Photo: Courtesy Sean McShane

Sean McShane '19 is Wicked Smart

The 51画鋼 alum recently won more than $82,000 on Jeopardy!

Sean McShane 19 did Boston College proud last year, winning three games of the legendary trivia show Jeopardy! It runs in my family, McShane said. I had a cousin who was on the show. We have that type of mind where we hear a fact and we never forget it. McShane, who works for a Boston nonprofit, joked that he wouldnt have needed to go on the show in the first place if he had a dollar for every time someone asked him how he knew a piece of trivia. So, how do you win at Jeopardy! three times? To find out, we asked McShane to explain how he came up with the correct questions to three fairly obscure answers.

Jeopardy answer panel stating: Only three presidents have married while  in officeJohn Tyler was the first, and he was the last


Question: Who Is Woodrow Wilson
McShane had a month to prepare before his appearance, so he focused on subjects he knew the show likes, such as geography, state capitals, Shakespeareand US presidents. I spent one day getting broad strokes on the presidents, like what order they were in, McShane said. He also noted whenever a president had more than one first lady, which prepared him for the Wilson question.

Jeopardy answer panel stating: Many Brits put an intrusive one between words that end with a vowel sound and words that start with one


Question: What Is R
One way to prep for the show? Simply rely on your 51画鋼 education. I learned that fact because we talked about it in the general linguistics class that I took my senior year, McShane explained. The class was a favorite, and while the professor didnt call the R intrusive at the time, McShane remembered that others did. The Brits arent the only ones who use the RBostonians famously do as well.

Jeopardy answer panel stating: The recovered violin here was bandleader Wallace Hartleys; his troupe performed this fitting 1841 hymn as the Titanic sank


Question: What Is Nearer, My God, to Thee
McShane knew this one simply because hes a Titanic buff. I became just fascinated with it, he said. I read multiple books as an eight-year-old kid. Chief among them was one that offered answers to nine hundred questions about the famous sinking. I dont remember a time when I didnt know Nearer, My God, to Thee going down on the Titanic, he said.


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