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Judging

Usage Guidelines All Questions

2523: Providing questions to teams ahead of time if remote and scripted

David Sankey (Event Partner)
11-Feb-2025

If all teams are going to be asked the same questions for their initial remote interview, should the questions be provided to the teams?

It's inherently problematic if the teams who have a later interview can get access to the questions in a number of ways.

  1. A judge sharing them.
  2. From other teams.
  3. By watching other teams get interviewed.

While we do our best, the interviewing is inherently insecure, especially if it's a remote interviewing situation.

This is also generally how the interviews are handled for Worlds. By sharing the questions ahead of time, you are giving a level playing field and removing the incentive to leak the questions if they are not shared ahead of time.

Answered by Competition Judging Committee
12-Feb-2025

According to the Guide to Judging, under the heading "Initial Interview Process" in Section 6: Team Interviews:

Some Judge Advisors may wish to create a list of questions for Judges to ask that are common for all interviews at an event. This could be particularly helpful to ensure that all aspects of the robot and competition are addressed, or to assist inexperienced Judges with the interview process. This should not be construed as a “script”; Judges should be free to follow up questions based on student responses.

Under the overview of Section 8: Remote Judging:

Remote judging follows all guidelines of in-person judging.

Under the Introduction section of the Guide to Judging:

Other aspects of the VEX Robotics World Championship judging process may differ from this guide due to the scale and complexity of that event.

Judges at events other than the VEX Robotics World Championship should not be given scripted questions for remote interviews. The interview process should follow the same guidelines used for in-person judging.

Teams are asked scripted questions in the interview for the World Championship due to the massive volume of interviews - with thousands of teams and hundreds of judges, it is not possible for the World Championship to follow the same process of qualitatively ranking of sets of teams by judge groups as is done at events.