<p>Yes, I did this reguarly when playing Jeopardy. Even if you haven’t come up with the answer yet, you can sort of mentally “feel” like you know it and will be able to remember it in time, you take a chance and jump in with the buzzer. Sometimes you make it and sometimes you don’t.</p>
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<p>You just have to keep experimenting and adjusting your timing until you get in sync with the engineer who is activating the buttons. Sometimes it’s a struggle. I got killed in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005 because I never got the timing right - didn’t manage to ring in very often and finished a dismal 3rd place in my game. At least I did get one of the DDs and I got FJ right too.</p>
<p>Jeopardy players swear that the button timing sometimes changes between games, particularly between the Wednesday and Thursday games (which corresponds to the lunch break on a taping day), presumably because they have changed engineers in the control booth.</p>
<p>So the time at which it is ok to “buzz in” is right after the person finishes reading the answer, or can you buzz in at any time while the answer is being read if you already have that “mental feel”?</p>
<p>The buttons are enabled as soon as the Alex finishes reading the clue. that’s when you jump in. If you jump in too soon your button will be disabled for 1/2 second - which is a long time in the Jeopardy quick draw contest.</p>
<p>Good luck, Rachacha! The audition was 2 parts - another written test (they flashed the question up on a screen and you had a short time to write down your answer) and then they called people up by 3’s for a short mock game/ brief interview. You don’t have to worry too much about your timing for the mock game, it was just someone looking at the three lights and there was no lock-out feature.</p>
<p>Good luck, Rachacha. mamabear is right…don’t worry about buzzer timing for the audition. What’s more important is to study for the written test (the almanac was helpful for that part) since you only have about 8 seconds per question & once they move on to the next question you won’t see any of the previous ones. If you don’t do well enough on the written part you won’t be around for the mock game/interview, so be sure you’re ready for the written test.</p>