Thursday, January 28, 2010

A New Life's Resolution - Day #25 (Intellectual)

If you're just joining us, check out the explanation of my "New Life Resolution"

Day #25 - Intellectual

According to www.definitionofwellness.com, "The intellectual dimension of wellness encourages creative, stimulating mental activities. An intellectually well person uses the resources available to expand one's knowledge in improved skills along with expanding potential for sharing with others. An intellectually well person uses the intellectual and cultural activities in the classroom and beyond the classroom combined with the human resources and learning resources available within the university community and the larger community."

#34 on my list is complete!  And it took less than 10 minutes.  Can you believe it?

On Monday, as Rachael and I worked our butts off on the elliptical machines at the gym and watched Jeopardy!, Alex announced that they were conducting the online test to be a contestant this week.  I thought, HOLY COW!  Wooohooo!  First, it's on my list and second, it works perfectly with today's Intellectual dimension of wellness.  I mean, really.  What's a better judge of your breadth and width of knowledge and intellect than a rousing game of Jeopardy!?

So, after missing the eastern and central time zone tests on Tuesday and Wednesday (DOH!), I signed up to take the test tonight at 8 PM Pacific time.  Ugh.  That's 11 PM my time.  I swear I really would like to get to bed at a decent time one of these days.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Jeopardy contestant test process, here it is.  You sign up online with a unique username and password.  (If more than one person in your family wants to take it, you have to use separate computers.)  There were three tests given this time (3 different time zones).  You may only take it once per round of tests.  If you try to take it more than once, you will be disqualified.  30 minutes before the scheduled start time, you are to log in.  At that point, the screen shows a countdown clock.  When the clock runs down, the test starts.  BOOM!  There's no button to press to make it start.  There's no prompt to begin.  The first answer just pops up.  (My palms were sweating as I watched the clock count down!  GULP!)

The test consists of 50 "answers".  You have to type in the response.  (This is not a multiple guess test!)  Since you are given just 15 seconds to read the question and type your response, you don't have to phrase it in the form of a question.  (Thank goodness!)  While spelling doesn't count, you are encouraged to at least try to spell it right.  You may time your answer and press enter (or click Submit, but that takes too long!) or you may simply skip a question if you don't know it.  There are no penalties for wrong answers and you can't go back if you skip one.  The "answers" were from a wide range of subjects, so I think either you know the stuff or you don't.  I think life itself is the only study manual for Jeopardy!

It took me less than 10 minutes to take the test and I don't know how I did.  Fortunately or not, I won't know.  Unless Jeopardy! contacts me to come for an in-person interview, I will never know if I did well enough to be on the show.

The questions weren't nearly as hard as I thought they were and there were a few that I know I got right for sure.  There are also a few that I had no idea about and I couldn't even venture a guess.  (I'm sure Alex himself will be calling my any day!)

The good thing about my 101 in 1001 list is that it's not about the result.  It's about the journey and the adventure.  Whether I did well or failed miserably, this was great fun and I highly recommend it!

You'll be the first to know when Alex calls.  I promise!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good for you!! Visiting over from SITS.
I love the idea of your list and some of your things listed sound so much fun! Good luck :)

Linda said...

I had no idea you could test for Jeopardy. Not that I could!
A SITS friend

joanyspot said...

OK. I'm thinking we were separated at birth or something. I too am a Jeopardy freak and would have jumped at the chance to have taken the test!I hope you get a call from Alex soon!

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin