Creating a Scoring Grid
The first step in creating a pageant scoring grid is to determine what the areas of competition will be. Many pageants use the Miss Rodeo America or Miss Rodeo USA scoring guidelines to begin this process. If your pageant is a qualifying pageant for a state contest for Miss Rodeo America, Miss Rodeo USA, or any other state or national pageant it is highly recommended you use their scoring system as close as possible.
After making the decision as to what areas will be judged it's time to set up the scoring grid. The sample below follows the Miss Rodeo America system of four categories - Appearance, Horsemanship, Personality & Other. Each should equal 25% of the final score. This grid is the scoring grid used for a local introductory pageant I coordinate. It is a one-day, casual and low-key event. The contestants are allowed two outfits for the pageant, one for horsemanship and another for the interview, speech and impromptu question sessions. Since there is no wardrobe change for those three competitions there is no need to have separate appearance points.
Create your grid in Excel and set a formula to tally the final scores. By doing so you can easily manipulate the points possible to get an equal number. You can also use this as your final tally sheet, simply delete the points possible and enter the points earned by the contestant (I'll be posting a sample of the tally grid with a sample of score sheets later). If your pageant has additional judged categories simply add rows, enter the judged event and points possible and you'll have your grid created. This grid shows how many points EACH JUDGE can award to a contestant. Those three scores are added together to create the final score of the contestant (in this example a contestant could earn up to 1,440 points from three judges).
It is vitally important one category does not outweigh another category. If this happens a contestant who is overly strong in one area has an advantage over the other contestants.
Contestants need to understand where their points are coming from. Provide your grid in the rules packet that goes out to all contestants. On this grid I've also included the percentage of the overall score for each area pointed. The reason I do this is to provide an additional opportunity for contestants to understand how each area is weighted in the overall total.
I suggest when announcing pageant awards you include this information. For instance you might say, "The speech award is based on the total points earned for the three-minute prepared speech the contestants presented on "Rodeo". This area of competition accounts for 10% of the overall total score.". I highly suggest this for pageants that give out a lot of category awards. There may be a time where one contestant is recognized in two or more categories but is not the winner. Announcing what percentage of the points the category counts for in the overall pageant scoring can alleviate misunderstanding and the, "But she won so many categories, how is she not the winner?" questions. It is also easy to answer that question if it is asked of you.
Creating a scoring grid is an easy way to ensure the categories judged in your pageant are weighted and scored correctly. They are also a handy tool for compiling scores at the end of your event.
Download this article for your personal use:
After making the decision as to what areas will be judged it's time to set up the scoring grid. The sample below follows the Miss Rodeo America system of four categories - Appearance, Horsemanship, Personality & Other. Each should equal 25% of the final score. This grid is the scoring grid used for a local introductory pageant I coordinate. It is a one-day, casual and low-key event. The contestants are allowed two outfits for the pageant, one for horsemanship and another for the interview, speech and impromptu question sessions. Since there is no wardrobe change for those three competitions there is no need to have separate appearance points.
Create your grid in Excel and set a formula to tally the final scores. By doing so you can easily manipulate the points possible to get an equal number. You can also use this as your final tally sheet, simply delete the points possible and enter the points earned by the contestant (I'll be posting a sample of the tally grid with a sample of score sheets later). If your pageant has additional judged categories simply add rows, enter the judged event and points possible and you'll have your grid created. This grid shows how many points EACH JUDGE can award to a contestant. Those three scores are added together to create the final score of the contestant (in this example a contestant could earn up to 1,440 points from three judges).
It is vitally important one category does not outweigh another category. If this happens a contestant who is overly strong in one area has an advantage over the other contestants.
Contestants need to understand where their points are coming from. Provide your grid in the rules packet that goes out to all contestants. On this grid I've also included the percentage of the overall score for each area pointed. The reason I do this is to provide an additional opportunity for contestants to understand how each area is weighted in the overall total.
I suggest when announcing pageant awards you include this information. For instance you might say, "The speech award is based on the total points earned for the three-minute prepared speech the contestants presented on "Rodeo". This area of competition accounts for 10% of the overall total score.". I highly suggest this for pageants that give out a lot of category awards. There may be a time where one contestant is recognized in two or more categories but is not the winner. Announcing what percentage of the points the category counts for in the overall pageant scoring can alleviate misunderstanding and the, "But she won so many categories, how is she not the winner?" questions. It is also easy to answer that question if it is asked of you.
Creating a scoring grid is an easy way to ensure the categories judged in your pageant are weighted and scored correctly. They are also a handy tool for compiling scores at the end of your event.
Download this article for your personal use:
| sample_scoring_grid.pdf |