Scoring
Ultimately the adjudicator will award the debate to the team which has presented the most persuasive case. In doing this, the adjudicator will give each speaker a mark based on the effectiveness of their manner, matter and method. At the end of the debate you will each be given an individual score out of 100, and then your team will be given a score out of 300. An individual ‘Best Speaker’ (i.e. the person with the highest individual score) will normally be announced at the end of each debate, but the winner will be the team that has presented the best case.
The average score in a debate is 75, and variations in scores will usually not exceed more than a couple of marks above or below this average. A score of 80 represents an outstanding speech that is nearly impossible to improve upon, and adjudicators will almost never award scores higher than 80. Likewise, a score of 70 indicates a very sub-par speech, usually with irredeemable flaws in relation to subject matter or delivery, and it would require very extreme circumstances to gain a score of less than 70.
Below you can find a more detailed breakdown of what scores mean. This will also give you and indication of what adjudicators will be looking for over the three scoring criteria. To find out more about each of each of these, please see the manner, matter and method pages in our online handbook.
However, when using these tables, please keep in mind:
- These are general explanations only, based upon information in the AADG and observations of DAV debates, and not strict rules that DAV adjudicators are required to follow.
- The most important score in a debate is the difference in points between the two teams at the end of the debate (i.e. overall, was it a one-point win, a three-point win or a five-point win?). Adjudicators are instructed to alter individual speaker scores in order to facilitate an accurate final team score that reflects the overall debate, rather than ensuring that the individual speaker scores are completely accurate.
- Different competitions have different base-line scores. Competitions like the Junior Secondary Program and Primary Schools Program may use 74 or 73 as their ‘average’, or, alternative, will adopt a a lower standard for what constitutes the ‘expected standard’, given that these are introductory competitions aimed at younger debaters. Likewise, adjudicators in a Schools Competition finals debate may use 76 or 77 as the ‘average’ standard seen in the debate, and then rank speaking above and below accordingly.
