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Why are the Scores SO Linear Every Year?


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Why is it that every year the top corps start the season in the mid to upper 70s, then each show adds about 1.5 - 2 points, magically ending up in the upper 90s by season’s end?  Every.  Single.  Year.  Honest question.

It’s almost as if the judges pull up the scores before a show, and say, “Ok, what was <insert corps name here> at yesterday?  Alright, need to put them 1.5 - 2 points higher tonight somehow.  Here we go...”  And if a corps has x days off from competition during the season, when they return, their score will be (1.5 - 2) times x points higher.

I get it that every corps works on their show in between competitions, and that’s why their score increases.  But shouldn’t there be more volatility in between shows?

it seems to me that mathematically, if judges are not the same from show to show (which I know, sometimes they are) and they all started with a brand new blank sheet every night, it would be close to impossible for the scores to be as linear as they are every year throughout the season.

Or would it??

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Just now, BlueStainGlass said:

They get better

Thanks for the reply.  Sure, but by roughly the same amount every day, every year?  

Wouldn’t a fresh set of judge’s eyes with different opinions on the performance, and a blank sheet every night yield some swings up, then down, then up, then down, etc. throughout  the season?  Yes, there are SOME swings like that - but it is almost rare.

My hunch is that the judging is not as “fresh” every competition as we would like to think it is.

I would love to hear more thoughts (particularly from anyone who has done judging in the past).

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What equation would you prefer? Exponentially? Logarithmic? Someone already did the power of 10.

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6 minutes ago, Quad Aces said:

Thanks for the reply.  Sure, but by roughly the same amount every day, every year?  

Wouldn’t a fresh set of judge’s eyes with different opinions on the performance, and a blank sheet every night yield some swings up, then down, then up, then down, etc. throughout  the season?  Yes, there are SOME swings like that - but it is almost rare.

My hunch is that the judging is not as “fresh” every competition as we would like to think it is.

I would love to hear more thoughts (particularly from anyone who has done judging in the past).

Good question. It's been asked here before. The relatively consistent scoring trends don't make make sense to me. It's a hugely human action-based, and creative, activity. But I don't understand the scoring system used. And there's little room to debate with someone who does understand well the technicalities how these shows are adjudicated and who can rationalize why such amazing consistency is legitimate.

As soon as Madison received higher GE scores from one judge compared to the other (was that in Madison on June 22?), there seemed to be a generally common reaction that the higher scoring judge was wrong. Maybe so. But I was more interested in the implication that two judges could not come up with noticeably different scoring results. Again, for an activity which I believe encompasses much that is creative and subjective.

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5 minutes ago, Brass Lover said:

What equation would you prefer? Exponentially? Logarithmic? Someone already did the power of 10.

E=mc^2 is also taken.

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7 minutes ago, Brass Lover said:

What equation would you prefer? Exponentially? Logarithmic? Someone already did the power of 10.

Technically not an equation - no = (says the math major 😀).

A typical line chart result.  It would be more logical for the results to look like this (not sure how to embed the picture directly):

https://apexcharts.com/javascript-chart-demos/line-charts/basic/

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Just now, Quad Aces said:

Technically not an equation - no = (says the math major 😀).

A typical line chart result.  It would be more logical for the results to look like this (not sure how to embed the picture directly):

https://apexcharts.com/javascript-chart-demos/line-charts/basic/

Sorry I went to Clown College. Don't no these "maths" too well.

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