How to Win Jeopardy

Study some of the most popular categories:

WORLD GEOGRAPHY

LITERATURE

ANIMALS

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY

HISTORY

DRILL DOWN WITHIN THEM

River-related categories spring up more than ones about mountains.

English literature is on the board about 360% more than French literature is.

You’re far more likely to be asked about puppies than kittens.

Computer categories are about twice as popular as aviation ones.

Ancient history is more frequent than medieval history.

… AND GET REALLY SPECIFIC

Which river to study? Euphrates over Tigris; Thames over Seine.

They said yes to Mr. Darcy too. Pride and Prejudice is more popular than Great Expectations.

In the battle of the breeds, poodles just barely beat bulldogs.

Bill Gates is more frequently the answer to a question than Steve Jobs is.

To wrap it up, remember that mummies are mentioned more than togas.

THIS OR THAT?

Among correct answers, the yellow words show up more often

[This article contains a table. Please see hardcopy of magazine or PDF.]

Pizza Hamburger Gravity Evolution Beer Whiskey Surfing Sailing Bagel Doughnut Harvard Yale Memorial Day Labor Day The Simpsons Seinfeld Elvis The Beatles HTML C++

(tie)

$18,000

(Answer: What’s the most anybody’s ever won on a single Daily Double?)

CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVES DON’T WASTE TIME ON TOPICS THAT AREN’T AS POPULAR AS THEY ONCE WERE (SORRY, OPERA FANS)

[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]

0.125%

0.1

0.075

0.05

0.025

0

+TV

+BALLET

+OPERA

Track the changing frequency of more of your favorite Jeopardy! words at time.com/jgrams

1985

1990

1995

2000

2005

2010

COMPARATIVE FREQUENCIES AND DAILY DOUBLE DATA FROM A J!-ARCHIVE-SOURCED SET OF 216,000+ JEOPARDY! QUESTIONS; TIMELINE FROM JGRAMS.COM