Thanks for posting this. I tried out for Jeopardy two years ago and made it to the final list of show candidates - but I never got a call. My guess is that I didn't put enough "interesting tidbits" about my life on the Contestant Information Card.
The "How to win on the buzzer" information is 100% correct - it's all in the timing. If you buzz in just as the question is finished being read, you'll be too early and get locked out for a bit... you need to wait just a little bit until the assistant producer pushes the button after the question is read.
The process for picking contestants is facinating... if you make it on the show, you MUST know your stuff. The first thing you do is take a test of about 50 questions (read by Don Pardo on a videotape) and write down the answers (and no, they don't have to be in the form of a question). This was the MOST difficult test I've ever taken in my life - the questions are MUCH harder than the ones you see on the show - and you must know a lot about History, Literature, Pop Culture, Science, and Geography to pass. You get about 5 seconds to write your answer before you hear the next question. You need to get 35 out of 50 to advance - which weeds out about 80% of the potential contestants.
Then the divide the remaining contestants into groups of 3 and you play a mock game... this is where I figured out the buzzer technique. The winners of each of the mock games goes into the contestant pool - and I believe this is where the Contestent Information Card comes into play (they also take a photo of you, so this may have counted against me too!).
Fascinating information, thanks! I have often toyed with the idea of trying out.