KVUE — On Friday, February 18, senior finance and economic major at the University of Texas at Austin Jaskaran Singh won the night on the Jeopardy! semifinals for its national college championship.

Singh finished with $24,000 and will advance to the finals on Tuesday, February 22, when he will face Liz Feltner of Northeastern University and Raymond Goslow of Kennesaw State.

Singh was the only one of Friday’s contestants to correctly respond to the Final Jeopardy! answer in the category of “Characters in Banned Books.”

The answer was: “Introduced in 1928, this character has a disappointing affair with a writer before she begins a more satisfying relationship.”

Singh had the correct question with, “Who is Lady Chatterley?”

The book, Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence, was banned for obscenity in 1928 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, India, and Japan. In the U.S., the original version was not published until 1959.

The 22-year-old contestant from Plano says he first applied to be on the popular trivia game show when he was 13, thanks to his mom. He didn’t make it then, but he applied again last year and is now on his way to compete for the $250,000 grand prize.

Singh says he’s been interested in trivia since he was in high school. He was on the quiz bowl team and won the national championship then. He’s also on the UT Quiz Bowl team, which is competing in nationals this spring.

Although he’s well versed in trivia, Singh says there were some tense moments while competing on Jeopardy!

“There was one category with a series of clues for phrases that have three words that rhyme. My brain was not working in that moment. Just the experience of being in a TV studio and having lights bearing down on you, and makeup put on you, that sort of gets to you,” he told UT.

His interest in trivia follows him into the classroom as well, where he learns more than finance and economics.

“Now I’m taking just one computer science class to finish out my minor, Russian as an adjunct to my economics double major, and a bunch of history classes I’ve wanted to take,” he told UT.

First recorded in November, the semifinals began airing on Thursday, February 17, and Singh will appear on the show Tuesday, February 22, at 7 pm on ABC.

Singh was one of two students from Texas universities who appeared in the national college championship.

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