KHSSL

The first order of business is to understand your role as a judge at a KHSSL forensics tournament. You are responsible for not only fairly judging the students' performances, but also of ensuring the round goes smoothly, fairly, and efficiently, and that your ballot is expediciously returned to the tournament hosting staff. We will begin with a list of terms and their definitions to help you wade through decades of tournament convention.

Host: the school (and their coach) that hosts and runs a given tournament.

Round: A span of time (usually an hour and a half) in which competitors will perform each of their events (up to three) once.

Swing Tournament: When two schools work together to host two separate tournaments at one location during the same weekend. One tournament will be one day, and the other tournament will be the second day. Considering the time restraints, these tournaments are usually shorter, often using only two prelimiary rounds, rather than the traditional three.

Drops/ Adds: If a student is unable to compete, but was listed on a school's entry form they are a "drop". To make sure rooms have even numbers of competitors, the Host may be forced to move a competitor to a different room for a round. That person is considered an "add" in their new room. Their Student Code is added to the list for that round.

Ballot Table: This is where judges pick up and drop off their ballots.

Ballot: A sheet of paper a judge fills out for a single competitor in a single round of competition. This paper also lists all rules and recommendations for that event, in order to help inexperienced judges.

School Code: The school a given competitor represents is not noted to judges. Instead, each school is assigned a code (usually two letters) for that tournament.

Student Code: Student names are not listed in the handouts the Host gives out to everyone. Instead, each student is assigned a number for each event. Students may have up to three codes, if they are competing in three events (tripling).

Doubling/ Tripling: Students may compete in up to three different events at a tournament. Since every event runs at the same time, students in multiple events will have to get to up to three different rooms and perform up to three times in order to fulfill all three events. Such students are said to be "Doubling" or "Tripling".

Rank: A judge's assessment of a competitor's performance compared to the other competitors in the round. The highest quality performance is given a Rank of 1, and this scales down gradually to, perhaps, 6.

Rate: A judge's assessment of a competitor's performance with no regard to their competition, since each round has different levels of competition. Perfect quality performances might recieve the highest Rating (exact number dependant on tournament rules), while the worst performance imaginable might recieve the lowest possible Rating. A judge always gives the highest Rating in a given round the highest Rank (1), and graduates each subsequent Rank (2^nd, 3^rd, etc) to each lower rated performance. This allows a student to see your assessment not just compared to their competition for a given round, but their overall quality. Someone can be the best in the round, but not necessarilly that good. They would recieve a Rank of 1, since they were the best in the round, and a rating of 100 because KHSSL guidelines require it, but the next ranked comeptitor might be notably lower.

Not all KHSSL tournaments are the same. The exact flow is left to the discretion of the hosting staff, but the core procedures and nomenclature apply state-wide. DO NOT expect ANY tournament to follow the information found on this page. This is designed to help you work at the "average" KHSSL tournament, not as a guideline to how a tournament should be run. Usually, the earliest part of the tournament day is reserved for late school registration. It is the responsiblity of your school's coach (or chaperone) to register their school's students for the tournament within the Host's scheduled timeline.

Most tournaments also set aside some time before rounds begin to hand out Judging Assignments to all judges. This is your personal schedule. It will list all events and times you are scheduled to judge. DO NOT ASSUME, however, that if you aren't listed for a given time that you won't be needed. Standby Judges are always needed, and that is explained in the next paragraph. Often, you will be given a list of Drops or Adds for that tournament. That list will have been compiled as a result of the earlier registration. Note that, sometimes, there are more drops that were never reported. These are referred to as Unreported Drops. You'll only know about one if you are judging a round and a student never shows up within the round's scheduled time. We'll get to that later, though.

Shortly after this judges' conference, you can expect the first round to begin. The ballots you will need will be handed out to all judges, generally, several minutes before the round begins (fifteen minutes or more). Check the Judging Assignment you were given to see which rounds you judge, and when. They probably won't hand out the ballots overly early, because judges are prone to walking off and forgeting their duties if given too much time. Equally, any ballots not picked up before the round begins will be given to a Standby Judge, so try to pick up your ballots roughly ten minutes or more before the round is scheduled to begin.

Your ballot will have some essential information that may or may not also have been listed on your Judging Assignment, such as the room in which you are to judge. If you have a round to judge and you have your ballot, make your way, immediately, to your assigned room. Students are not refered to by name by the Host, generally, but by a randomly assigned number. Your ballot packet will usually have a list of Student Codes in order. Each student already knows their code. Students are expected to speak, with a few exceptions, in the same order in which their codes are listed. For example, let's say you recieved the following list of Student Codes on your judging packet:

126
110
151
138
102
117

MOST OF THE TIME, the first few numbers represent students that are competing in more than just one event this round. They may have other rooms in which to compete, in other events, in the same time slot. Considering that, they will need to be able to perform quickly, so that they can hurry on to their other event. If a Doubling, or Tripling, student is forced to watch five competitors before getting up to perform, themselves, they probably won't show up for their other events until at least an hour after that round has begun. Most rounds don't exceed an hour and a half. Since such a student has roughly an hour and a half (dependant on that tournament's schedule) to compete in two or three events, they need to be given the chance to perform as early as possible. You usually won't know which students are Doubling or Tripling, so you'll have to ask each student in your round. Experienced competitors usually let you know that they are multi-entered. A common procedure is for students in a round to make a list on the chalkboard of student codes, with each competitor's name next to their code. This list, if it's made, should be ordered in the ordered according to the student code list you were given before the round. Thus, you might see those same numbers listed above on the chalkboard, with a student's name next to each. Note, however, that you can't expect each student to have gotten to your room BEFORE you. This list, if there at all, would be updated throughout the round, as Doubling or Tripling students who chose to compete in a different event before coming to your event come into your room. Note that students who fill out the chalkboard and are competing in multiple events will almost always note this along with their code and name. For example, (DE) might represent "Double Entered". TE might represent Triple Entered.

