East Islip Teacher Competes On 'Jeopardy!'

EAST ISLIP, NY — An East Islip High School teacher put her trivia knowledge to the test on national television earlier this month.

Patsy Lester, a social studies teacher and mock trial team coach, was a contestant on the Jan. 7 episode of game show "Jeopardy!"

Lester won $2,000 and came in second place. She lost to super-champion Amy Schneider, who at the time had 28 wins and had earned over $1 million. (As of Monday, Schneider's winning streak had hit 34 games, and she has won $2.4 million, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.)

Lester's first step to getting on Jeopardy was during the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, when she took the online contestant test for fun.

She was told she had a qualifying score, and over the next year took more tests, was interviewed and played a practice game — all via Zoom. In August 2021, the show called, asking her to fly to Los Angeles to appear as a contestant.

"I thought it was a prank call at first," Lester said."I've always been a 'Jeopardy!' fan but never expected to actually get on the show."

Lester's episode was the last to film on the day she participated, and she said she was getting nervous after watching Schneider "plow through eight other contestants in four shows" before taking the stage.

And the hardest part of being a contestant, according to Lester? The buzzer timing.

"When the host reads the clue, a person on set enables the signaling devices and big lights flash to let the contestants know they can ring in," she said. "If you hit the buzzer too soon, you get locked out and can't ring in."

Lester said her time on "Jeopardy!" gave her skills that she'll use back in the East Islip classroom and in her work as mock trial team coach.

"I now have firsthand experience of what it's like to be under pressure and have my mind go blank on a fact I know," Lester said. "I've always been sympathetic to test anxiety, but now I really know what it's like."

This article originally appeared on the East Islip Patch