November will be a good month for the quiz kids of Blake.

Blake alumnus Casey Retterer (’03) and junior Michael Braun both taped episodes of college and high school Jeopardy!, respectively. The It’s Academic Team will tape November 20 at the NBC studios in DC with team members senior Clare Boyle, senior Gilad Barlev and Braun.

Retterer, now at University of Maryland College Park, was on the show that aired Wednesday, a preliminary round in which he lost. Says Retterer, “I was a little disappointed with my performance. I was having a lot of trouble getting in on the buzzer… It was frustrating.” However, he still has a chance to become a wild card entrant to the semifinals, and leads among the non-winners thus far.

Braun’s preliminary round match will air February 7, 2005.

Both Retterer and Braun went through an extensive testing process to make it on Jeopardy!, first signing up on the website, then going to a testing site in a designated city (Retterer in New York, Braun in Nashville) to answer basic information questions and to take a 50 question test. The passing score is 35.

The prospective contestants are then pitted against each other in groups of three where they compete, answering about 20 questions. Producers then ask the potential contestants about themselves, and promise to notify the people they choose within a month before the taping is scheduled.

After being notified, the contestants are flown to the studios to tape. Braun taped in Culver City, California and Retterer in Pittsburgh.

Being on the show is “surreal,” Retterer says. When he was there, all he could think was, “I can’t believe I’m actually on the set of Jeopardy!”

Braun says he was “very nervous going in, but the rounds went by fast. All my preliminary games seemed like buzzing, then drinking water during the commercial.”

Every contestant on the “Teen Tournament” show receives $2,500 and a laptop. The ultimate winner receives $75,000. Every contestant on the College version receives at least $5,000 and the winner gets a check for $100,000.

The It’s Academic team has had tournaments every weekend in October, placing first in the University of Maryland tournament, and fourth in the Thomas Jefferson tournament.