Judging/Scoring Tutorial?

[Lance]

17 minutes ago, mjoakes said:

So would a number be jotted down in an official way for each corps when the performance is over? That matters, I think, if scoring is anything like evaluating a set of case studies. My early scores are always a bit tougher than my later scores. I even go back and update a few - to improve consistency - after I've finished the lot of them.

i don't pretend to know anything about case studies, but dci uses rubrics for their grading.  

and the supposed point of a rubric is to remove the need for the holistic scoring you're talking about here. 

it's the whole reason that rubrics exist: to judge each individual product directly off of the language in each score box instead of judging the product in comparison to something else. 

 

[dcsnare93]

23 minutes ago, ShortAndFast said:

In DCI, this is called "numbers management". If you have 5 groups still to perform, you need to assign a number to the group you just heard that allows the subsequent groups to score higher if they are better. An easy way to see this at work is to look at the 2010 Championship Week percussion recaps, when Phantom won drums from 6th place. 

I have read some reports that these days at big shows, judges can adjust scores at the end of a block of corps, but I don't know for a fact that it's the case. Either way, managing numbers for a show like DCI Prelims with 40-ish groups performing is a daunting task for the judge.

 

 

It's not as daunting as it may seem. Not all 40 groups are in the same scoring range. There's still some numbers management when it comes to ranking within boxes, but the judge will have a good impression from the performance alone of what rating they're going to assign.

Edited June 2, 2017 by dcsnare93

[Cappybara]

35 minutes ago, mjoakes said:

So would a number be jotted down in an official way for each corps when the performance is over? That matters, I think, if scoring is anything like evaluating a set of case studies. My early scores are always a bit tougher than my later scores. I even go back and update a few - to improve consistency - after I've finished the lot of them.

That's a question for someone with more knowledge than I have. I only know the very basics of the dci scoring system 

I'm not sure whether the scores are locked in after each performance for smaller competitions or not, but, as another poster mentioned, I've heard that in the big regionals and championship week competitions, judges can adjust scores after each grouping. 

[mjoakes]

25 minutes ago, Lance said:

i don't pretend to know anything about case studies, but dci uses rubrics for their grading.  

and the supposed point of a rubric is to remove the need for the holistic scoring you're talking about here. 

it's the whole reason that rubrics exist: to judge each individual product directly off of the language in each score box instead of judging the product in comparison to something else. 

 

I use rubrics for case studies. It's just there's still some subjectivity, and I tend to me more rigid earlier rather than later.

All this is educational. For me, anyway. I suspect I'm learning I will just continue to watch and enjoy the shows.

It also means I am likely to dismiss some of the snap judging done in the stands when those around me talk as though they can precisely evaluate the likely scores more than is probably possible. Dismiss might be too strong. I like the commentary of the fans. It's the assumed precision of knowledge that I don't pay much attention to.

[mjoakes]

Are the judges paid fees? Decent fees for what they do? Put up in JW Marriott suites with room service picked up by DCI?

[dcsnare93]

4 minutes ago, mjoakes said:

I use rubrics for case studies. It's just there's still some subjectivity, and I tend to me more rigid earlier rather than later.

All this is educational. For me, anyway. I suspect I'm learning I will just continue to watch and enjoy the shows.

It also means I am likely to dismiss some of the snap judging done in the stands when those around me talk as though they can precisely evaluate the likely scores more than is probably possible. Dismiss might be too strong. I like the commentary of the fans. It's the assumed precision of knowledge that I don't pay much attention to.

Nor should you. At the end of the day, it's the judge's opinion that decides the score they put on that sheet.

Some of us are more familiar with the sheets than others , and can probably guess at how a judge may score a particular performance, but that's all it is... a guess. Though, some may be able to read minds too, who knows.

[Lance]

7 minutes ago, mjoakes said:

I use rubrics for case studies. It's just there's still some subjectivity, and I tend to me more rigid earlier rather than later.

All this is educational. For me, anyway. I suspect I'm learning I will just continue to watch and enjoy the shows.

It also means I am likely to dismiss some of the snap judging done in the stands when those around me talk as though they can precisely evaluate the likely scores more than is probably possible. Dismiss might be too strong. I like the commentary of the fans. It's the assumed precision of knowledge that I don't pay much attention to.

that's why i've found rubrics to be pretty useless. i do the same with them most of the time when assessing student work. 

the only time i use them properly (judging the product only against the language of the rubric) is when i'm getting paid to grade IB essays from around the world. they force us to use the rubrics properly, or we get locked out from grading more, which means we lose $$$$.

 

[xandandl]

1 hour ago, Cappybara said:

That's a question for someone with more knowledge than I have. I only know the very basics of the dci scoring system 

I'm not sure whether the scores are locked in after each performance for smaller competitions or not, but, as another poster mentioned, I've heard that in the big regionals and championship week competitions, judges can adjust scores after each grouping. 

However one tends to get spoken to by the powers that be if one re-calls a score sheet to adjust it, either way. There is always a chief judge, a caption supervisor, and the tabulators at the regionals. And all the powers that be at championships. They are very sensitive not to have another Jackson, Mississippi percussion score sheet situation again.

Edited June 2, 2017 by xandandl

[xandandl]

3 hours ago, DawsonBurnes said:

I'm just confused on how judges quantify a performance. Is one note crack a loss of half a point, or something like that? And are they judged like AP tests (points added to the score based on their achievement), or do they start at the top score for the caption and take away points? 

in theory, DCI judging is more like AP scoring for most, not all subjects. Tick system of errors as a negative factor disappeared after the first ten years of DCI but still remains as a factor influencing the judge's subjective experience and assessment of the excellence in caption that the corps before him/her is manifesting. No one starts with 100 and loses it; that's only in some band circuits. In drum corps, corps earn the score they get based on the performance the judge experiences that given contest.

Some, usually at the lower end of scoring, will plead slotting, a much discussed DCP topic appropriate to another thread. The role of the MM is not to obsess about the scoring but rather to focus on the level of personal and sectional excellence, seeking each performance to be more amazing than any previous performance. If the consistent excellence is there, the scores will follow.

Edited June 2, 2017 by xandandl

[Stu]

Educating yourself on adjudicating is fine, but note that there are consequences to take into account if you apply them to observing a show.  You can dig into the sheets and how they are interpreted by the judges and it will help with understanding how they are adjudicated, and maybe give you a hankering to possibly judge someday. But I doubt it will help you be better entertained; in fact it may have the opposite effect. For example: The objective of an author within fiction literature is to get the reader to suspend disbelief and open up to the virtual world created by the words. While you as a reader can certainly do a study on the literary device called Stream of Consciousness, and then analyze how Faulkner utilizes that device for Benjy in The Sound and the Fury, just be aware that by analyzing that device and the various ways Faulkner uses it you inevitably will lose the ability to ‘become Benjy’ during that analysis.  Thus the actual desire Faulkner had in store for you as a reader… being for a brief moment suspended within the mind of Benjy… will be lost in order for you to analyze (ie judge) how the author used the literary device.