New Judge Training

Thank you for judging at the 2024 UCLA Invitational! Well-trained judges are essential to making the tournament run, and to making sure students have a fun, fair, and educational round experience. The Debate Union at UCLA offers three methods for new judges to become accredited to judge at our tournament.

1. Attend one of our judge training sessions. You can RSVP at this link. These interactive online training sessions will be hosted over Zoom from 7-8 pm on the Thursday or Friday before the tournament, November 14th and 15th. The trainings will cover the events, judging standards, note-taking and ballot completion. New judges can attend either of the trainings to become accredited, and do not need to attend both. Experienced judges can optionally attend these trainings. Notes from these trainings will be posted on tabroom as a reference for judges during the tournament.
2. Complete Level 2 NSDA Judge Accreditation. Judges only need to watch event modules for the events they are judging, i.e. speech judges do not need to watch debate modules and vice-versa. These modules are asynchronous and self-paced, and can be used in lieu of the live training, if we can verify the judge's accreditation on tabroom, or if the judge or coach emails us evidence of the modules' completion. Judges who attend our live training do not need to also be NSDA accredited.
3. Receive training from your school's coach, students or experienced judges. This training should cover the standards judges should use to make their rankings and win-loss decisions, how to fill out a ballot, and the basics of the events they will be judging. Judges or coaches can email us to confirm that their judge has been trained independently. Training can also be accomplished through a practice round where judges evaluate students on the team and then receive feedback on their ballot and feedback, though there is no requirement that trainings include a practice round.