Photo: Courtesy of Sean McShane
Sean McShane '19 is Wicked SmartĀ
The Ļć½¶Šć alum recently won more than $82,000 on Jeopardy!
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Sean McShane ā19 did Boston College proud last year, winning three games of the legendary trivia show Jeopardy! āIt runs in my family,ā McShane said. āI had a cousin who was on the show. We have that type of mind where we hear a fact and we never forget it.ā McShane, who works for a Boston nonprofit, joked that he wouldnāt 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 āquestionsā to three fairly obscure āanswers.ā 
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, Shakespeareāand US presidents. āI spent one day getting broad strokes on the presidents, like what order they were in,ā McShane said. He also noted whenever a president had more than one first lady, which prepared him for the Wilson question.
Question: What Is āRā
One way to prep for the show? Simply rely on your Ļć½¶Šć education. āI learned that fact because we talked about it in the general linguistics class that I took my senior year,ā McShane explained. The class was a favorite, and while the professor didnāt call the R āintrusiveā at the time, McShane remembered that others did. The Brits arenāt the only ones who use the RāBostonians famously do as well.
Question: What Is āNearer, My God, to Theeā
McShane knew this one simply because heās a Titanic buff. āI became just fascinated with it,ā he said. āI read multiple books as an eight-year-old kid.ā Chief among them was one that offered answers to nine hundred questions about the famous sinking. āI donāt remember a time when I didnāt know āNearer, My God, to Theeā going down on the Titanic,ā he said.