Jessica Bleifer has only worn her UCLA sweatshirt once. It hangs in her closet and she only shows it to close friends and disbelievers.

But on Monday night, the nation will watch the fourth-year psychology student and her sweatshirt on the game show Wheel of Fortune, an episode she taped back in September. She bought the crew-neck sweatshirt to meet the show’s specifications.

“I have the name tag still on it from appearing on the show,” Bleifer said. “It looks like a pin, but it’s a sticker, a big cardboard sticker.”

In the episode, she competes against students from USC and Berkeley. A long-time fan of the show, she felt she was taking on the rivals in her best field.

“I’m pretty competitive. Wheel is the one thing that I’m kind of good at. My roommate is really good at Sudoku, ... but I’m really good at Wheel of Fortune,” Bleifer said.

But despite her natural talent and long admiration of the show, becoming a contestant was something she never really considered.

“I watch it all the time. I never really thought about going on until this one night my mom and I had an epiphany,” she said. “We both randomly figured out we were kind of good at filling out the puzzles, (so) we both filled out applications online. A few months later I got an e-mail, and I almost deleted it because I thought it was spam.”

She filmed Wheel of Fortune in the beginning of September when they were filming for College Week, which aired in October. Bleifer was assigned for the episode set to air during the current ratings sweeps for the four-week-long 25th anniversary special.

When she went in for the auditions, they were only accepting two contestants out of around 10 UCLA students, 15 from USC and a few from Pepperdine, according to Bleifer. For the auditions, they had to pretend to play in a large group, spinning a fake wheel. The coordinators called names and the students guessed letters, bought vowels and tried to win the audition round.

“I solved the puzzle and I got a Wheel of Fortune book bag,” Bleifer said. “At that point I thought, ‘I’ve already won.’”

But it wasn’t just her skill that got her past the audition. Bleifer knew in order to make it in front of the camera, she would have to stand out from the crowd.

“I was trying to be very memorable. They asked me to take a picture and I posed really funny. I wanted them to be ‘Oh that girl’s kind of dorky,’” Bleifer said. “I figured there were a lot of college students and I wanted to stand out, (to show them) that I could be fun on television.”

Gary O’Brien, a Wheel of Fortune contestant executive, explained they look for contestants with extra spunk, like Bleifer.

“We’re looking for contestants who obviously are enthusiastic, have a good natural vibe about them, and who can be focused. People who can keep the game moving along, people who won’t crack under pressure, people who call smart letters,” he said. “Being aware of ‘ing’ ending, ‘ly’ and ‘th,’ real common patterns.”

Once Bleifer got a spot on the show, she downloaded a Wheel of Fortune game to her cell phone to practice. She carried her energy with her to the taping, but she also had a plan – Bleifer was there to win.

“My strategy was to try and just solve the puzzle itself, just focus on solving. Everything else will work out. Some people pay attention to the wheel too much, what they land on,” Bleifer said.

In order to solve the puzzles, she paid attention to the coaching they received. Before the taping began, a contestant coordinator advised the students to buy vowels.

“She said people don’t buy vowels enough, but they can really help you solve. Sometimes just buying like an ‘e’ will help you solve the whole thing. It’s worth it to spend $250,” Bleifer said.

The presence of hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White gave her more reasons for exuberance. Bleifer said the hosts were nicer than she expected. Even though they tape six episodes a day, changing costumes each time, they acted like each show was their first.

“They knew that for us it was exciting, though they do this multiple times a day,” Bleifer said.

The hosts were also easy to recognize in person.

“They look exactly the same: really tan and pretty,” she said. “Vanna is the cutest person ever. ... She came into the green room to say ‘hi’ to all of us and wish us good luck. ... We all were just like jaws on the floor, ‘Oh Vanna, I pretty much want to be you.’”

Bleifer, though, found the wheel itself didn’t translate exactly to the screen.

“It actually is really heavy. There’s a technique; you grab it way off to the right and push it way off to the left. They make you respin. They stop taping the show if it didn’t go around enough. If it went around half way. They would stop and redo it,” Bleifer said. “Sometimes the wheel would land in between wedges. They had to have these judges come out and have to judge, OK where is it, do we have to respin?”

O’Brien explained the wheel weighs a couple hundred pounds, and the most important part of getting the contestants relaxed and prepped for the show is simply to have them practice spinning.

“They need to give it their best spin; obviously they shouldn’t try aiming the spin,” O’Brien said. “If their hands slipped, Pat has them respin it.”

It only took about 45 minutes to film about 20 minutes of airtime. Bleifer explained the crew of the long-running show have taping down to a science. Though she was too anxious to eat the lunch provided (they would pause the show to powder contestants’ faces if they got too nervous), she says her episode went smoothly. She still watches the show, and now with her experience, she’s able to participate even from home.

“I laugh at the people who call out a letter that’s already been used. I know that there’s a used-letter board so you can’t really mess that up. I watch it differently because I look at their strategy and think, ‘No you should have bought a vowel!’” she said. “I don’t know if my friends like watching with me anymore.”