Judge Training

Judging

A hearty thank you to all our parent volunteers who have judged on their child’s behalf over the years, and to those will in the future. The truth of this activity is that it would be impossible without the support of parent judges volunteering their time week after week.

This page is intended to give some resources and background for parent judges. Whether you’re a seasoned pro looking for a refresher, or someone who until recently thought forensics was about crime scene investigation, these resources are here to help you.

In addition to the resources below, we also run an annual judge training free of charge. This is open not only to RHS families, but ANY person looking to learn to judge in New Jersey Forensics. This year’s training is October 29, 2024. We will have coaches and student officers there to train you and answer any questions you may have. 

Judging Resources

There are JUDGE ACCREDITATION courses located on the NSDA website that will allow you to earn different certificates and badges (visible on your Tabroom/NSDA Account). I would highly recommend taking a look at these! 

The NSDA provides a FREE video judge training course via the NFHS website. You will need to create a free account and “purchase” the course for $0 on the website.

In addition, we have collected several New Jersey event-specific written resources below.

General

NJSDL Judge Manual 2016-2017

NJSDL Judge Manual 2019-2020

NSDA Competition Events Guide
  How to Use E-Ballots on Speechwire.com  
One-Pagers or “Quick Guides” Debate on One Page Speech on One Page
NSDA Glossary of Speech & Debate Terms

DEBATE (LD, PF, and Parli) PowerPoint

SPEECH (Interp, Limited Prep, Public Address, and Congress) PowerPoint
Congress Basic Congress Judging Advanced Congress Judging
Lincoln-Douglas Debate (1v1) Basic LD Judging Advanced LD Judging
Public Forum Debate (2v2) Basic PF Judging Advanced PF Judging
Parliamentary Debate (2v2)  How-Tos  Reminder! Most tournaments will have Public Forum Judges judge this form of debate.
Speech Basic Speech Judging Advanced Speech Judging