Judging and Awards
Judging Basics:
- 2-3 judges per round, per room
- Students should bring 1 judge per student so that the tournament can run smoothly.
- It's easy to be a judge:
- You can be trained the day of.
- Complimentary coffee and food for judges.
- Trainings happening at 7:30-8:00am and 11:30am-12:00pm
- Judges must be high-school-aged or above.
General Rules for Judges:
- Judges should strive to judge a different category each round.
- Determine a Lead Judge to manage the classroom:
- Take roll and make sure the correct students are in the room that match the ballots.
- Announce rules to the room (and remove spectators if rules are violated; if this happens, allow student to restart with no penalty):
- All cell phones should be turned off during the round.
- No video, camera, or recording devise may be used by anyone during the round.
- All participants and spectators are expected to exhibit appropriate, courteous, and respectful behavior.
- All spectators and student speakers should remain in the room through the duration of the round.
- Keep time on a stopwatch. Write down the time only if student exceeds the allocated 5 minutes. If a student goes over the time, let them finish, but quietly pull the student(s) aside afterwards and let him/her/them know so they can make necessary adjustments for the next round.
- Judges should not sit together nor consult with one another about ranking/performance while judging.
- Judges should judge based on overall quality first, then the material and the length of selection should be judged secondary.
- PLACE: Judges should only give 1 first place, 1 second place, 2 third place, and the rest 4th place.
- RANK: Judges should also rank each student Superior, Excellent, or Good.
- Judges should write clear, legible comments in the space on the ballot for each student.
- Make sure the Cover Sheet is complete and that Student Numbers and Place/Rankings match the individual ballots.
- Return ballots to the Judges' Room.
Trophies and Placing:
Certificates:
End of Year Awards:
- Coaches add up the numbers of 1st places given, and the student with the most wins 1st Place, the person with the second most, 2nd place, and so forth.
- If there is a tie, the coaches will count up the number of "Superiors," and then the student with the most "S's" will take first.
- If the number of "S's" is tied, then the coaches will move down to "E's," and so forth.
Certificates:
- Certificates are awarded if a Category has a large number of students competing:
- Take the total number of the large group of students competing for Poetry, for example: 19.
- Take 30% of 19: 19 x 0.3 = 5.4
- Then subtract 3 (the students that will win 1st, 2nd, 3rd) = 2.7
- Since the number is 2.7, round up to 3 certificates awarded for that round!
End of Year Awards:
- *Versatility of Placing Award*:
- For 4 tournaments during the year:
- Most Versatile - Student Placed in 7 or 8 Categories
- Gold - Student Placed in 6 Categories
- Silver - Student Placed in 5 Categories
- Bronze - Student Placed in 4 Categories
- For 4 tournaments during the year:
- *Versatility of Perseverance Award*:
- For 4 tournaments during the year:
- Student Attempted 6 or More Different Categories Throughout the Year
- For 4 tournaments during the year: