree of longitude?

That last question depends on your latitude. But a degree of latitude is more or less constant, roughly 67 miles or so. --Bob

bazodee wrote:It's hard to jam more in your head at this point, but I would be brushing up on pop culture. The questions for your show are probably being written about as we speak, so stay current on blockbuster movies, hit songs, TV shows and general internet nonsense and gossip.

Peruse People and Entertainment Weekly for the next few weeks. It may save you from having to blow an ATA lifeline.

I'd also look over the TV schedules for the late night shows. If you are unfamiliar with the names of actors or musical artists, look them up to see what their current projects are.

Estonut wrote:

bazodee wrote:It's hard to jam more in your head at this point, but I would be brushing up on pop culture. The questions for your show are probably being written about as we speak, so stay current on blockbuster movies, hit songs, TV shows and general internet nonsense and gossip.

Peruse People and Entertainment Weekly for the next few weeks. It may save you from having to blow an ATA lifeline.

I'd also look over the TV schedules for the late night shows. If you are unfamiliar with the names of actors or musical artists, look them up to see what their current projects are.

Don't just look up actors and their roles and their relationships to each other. Look up occupations of the characters. That cost me my ATA.

I am of the opinion (with absolutely no supporting evidence) that the third-tier questions are all written in batches, and are intended to be a little more academic-historical-literary, as opposed to hinging on pop culture. Presumably, since most contestants aren't expected to make it that far, they can write a bunch of those, and then break them out as needed; however, they need to be a bit more "timeless". You understand what I mean, I hope?

To prep yourself for that kind of thing, I highly endorse the "Futility Closet" blog, which is chock-full of historical and literary anecdotes.

https://www.futilitycloset.com/

Hit up the Trivia, Language, History, and Literature keywords in the sidebar, and have yourself some good reading.

TheConfessor wrote:

earendel wrote:

triviawayne wrote:
not having that cost me two lifelines...

I'll trade you.

You'll trade your $32K for Wayne's $5K? What a deal!

I'd rather have the two lifelines back, use +1 on the question I bowed out on, and still have 50/50 to get through the $50K or above

...uh...how sure were you on that tattoo question?

kaw92 wrote:Hi folks! I'll be taping soon (finally!)

I watched the first few seasons of WWTBAM as well as the last couple and just wanted to make sure I didn't have any gaping holes in my knowledge. Is there anything that gets asked about far more than it seems it should? I've been brushing up on Greek/Latin roots because it seems like there's one of those every couple episodes but I haven't noticed any other trends. I know other quiz shows tend to really like presidents or world capitals and that WWTBAM is more pop culture-y (which will surely be my downfall, just trying to be as prepared as possible).

A few random things you should know that randomly come up from time to time:

Chemical elements & their symbols
The colors of billiard balls
The military phonetic alphabet
Years and locations of the Olympics