Vassar freshman is Jeopardy! semi-finalist

This Wednesday, Vassar students crowded UpCDC to catch one of our very own compete in the Jeopardy! 2009 College Championship. Greg Lichtenstein ’12 competed against a junior from St. John’s College and a senior from Emory University, coming out on top of the Final Jeopardy! round with a $10,000 prize as a semi-finalist.

 

An 18-year-old from Plainview, N.Y., Lichtenstein is a prospective history major and has been interested in trivia from a young age.

 

“It was always really easy for me to memorize facts. I had a United States puzzle with the capitals on it and a placemat with all the presidents on it, and by the time I was about five I knew all the presidents in order and all of the US capitals, so I guess trivia just came pretty naturally to me,” Lichtenstein explained.

 

His experience with Jeopardy started in September, when all potential contestants took an online test of 50 questions. According to Lichtenstein, everyone got a few seconds to answer each question, and about 400 people got called back for a live audition in November depending on their test scores. There, contests had to take another 50-question written test, after which they played a mock game and were interviewed briefly, “To make sure that we had personalities of some kind, I suppose,” he said. He received notification that he had been chosen over Spring Break.

 

Students watched anxiously as the show proceeded. Lichtenstein seemed to be lagging behind by the end of the Jeopardy round, with only $ 3,400. “The question about the fruit-flavored lollipop with a worm in it was a little embarrassing. Clearly apple; I said lime... I was thinking of tequila!” joked Lichtenstein.

 

However, the Double Jeopardy round turned his luck around. He answered 12 out of 30 Double Jeopardy questions correctly.

 

“He has really picked up his pace and some of the answers he is giving are so impressive,” said Eliane Schutze ’12.

 

Lichtenstein answered four out of five questions in the “Bodies of Water” category, two in the “Indie Rock” category, one in the “Whee! It’s 1893” category, three in the “Comparative Lit” category and two in the “Colleges in Other Words” category, also scoring two Daily Doubles.

 

The most nerve-wracking moment for Lichtenstein was, understandably, wagering for Final Jeopardy in the first game. Lichtenstein explained, “There were four wild cards that came out of the quarter finals, and so I wanted to make sure that even if I didn't get the question that I still got to be a semi-finalist, but at the same time I obviously wanted to win the game.”

 

Lichtenstein didn’t do too much to prepare for the show. He found a website with archived questions and answers from over 3,000 episodes, which he studied for a short while. “There is some strategy with Daily Doubles and Final Jeopardy, but in actual gameplay you just need to be quick on the buzzer and know answers,” he noted.

 

Lichtenstein will be competing for $ 100,000 in the finals next week.