Roger Craig has cracked the code on Jeopardy.
The computer scientist set a record for the highest win total ever on a single show and then went on to win an entire day’s taping of episodes (five-in-a-row). He did it by writing a web application that allowed him to power study his way through an archive of thousands of Jeopardy questions and answers.
The application sorts through the thousands of Jeopardy questions and answers grouping them into subject clusters, and then ask a user trivia questions from across a variety of fields. The app also allows the user to focus on questions that could come up in each of the rounds of the popular game show.
Among the findings: high value questions are culled from academic fields like art, science, biology, and architecture, while low value questions tend to come from more popular topics like food, “firsts,” and inventions. Based on these types of weightings and his performance on random questions selected by his app, Craig was able to deduce topics he needed to study, like fashion.
“I’m glad that most people are realizing that’s it’s not really WHAT I did that’s interesting, but instead HOW I did it. I believe these methods and technology are the future of learning,” he tells Tecca.
Craig reveals his secrets below in this video:
Roger Craig – Knowledge Tracking from Steven Dean on Vimeo.
Craig says he plans to use the application for other purposes and that he intends to release a version to help others play along at home.
Hickerson, I’d be obliged if you could let us know if/when he does make this app available. 🙂 When the Doctor shows up, such random knowledge might come in handy. 🙂