WWTBAM Bored

Here with my friend Tiffany and her lovely mom, Kate and including them; there are three people taking the test right now. Auditions go for another hour but it looked like about 7 or 8 were in the last group and no one passed the test from what I (think I) overheard. Good luck to all trying out this year at TCONA!

xoxo
Danny

I attended the tapings Thursday and only one person passed the audition test.

At tapings it is normal for only a few people to pass, usually fewer than 5.

I was at a taping and was the only one who passed.

This is true...It's been mentioned in the past they've had "double-skunk" days where no one passed the audition test.

This just in...it's HARD!

Can anyone who's taken it previous years tell us if its really substantially harder this year?

They usually want to cast a pretty wide net, so they can cherry-pick the passers.

Just for the record, I've only flunked a couple of times (Baltimore & one of many Bostons!) & have never been a lone passer.

My chances went up from 0 if few are passing the test...

I know I got one wrong, I had two lucky guesses. It is not an easy test. I watched this season on fast forward and did not see any of my questions, but a fellow test taker recognized one of the questions from the show.

As a you're a taker of previous tests I'll take your word.

Anyone know if it was this hard earlier in the year?

ghostjmf wrote:Can anyone who's taken it previous years tell us if its really substantially harder this year?

They usually want to cast a pretty wide net, so they can cherry-pick the passers.

Just for the record, I've only flunked a couple of times (Baltimore & one of many Bostons!) & have never been a lone passer.

they don't cherry pick who passes, at the time someone passes, they have no idea who you are in a room full of people, nor do they care at that point. they only cherry pick people to move forward in the process once the test is passed.

While I can't speak for the test being used this year, in past years, they simply took questions from the previous season for the test the next season.

From all the times I've gone, I can tell you with extreme confidence that 23/30 is passing.

triviawayne:

The passers pass. The show does not know who will pass. But if its a small enough group of test-takers they've been interacting with, they already have their favorites.

When they have the passers, they cherry-pick their favorites out of them. If none of their favs pass, they develop new favs based on their idea of who will look/act good on television. This explains why of equally well-groomed people of the same age & in most cases same color, some get the video interview & some don't.

It occurs to me they may have cooked up an extremely hard test expecting TCONA test-takers. I'd expect most TCONA people passed the test last year, & maybe the show is trying to cut down on interviewees, as they're obliged to interview all passers (even its to say "there's the door", which has happenned to me).

ghostjmf wrote:It occurs to me they may have cooked up an extremely hard test expecting TCONA test-takers. I'd expect most TCONA people passed the test last year, & maybe the show is trying to cut down on interviewees, as they're obliged to interview all passers (even its to say "there's the door", which has happened to me).

The fact that they're auditioning at TCONA, and the hard test, gives me hope that there will be some smart contestants this season. An easy test gives the producers more leeway to pick contestants based on personality.

From what's been posted here, it seems they're using a two-tiered approach: in-person auditions with a hard written test, and video auditions with an easier Skype test, if they like your video. That gives them a mixture of trivia experts and players who look good on TV.

I will be in Vegas for TCONA.......but also to be a +1 for a contestant taping this Wednesday-Thursday. He is from Lowell, MA. He took a Skype test last year and was at a taping about three weeks ago and passed the test. The call came about a week after that.

I didn’t pass the skype test, so it was harder for me. Since someone else from the audience got in already, perhaps I am mistaken about them not having a thorough interview.

Ulysses;:

Well, good luck to you both in advance.

When your contestant took the test 3 weeks ago, did they remember his Skype or did they give him a new video interview?

And just for the record, none of the too-many tests I've passed to date were what I would call easy. Its just that the reports of this current run of tests, gearing up for TCONA contestants, have been "superhard".

When I taped 2 weeks ago, only 5 people passed in the 2 sessions. One was my +1, another was her husband. I guess I have smarter than average friends.

ghostjmf wrote:And just for the record, none of the too-many tests I've passed to date were what I would call easy. Its just that the reports of this current run of tests, gearing up for TCONA contestants, have been "superhard".

you really have a very weird world all inside your head

really, if they were making a test hard because of TCONA, which they didn't even agree to come to until just this past week, why wouldn't they only give the hard test during the days leading up to and including at TCONA instead of all season long.

c'mon, get real.

triviawayne:

Reports of tough tests only started recently.

The show probably thinks TCONA people show up days early to "enjoy Las Vegas".

I don't mean to imply that the test is not passable. I am one of the weakest players at TCONA, I am in the fourth level of LearnedLeague (first is the highest performers). If I can pass the past, the whole TCONA room pretty much will pass it. And I did not recognize any of the questions from the show (I am sure they are from the show, but I don't watch the show as religiously as I once did). Last season some top trivia players were picked for the show, they are not afraid to pick them. If they don't like how you come across to them when they talk to you or whatever, they are not going to pick you. I don't think it has to do with your test score. They want contestants to do somewhat well, otherwise the show would become unwatchable if contestant after contestant was only winning $5,000.

ghostjmf wrote:triviawayne:

Reports of tough tests only started recently.

The show probably thinks TCONA people show up days early to "enjoy Las Vegas".

none are out there anywhere near as soon as these "reports" started coming in; and if a test is "tough" or not is completely subjective. If their objective was really to make it hard for TCONAians to get on the show, they don't have to tweak the test at all, they would just not put them in the contestant pool.

Use some friggin sense for once, will ya

triviawayne wrote:

ghostjmf wrote:And just for the record, none of the too-many tests I've passed to date were what I would call easy. Its just that the reports of this current run of tests, gearing up for TCONA contestants, have been "superhard".

you really have a very weird world all inside your head

You have no idea...

triviawayne:

BAM has to do some earlier runs with their harder tests. And I'd guess they really do think people travel to Vegas for *weeks* of gambling. Maybe some people do.

As I said before, at least in previous years they've felt obliged to interview all passers, evern if its a "hello/goodbye" interview.

Making the test harder obliges them not to have to interview whole roomsful of TCONAians. They think. They do want *some*, or they wouldn't still be interviewing people who didn't attend a taping.

My guess is that this move will backfire & no matter how hard they make it, they'll be left with a room full of TCONAians to interview during TCONA's week.

They've probably made it tough enough to cut me out, but not people who are so into trivia they go to TCONA.

goongas:

The show *has* become almost unwatchable for exactly the reason you cite: People leaving with 5K. Not all people who don't know trivia, but all people who have no confidence in what they do know, who bring +1s who are useless for trivia, & sometimes people who don't know when to quit, quite literally.

ghostjmf wrote:goongas:

The show *has* become almost unwatchable for exactly the reason you cite: People leaving with 5K. Not all people who don't know trivia, but all people who have no confidence in what they do know, who bring +1s who are useless for trivia, & sometimes people who don't know when to quit, quite literally.

I agree with you. But when they are giving some people two days notice to tape, it isn't necessarily easy to arrange the best +1.

goongas:

I agree that short notice really hurts +1 availability.

One of the recent (last year?) Boston tests had some very strong language on it re "tell us who your +1 will be, & it better be a friend". Which is silly, because if you're able to get a trivia expert to fly out on your schedule you're *going* to say they're your friend.