A New Experience

Last Saturday, the preliminary rounds for the annual district level inter-school debate was held. As usual, each participating school was required to send 3 teachers to be judges on that day. My school pulled out the last minute, but the organising committee still invited us for the event. Having brought my students for the competition for the past few years, being a judge was nothing new to me. It was scary the first time, but I quickly realised that it wasn't that difficult after all. It only involved impromptu debate, where debaters were given the topic 30 minutes before the debate, and were allowed 2 to 3 minutes each to present their arguments. Short and sweet. Simple.

The final round was a bit tricky. Needing to find a team to represent the district in the state level competition, the format of debate on that day would be parliamentary style, which meant that students were given the topic 1 hour before the debate, and during the actual debate, each person was given 8 minutes to present the arguments. This final round was held last Wednesday. On Tuesday, I received a call from the teacher-in-charge, who asked if I could fill in for a judge who couldn't make it. I'd never judged in a final round before, and I'd seen how tough the competition was between two good teams, so my first reaction was to decline. However, the teacher sounded desperate, and reassured me that other experienced judges would be there as well. Ever the one to take up a challenge, I agreed, but regretted it as soon as I ended the call. I was honoured to be chosen, but very nervous at the same time. Would I be good enough? So I spent the night reading up on the pages of rules, hoping that I would not forget the criteria listed under the four aspects of style, substance, strategy and language.

Lucky for me, I was assigned to judge the match for the 3rd and 4th placing. At least it won't be as tough as the 1st and 2nd placing match. It was nerve wrecking in the beginning, but I soon relaxed and started to enjoy the debate. After sitting through the debate for an hour, diligently taking notes and cracking my head filling up the score sheets, I was glad to find that my verdict matched those of the other 4 judges. It was a unanimous decision. So I took it that I did well in my first attempt as a finals judge. No problem doing it again the next year. Well, I just hope they don't ask me to judge the 1st and 2nd placings... after all, I'm still a rookie!