Judged Elements Explained
Judged Elements are tricks, maneuvers or characteristics of the competitor or competitor's entry (like a car, a pet, etc.). A collection of elements are grouped together into each class and given relative weighting to reflect the comparative importance of the elements within that class.
Sample Class
In the sample class below, you'll see we are using 8 judged elements for a vehicle in a car show. Each element has a weight of 12% (except the last element, which has a 16% weighting). The elements used in this class can be reused in other classes.
Mobile Judging Screen
Sample shows three criteria for one element.
You can manage your judged elements in the Judged Element Library. Clicking on any element will allow you to make changes and assign evaluation criteria to the element. Most elements simply need ONE criterion (e.g. SCORE or EXECUTION), but you are free to nuance a element by adding multiple criteria (e.g. precision, realism and scale speed) to that one element. Each criterion within a element will have its own judge slider so that judges can accurately assess the entry or contestant.
In the example to the left, we are using a multi-criterion approach with the simple judging view. Notice that for the element "Climbout & Hold" the judge can award scores for precision, realism and scale speed. Although the event host could have simply assigned ONE criterion (e.g. "Score" or "Execution") to the Climbout & Hold" element, having THREE criteria makes the judge's analysis more nuanced and helps guide the judge through the rubric with more specificity.
Notice also that every slider/criterion has a range of 0-10. The system will enforce a single scoring range for EVERY criterion/element combination in a class in order for the normalization calculations to remain accurate. To vary the importance of one element to the next, use the weighting percentages, which you can assign within the CLASS tool.
To understand how the math works in this context, read this short article.
Managing Judged Elements
The Judged Elements library will permit you to create, modify and remove judged elements at any time. Your judged elements will always be available for use across events.
A mandatory judged element example
This element has only one criterion; score.
Example of a freestyle element for which you can create and assign pre-defined tricks/maneuvers for contestants to choose from when entering the classes which contain this element.
For additional guidance on judged elements and evaluation criteria, review these best practices.
Why Using The Same Point Scale for Different Elements Works Best
In many competitions, judges have a score sheet that instructs them to award, say, "up to 15 points" for one element and "up to 5 points" for another. This methodology evolved because when judging on paper, it's considerably more difficult to assign percent weighting to each element. The problem with this approach lies with the human mind. We intuitively understand a rating scale of 1-10. It's more difficult to conceptualize a 1-15 scale or a 1-5 scale, especially when those scales are interspersed among multiple judged elements. In the LiveJudge system, we allow you to assign a SINGLE scale (say, 1-100) that will apply to EVERY criterion slider in any judged element. This makes it far easier for a judge to assign scores. The software will apply your relative weighting percentages to account for the importance of each element relative to the others.
The Math Behind it All
Mathematically, here is what happens with a sample cooking event using 3 elements and different criteria within each element:
element 1: Appetizer - 25%
element 2: Entree - 50%
element 3: Dessert - 25%
Let's say you assign the following evaluation criteria:
Appetizer: Execution (1-10), Appearance (1-10) & Taste (1-10) [30pts possible]
Entree: Execution (1-10), Presentation (1-10), Texture (1-10) & Taste (1-10) [40pts possible]
Dessert: Execution (1-10), Appearance (1-10), Wow element (1-10), Originality (1-10) & Taste (1-10) [50pts possible]
At first glance, you might wonder how the system will maintain the proper weighting (relative importance) of the three elements given that dessert has a possible 50 points while it's equivalent element, Appetizer, has only 30 possible points.
Think of the point scales as ways to guide the judges through a precise analysis vs a way to accumulate competition points. Let's say a judge awards the following to a contestant:
Appetizer: 27 of 30 possible points
Entree: 32 of 40 possible points
Dessert: 25 of 50 possible points
We convert those awards to a ratio which reflects what percent of the possible points the contestant earned:
Appetizer: 27 of 30 possible points = 90%
Entree: 32 of 40 possible points = 80%
Dessert: 25 of 50 possible points = 50%
Next, we apply the ratio to the weighting:
Appetizer: 90% of 25 = 22.5pts
Entree: 80% of 50 = 45pts
Dessert: 50% of 25 = 12.5pts
Now, total those points:
22.5 + 45 + 12.5 = 80 points of the 100 possible (from your weighting distribution). Now, if you remove all but one criterion (keep Execution, for example), the results will be IDENTICAL.
Calculating raw scores using an achievement ratio allows your judging to be extremely precise while giving judges a live roadmap through each element. If the judge has to move 5 sliders for a single judged element, they will think about each criteria carefully. More importantly, your contestants will understand, at a granular level, why they received the total score they got.
From here, the software will allow you to scale the 80 to, say, a range using an absolute scale multiplier (like 10x) or a distribution type scale (like a curve on a test grade that goes from 1-1000, for example). If we scaled by 10, this contestant would have an 800 for their final score from this judge. This example does not account for penalties, bonuses or difficulty multipliers.