Judging is the role where you hear kids light up explaining what they built. It runs on its own rhythm, mostly independent of the match schedule — and it's usually an all-day commitment, the most of any role.
Judging itself — the rubrics, the award definitions, the process — is defined by VEX and Global Robotics. What follows is how it works at our local events, where gainingSTEAM helps Event Partners organize it.
How you're assigned
You sign up for a judging time slot like any other shift. On event day, the Judge Advisor pairs judges up and assigns each pair its teams. Judges work in pairs all day.
The shape of the day (in-person judging)
- The Judge Advisor sorts the engineering notebooks into three working levels — Emerging, Proficient, and Expert — to organize the day. (The official evaluation uses Global Robotics' Engineering Notebook Rubric: design process, documentation, and project management, reviewed by at least two judges — journey over polish.)
- Judge pairs go out and conduct initial interviews with their assigned teams.
- The pairs come back and discuss results together.
- Teams are selected for second interviews.
- Once all interviews are done and the qualification matches are complete, the judges deliberate the awards.
Remote-notebooks events
Some events use a remote-notebooks format: teams submit their notebooks digitally by the event's deadline, and online judges score the Expert and Proficient notebooks before the tournament starts. If you're signed up for a judge shift at one of these events, you'll get automatic email reminders as the notebook deadline approaches — that's your cue that reading material is coming.
The rules that make judging work
- Deliberations are confidential. What's said in the judges' room stays there.
- Students are never consulted about results — and never given hints about how deliberations are going.
- All judging materials are destroyed at the end of the day.
- Don't wear a team's shirt — judges are neutral, and need to look it.
- Judging your own child's event? You must self-report so you're excluded from your own child's team. Tell the Judge Advisor at assignment time — see Tournament day.
Interested in leading?
The Judge Advisor runs the judging room — it's a vetted role you can grow into after a season or two of judging.