The Coaches Committee established the following policy at the 2013 Annual Meeting relative to Official Committee reading contestant reasons, when an "excessive" number of contestants participate.
The policy has been established to assure that each committee use the same criteria when determining which and how many reason sets will be read by each official.
The priority for reading reasons will be as follows:
Alternates Division results. For ease in determining numbers competing, a count of each school’s contestants will be taken at the coaches meeting the night before each contest. If a school is not going to be present at a meeting, that school MUST submit numbers to AMSA Program Coordinator by 5 pm the night of the coaches meeting so they can be notified if any alternates need to be designated as NOT to have their reasons graded.
If more than 100 contestants (including alternates) register the morning of/compete in any fall contest (other than the International), 100 reasons will be graded together by official committee members and alternate reasons will count toward Alternate Division results. The team(s) with the greatest number of alternates will designate which alternate reasons will not be read. The 100 contestants will be determined as demonstrated below.
Only alternate contestants whose reasons are read will be eligible for the Alternate Division awards.
At the International contest, only reasons written by the contestants designated as the team representing their college or university will be sorted and (randomly) presented to official committee members for grading.
The Contest Superintendent will poll all colleges and universities each spring (prior to the RMC) to determine the approximate number of contestants expected the upcoming fall contests. If contestant numbers are expected to be substantially different than is covered by the above points, the policy may be revised at the annual IMCC meeting at RMC.
Scoring Emphasis
Accurate descriptions of the class should receive the greatest emphasis. Reasons should accurately portray a student’s observations and “reasoning” for placing the class. While students should be encouraged to be individualistic in their presentations, they should also be encouraged to communicate with proper terminology and grammar. Very little emphasis should be placed on style when grading reasons. However, listed below are some points which should be adhered to:
Organization
Reasons should be well organized and proper sentence structure should be followed at all times. Generally, all paragraphs, except the last one, should be written using comparative terms.
Deductions are in order if reasons are highly unorganized and difficult to comprehend.
Terminology
Proper carcass and cut terminology should be used at all times when describing exhibits. Also, proper descriptive terms (e.g., thickness, depth, width, etc.) should be used. The terminology presented in the “Meat Evaluation Handbook” and this document should be acceptable to contest officials as well as students and teachers. While the terminology in these documents is meant to be as comprehensive as possible, it is recognized that other terminology may be acceptable.
When contest officials encounter “unusual” terminology, every effort should be made to determine what a contestant is describing. However, teachers and students should realize that use of other than these recognized terms may result in point deductions. Any questions on terminology by contest officials should be referred to the committee chairman.
Tense
Reasons should be written in either past or present tense. No point deductions should be made if a contestant writes in present tense. If a contestant is inconsistent in the use of past or present tense, minor point deductions may be warranted. Opportunities may arise when future tense may be used. No point deductions should be made when such incidents occur.
Punctuation
Points should not be deducted for punctuation errors since many points of punctuation are discretionary in nature. However, teachers should emphasize the importance of correct punctuation.
Spelling
An occasional misspelling of a word should not merit point deductions. However, repeated misspellings of the same word or many misspellings should warrant minor point deductions.
Penmanship
Penmanship should not influence the scoring of reasons. However, teachers should emphasize the importance of “readable” presentations. Students should also try to avoid mark-outs, etc. when preparing reasons.
Excess Filler
Coverage of major and minor differences should be stressed, rather than excess words to fill up the page. Teachers should discourage the use of filler. Filler should be considered for point deductions only when it is incorrect.
Mixed Numbers
Mixing of numbers (anything different from the placing at the top of the report of reasons card) is a serious mistake and point deductions should be warranted, especially if mixed numbers are a frequent occurrence. The reasons should be graded as written; however, if intent is clear (e.g., a simple number switch in a paragraph), no deduction or only a minor deduction may be in order.
Allocation of Points
Reasons should be scored by paragraph. The most common distribution is 15, 15, 15 and 5 for the first pair, second pair, third pair, and last paragraph, respectively. Other distributions may be in order depending upon the difficulty of the class. However, unequal point distribution among the first three paragraphs is discouraged because of the difficulties associated with other than correct placings. The last paragraph should receive less emphasis since a rather detailed description of the last place exhibit was presented in the third paragraph. Distribution of points should be discussed by the Official Committee and a committee decision on point allocation may be in order.
Grading Order
All reasons should be graded in random rather than in numerical contestant order. However, the contest official may find it advantageous to grade all similar placings together.
Comments
The reasons grader is strongly encouraged to write constructive comments on the reasons. The reason grader should strive to make all comments interpretable by the student and teacher. When point deductions are made for factors other than accuracy of observations, the official is encouraged to make notations (e.g., spelling –2, mixed numbers –3, etc.).
Official Notes
Each contest official will prepare a set of notes for the class/classes for which he/she serves as the primary official. The notes should include the major and minor points related to the official placing, they should be educational, and they should include the point allocation for each paragraph for the reasons class. Logical/proper abbreviations are acceptable. Officials are strongly encouraged to include explanations of unusual scoring marks in their notes. Also, officials are strongly encouraged to include notes for common switches. A copy of the official notes for each class will be provided to the coach of each team. The official committee (or at the minimum, the Committee chairperson) should review the official notes for accuracy, proper terminology, etc.