Interview Judging
Interview Judge Training
INTERVIEW COMPETITION
General order of events and logistics
1. Each room should have two scoring judges, suitably spaced.
2. Each judging team has a schedule of student arrivals that will be 90% accurate.
3. Students arrive at the room and are greeted by one of the judges.
4. Ensure the student is identified by number and the number aligns with the schedule. If it does not, simply accept the student number, recognizing that substitutions are going to be made.
5. Judges are friendly, smiling, and make the student feel welcome, but there is no time for extraneous chit-chat outside of the interview.
6. Judges should have a ballot open on their personal device and populate a valid e-mail address, judge number, and other header information.
7. Judges must ensure they have the proper student number populated on the online ballot.
8. When judges are ready, one judge will ask an interview question and judges then alternate questions. Follow-up questions can be asked.
9. Sample questions are available, but do not have to be strictly adhered to.
10. Questions should be open-ended, ones that cannot be answered with a yes or no. Do not ask any questions regarding race, religion, creed, ethnic groups, national origin, ancestry, political beliefs, gender, affiliations, school, etc. If a student volunteers this type of information, that is appropriate.
11. One judge must time the interview so it does not last longer than 7 minutes. The timing judge should prepare to close the interview near the 7 minute mark with a “one final question” type of phrase. Do not stop the student at 7 minutes if they are still speaking.
12. When the interview is over, do not provide verbal feedback to decathletes. Simply thank them and they will exit the room.
13. Judges can then complete and submit the online They can then header info on the online ballot for the next student.
General judging tidbits
1. Each panel includes two scoring judges. While judging panels do sometimes rotate roles (greeting & timing), it is better to maintain consistency for scoring purposes.
2. Students move through briskly - the schedule is such that you have enough time to welcome the student, explain logistics, and move right into the speaking portion. We want to be welcoming and friendly and make the experience as fun as possible, but there is not time built in for small talk or feedback.
3. Leave yourself room to move among scores. Better to have an early 8 that should have been a 10 depress all the rest of your scoring than an early 10 that should have been an 8 result in all 8-9-10 interviews being scored as 10s. 10s should be rare for the truly exceptional standouts.
4. To give yourself a good guide, pause briefly after the first three students and mentally evaluate how you scored them. Do not compare your scoring to that of the other judge.
