• working on DNS.. links may break temporarily.

Appearance Scoring: How long do judges look at it?

Q-Dat

Q-Dat

Babbling Farker
Joined
Dec 4, 2008
Messages
3,115
Reaction score
1,482
Points
0
Location
Pearl River LA
Just curious how many seconds the judges typically look at a box before giving an appearance score. Also does each judge get their own turn to look it over, or does everyon look it over together?

Answers from all sanctioning bodies are welcome but mostly wondering about KCBS and IBCA. Thanks.
 
In KCBS, the table captain passes it before each judge until the judge indicates that he/she has has seen it long enough. Probably averages no more than 10-15 seconds.
 
Uncle Buds BBQ said:
I have judged 3 and TC'ed 5 KCBS contests this year and the average time for each judge is 4 seconds. I know because I have timed it.
Click to expand...

I am glad to hear this and think its a good thing that judges don't get a bunch of time to look for every out of place thing that they can find. If a judge uses their 4-5 seconds to look for minor cosmetic imperfections instead of deciding how appetizing the meat looks then shame on them. I doubt this happens much because it seems that the criticisms found on BBQCRITIC seem to be more extreme than what happens in a real time setting.
 
KCBS = 4-5 seconds with the box being presented before each judge by the Table Captain.

MBN = 10-15 seconds (longer if necessary) with the boxes being open in the middle of the table and the judges moving around (if necessary) to get a good look at the boxes.

NCBS = similar to KCBS.

I hope this helps!
 
I usually start looking as the box is being presented down the table, I look at the sides as it is shown to the judge next to me then I am looking straight down as the table captain reaches me. I probably look at each box for about 10 seconds, 4 to 5 while in front of me. I never even look at the garnish or the box lid or for sauce on the side of the box, I only look at the meat. Now if the meat is buried in the garnish then I have to look at it and try to score around the garnish.
 
Q-Dat said:
Just curious how many seconds the judges typically look at a box before giving an appearance score. Also does each judge get their own turn to look it over, or does everyon look it over together?

Answers from all sanctioning bodies are welcome but mostly wondering about KCBS and IBCA. Thanks.
Click to expand...

If it's yours, they stare at it for hours, absolutely dumbstruck, scratching their heads, kinda staring...


































:p


:wink:
 
bignburlyman said:
I usually start looking as the box is being presented down the table, I look at the sides as it is shown to the judge next to me then I am looking straight down as the table captain reaches me. I probably look at each box for about 10 seconds, 4 to 5 while in front of me. I never even look at the garnish or the box lid or for sauce on the side of the box, I only look at the meat. Now if the meat is buried in the garnish then I have to look at it and try to score around the garnish.
Click to expand...
I try to keep an eye on the box the whole time the Table Captain is presenting it, like bignburlyman does, and it's about ten seconds.
I do look at garnish, however, only because there are some types that are illegal. I don't look at it hard, though, because the meat should get most of the judge's attention, IMO.
So have you KCBS judges ever wondered why there is illegal garnish if you can't JUDGE the garnish? I have! :laugh:
 
4-5 seconds is a long damn time!!!.. count to 5 looking at your entry.. you can see a lot!
 
When I judge, I usually do the same as a couple mentioned above - start looking as the TC passes it around the table, and spend 4-5 seconds looking at it when the box is in front of me. I also judge on bbqcritic, and try to only spend that same amount of time when scoring. Now, when it comes to the comments/suggestions on bbqcritic - the part where you can comment on things that don't affect your score - I may take another longer look and offer a couple suggestions. As we all know, paying attention to detail matters. This has all helped me in practice and at the one backyard comp I have done.
 
first off, i'm not a certified judge, nor have I judged a contest. But first impressions are everything and my guess is every judge has their number picked within the first 2 seconds of having the box opened in front of them. Count 4 mississippi's in your head and it's a long time.
 
Arlin_MacRae said:
I try to keep an eye on the box the whole time the Table Captain is presenting it, like bignburlyman does, and it's about ten seconds.
I do look at garnish, however, only because there are some types that are illegal. I don't look at it hard, though, because the meat should get most of the judge's attention, IMO.
So have you KCBS judges ever wondered why there is illegal garnish if you can't JUDGE the garnish? I have! :laugh:
Click to expand...

There is illegal garnish because that's their rules.
The rule is "Garnish is optional, if used, once determind it is legal it has no
further role in the appearence scoring"
Ed
 
early mornin' smokin' said:
first off, i'm not a certified judge, nor have I judged a contest. But first impressions are everything and my guess is every judge has their number picked within the first 2 seconds of having the box opened in front of them. Count 4 mississippi's in your head and it's a long time.
Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more. First the box isn't opened in front of every judge. Every time I have judged, the TC kept the box in front of me until if looked up at him after I'm done with the box, probably 3-5 seconds. I also made a point to watch as it moved away from me as well when it was coming towards me before I entered my score.

A judge that takes a fleeting glimpse and scores from a first impression is not doing justice to the process and IMO is probably very inexperienced.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
Equipment switcharoo (warning, stupidly long and likely boring!)
Replies
10
Views
376
DBBQ
D
S
Judging Question
Replies
16
Views
1K
Smokin D@wg@77
S
ModelMaker
For you judge types
Replies
16
Views
1K
thirdeye
thirdeye
H
SCA cookoffs
Replies
7
Views
752
hogzillas
H
ModelMaker
proposed foreign object rule
2
Replies
22
Views
2K
Slamdunkpro
Slamdunkpro
Back
Top