Understanding the scoring and judging methods of a beauty pageant can be confusing at times. Sometimes, members of the audience, or even the judges for that matter, walk away from a pageant scratching their heads wondering how the end results came to be. The first step to demystifying pageant judging is to understand the different ways the scoring can take place.

Ranking

• The judges have a ballot with 5 lines on it. In each phase of competition, they put their favorite contestant number or name on line 1, second favorite contestant on line 2, and so forth. The auditor will give the contestant on the 1st place line 5 points, 2nd place gets 4 points, and so on. The queen is the one with the highest points. This is comparison judging because the judges are asked to compare contestants with each other in order to determine ranking.

Numeric scoring

• Each contestant is given a score from 1-10. Some pageant systems use a higher scale. Each contestant is given a numeric score from each judge for every category of competition. The score can be either in whole numbers or in decimals, like 7.25.
• In some pageant systems, the contestants will carry the scores all the way through the pageant. The queen is the contestant with the overall highest cumulative score.
• In other pageant systems, the points that contestants earn during the preliminary competitions determine the top 5. At that point, all scores are dropped. The judges are asked to rank the top 5 in the order they believe each contestant should finish.

Mentions

• No numeric score is given by the judges. Instead, they circle the names of the contestants they like. Each time your name is circled, you are given a point by the auditor. For example, if there are 50 contestants, the director will tell the judges to circle a total of 10-15 names on their ballot. The more often your name is circled, the greater your chances are in making the top 10. Once they have their top 10, they are asked to circle their favorite 3 contestants' names. Finally, they circle the one name they feel should be the titleholder.

Consensus

• The judges take notes throughout the competition. Then they go into a closed room, talk about the competition, and all must agree on the queen and her court. There can be a lot of negotiation with this form of judging but not always. You see this form of judging at many festival level pageants.

The titleholder is determined by the average of all the judges' scores. Just to illustrate what could possibly happen at a pageant, let's say there are 5 judges on the panel. Contestant number one receives the following scores: 10, 10, 8, 9, and 8. Her average score is a 9. Two of the judges marked her as the winner (10's), one judge as the first runner-up (9) and two judges as the second runner-up (8's).

Contestant number two receives one 10 and four 9's so her average is 9.2. The crown goes to contestant number two, even though two of the five judges had contestant number one as their pick for the title.

There are a couple other things that can factor into the scoring.

• Dropping of the highest and lowest scores can impact the final results.

• Sometimes, members of the pageant staff have a vote in the outcome of the pageant.The staff is with the contestants all the time. They hear and see things that the judges don't. Remember, the directors want a well rounded titleholder that won't behave in a way that would embarrass them or the pageant system. The test of one's character is how you behave when no one is watching, or when you think no one is watching.

You need to be consistent on and off the stage. I'm not saying pretend to be someone you're not. Just know everything you say and do factor into the pageant experience.

To get the highest scores possible, hold nothing back during the preliminary competition especially with your hair and makeup. You won't make finals if you don't bring your very best during preliminaries. Then when you do make finals, turn it up a notch. You don't want to drop your energy level.

When it comes right down to it, you need to be at your very best at all times. Things are always changing in pageants. Directors learn lessons from one year to the next and make changes to make the experience better. There are so many possible varieties in the way the scoring is done that it would drain you if that's what you focused on. Instead focus on the one thing you know, you. Be your very best and enjoy the experience.

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Rhonda Shappert is an expert pageant coach, an iPEC Certified Professional Coach, an Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner, and a member of the International Coach Federation. She created Winning Through Pageantry® to partner with pageant contestants and their support people to provide complete pageant preparation, achieve winning results in life through pageantry, and to Succeed From The Inside Out®. She has over 30 years experience in the pageantry world as a contestant, judge, emcee, staff member, mother of daughters who compete, Mrs. Ohio America 2005, and has held multiple titles at the local, state and national levels.
Rhonda graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelors degree in Musical Theater from The Ohio State University and has performed on stage in 15 countries on the Asian, European and American continents. This mother of three home educates their children and has been married 22 years to her husband Stephen, is the former mayor of her community, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Ohio Virtual Academy. She and her husband perform original contemporary Christian music. For more information on Rhonda, visit  www.WinningThroughPageantry.com .