Jeopardy!: How Do Contestants Study?

Anyone who has watched Jeopardy! long enough could tell you that some answers occur more frequently than others. For instance, something I’ve noticed that I’ll now share with the class is that when Jeopardy! asks a question about a Roman Emperor, the answer is “Nero” more often than not. In fact, Nero made an appearance as an answer recently in the Dec. 6 episode where Jeopardy! superchamp Cris Pannullo was unseated.

If viewers on their couch like me can pick up on a Jeopardy! answer trend, then so can the experts who try out for the show. When Jeopardy! GOAT contestant Brad Rutter spoke to Den of Geek about his game show experience, he mentioned that wise contestants know there are certain topics that are more likely to come up than others.

“They can conceivably ask you about anything, but you know that presidents are going to come up a lot, Shakespeare is going to come up a lot, world capitals are going to come up a lot. So I generally try to stay in shape with that type of stuff,” Rutter said.

Presidents, Shakespeare, and world capitals do indeed come up quite a bit. According to the site Trivia Bliss, Jeopardy! has many other topics it likes to repeat as well. These include: American History, Word Origins, Sports, 4-Letter Words, and several more.

With that knowledge in mind, studying for Jeopardy! becomes a much less intimidating proposition. Preparing doesn’t mean studying for every possible subject in the world but rather identifying some common topics, discerning which ones are your personal weaknesses, and then fine-tuning those.

In an interview with Vulture, Jeopardy! superchamp Matt Amodio revealed that he prepared for the show using this strategy. He knew that his strengths lied in categories like history, geography, literature, and classical music but that his weaknesses included modern pop culture. So he prepped accordingly.