Are you smart enough to be on jeopardy?

The Jeopardy! Adult Online Test, the first step toward becoming a contestant on the show, was held three times on three different days this past week, giving trivia enthusiasts across the continental U.S. plenty of chances to prove their intellectual prowess and earn the attention of their favorite game show.

If you missed it, there’s always next year, though I’d suggest you start studying now.

The test consists of 50 different clues written in the style of Jeopardy! answers which famously prompt contestants to respond in the form of a question.  Here that’s not necessary, primarily because you only have 15 seconds to read each clue, identify the answer and type your response.

The individual clues come from an impressive and almost dizzying variety of categories, including the usual suspects (literature, history, geography) but also more mainstream subjects (recent movies, car models) and, of course, the hopelessly obscure (botany, board games).

Emphasis on the obscure.  This year’s test asked you to identify such things as books by their chapter titles and author’s middle names.  It wanted you to know the only whale species in the genus Megaptera and that a philatelist is someone who collects and studies stamps.  Take, for example, this clue from a category called Lakes & Rivers:

THE ANGARA RIVER IS THE ONLY OUTLET OF THIS DEEP SIBERIAN LAKE.

The answer is Lake Baikal, a Russian rift lake located between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast.

This is not a test for the average American.

That said, not every clue is intended to leave test-takers dumbfounded and wishing they had paid more attention in high school.  If you picked up a newspaper, listened to the radio, or went to see a movie in the past year, you would have known a few answers.  If you ever looked at The Bible or SparkNotes-ed your way through Shakespeare, you would have known a few more.

And true to the spirit of Jeopardy!, some of the clues were even cutesy and fun.  Categories from this year’s test included fan favorites like Potent Potables and Rhyme Time.  In the latter, one of “Clinton’s Veep’s Duties” became a Gore Chore and a “Crimson U.S. Government Agent” was a Red Fed.

And just in case you thought good Jeopardy! contestants had to be old shut-ins with only books for friends, consider this.  Featured answers to this year’s test included Netflix, Maroon 5, the Chicago Cubs, Supergirl, Harry Styles, the 7-Eleven Slurpee and Black Lives Matter.  And then there was this clue from the category 4-Letter Words:

THIS PAST TENSE VERB IS NOW USED AS AN ADJECTIVE MEANING ALERT TO INJUSTICE.

So stay woke.

For anyone inspired to take the test next year, here’s some advice: study up on classical music!  While examining each of the three versions of this year’s test, I found that no other subject came up more.  Questions on opera, composers and instruments abound.  There were also multiple questions on anatomy, state and world capitals, poetry, government and, for some reason, islands.  Brushing up on your Civil War history would also help.