If possible, fill out each ballot as much as you can BEFORE the round begins. Generally, you can fill out such information as your name, the round number, the time, etc. Also, you can go ahead and make a ballot for each student that is already in the room before the round begins. Either consult the chalkboard for Student Name and Code, or ask each student in the room if they didn't write it on the board. Anything you can do BEFORE the round helps. Rounds must be on time. If you CAN begin a few minutes early, that's not necessarilly a bad idea. Don't start late. If you're late, all your competitors are late, which pushes back each subsequent round, enlongating the entire tournament.

I, personally, recommend you have the room's door OPEN whenever no one is performing. This helps any potential Doubler or Tripler that is not yet in your room know that they can enter. When it's time for the round to begin, have a student close the door. Call off the first listed Student Code that is in your room at that moment AND is expected in another round. Anyone that is Tripling is given first priority, no matter their order in the list, if they are in your room. It doesn't matter if they are last on the list. If they are Tripling, they have other places to go, so they perform first. If you have no Triplers, then priority is given to the first Doubler on the list. If no Doublers are there to perform, then follow the list in order. Students NOT competing on multiple events are expected to be in the round when it begins. They have nowhere else they need to go. Fill out the ballots for each competitor, etc, etc. When any Doubler or Tripler is finished performing, they can leave to their other events if they have not already performed them for that round. Aside from that, all students are expected to stay and watch the other competitors. Again, the only time a student would leave the room is if they are Doubling or Tripling elsewhere. When a student leaves, let them leave the door open. Simply have a student close it again before the next student performs. When all students have competed, the round is over, and students may leave. Ideally, each scheduled performer showed up for the round during the scheduled time. This isn't always the case. As noted earlier, sometimes, students don't show up for a round for whatever reason. It is an Unreported Drop IF they have not completely performed their piece before the round ends. If a student shows up five minutes before the round ends, and you decided to stay, you might as well stay and judge them, even if it pushes the round late a few minutes. There's no reason to stay in the room, waiting for a no-show until the last minute if you aren't going to actually judge them when they show up. You are NOT required, however, to wait in the room until the next round begins in the event someone doesn't show up. Generally, I leave the room about seven to eight minutes before the next round begins if I have a no-show. This is more common among Junior High competitors than among High School competitors. Keep in mind their age, and cut them some slack.

Here are some tips to judging quickly in a round. I always bring a scrap sheet of paper. I write down a Rating (not a Ranking) during the performance. Let's say they're pretty good, and I jot down a "94" for them. If, as the performance goes on, I feel they aren't as good as I originally surmised, I'll rewrite their estimated Rating as a 90. Essentially, their rating will change as they perform. By the end of their performance, I have a pretty good idea of how good a performer they are, overall. Let's say they really impressed me in the end, and I moved it up to 96. I keep that as their Rating on the scrap paper. That's not necessarilly set in stone, but I made that judgement WHILE the feeling was fresh, not from my memory of how they performed an hour ago. It's only fair, in my mind. I keep such Ratings for each performer, and have them writted in the order in which they performed. Therefore, when they are all done, ideally, I have a list of Ratings that correspond to each student. My work is done. I simply write these Ratings down on the Rating blank for each ballot, then order the ballots by graduating Rating score. The highest rating would get the "1" Rank for that round, and so on down to the lowest rating. They get the lowest Rank for that round (usually 6th).

Here's a quick note on Ratings. Ratings scale from either 70 to 100, or 1 to 25. The exact number scale is the discretion of the Host. A Rate is your assessment of a student's performance WITH NO REGARD to the competition they had in that round. An absolutely perfect performance would recieve the highest possible Rating (usually 100, or 25, depending on the tournament), and a student who walked into the round and completely bombed might recieve the lowest possible Rating (usually 70, or 1). If they show up for the round and at least perform SOMETHING, they get a Rating and a Ranking, however low. If you have a round of all wonderful performances, the Ratings would all be on the high end of the scale. An abysmal round of poor performances would all have rather low Ratings, unless it's a KHSSL regional or state tournament, in which 1st place always received a 100 (it uses 70-100 scale). However, you CANNOT give the same Rating to more than one performer. They HAVE to be gradually scaled in some way. This is how we decide on a Ranking for a given round. The highest Rating in the round recieves the highest Rank (1), and the lowest Rating in the round recieves the lowest Rank. The Ranking us used simply to compare students. The Rating, however, is a more accurate assessment of a student's performance. A bad round might mean the person ranked 1st might still only have a rating of 85 if the scale is 70 to 100 (again, at KHSSL regional or state tournaments 1st place automatically receives 100).

Once a round is over (whether all scheduled performers finished before the next round begins, or you gave up waiting for a no-show) immediately take your finished ballots to the Ballot Table. The staff there will confirm that you filled everything out properly.