The beauty pageant judging criteria is very important since it is the tool used to help judges determine who their winners will be. It is the perfect guideline to realize and define the official representative of the company, state, or country the pageant title is serving. The criteria will also serve as the basis for the flow of the show, whereas the scoring system will materialize its endeavor. This article now delves into the subject that is critical to organizers and judges. Here you will find sample criteria I have composed for them. On the latter part of this article is a discussion of four scoring systems. Feel free to choose from them if you are an organizer.
Sample Beauty Pageant Judging Criteria
Screening Criteria
1. Beauty of Face – 20 points
2. Figure and Height – 15 points
3. Skin and Complexion – 10 points
4. Intelligence – 10 points
After the screening, all of the candidates will again be on equal ground as the scores will revert back to zero.
Preliminaries’ Criteria
1. Beauty of Face (No Make-Up)
– 20 points
2. Body Proportion (Swimwear)
– 15 points
3. Skin and Complexion (Swimwear)
– 10 points
4. Personality (Activities)
– 10 points
I strongly advise that a pre-pageant be done to have a viable set of finalists. The organizers and the committee meet with the girls every day, and they are the ones who can attest to a candidate’s perfect performance and natural beauty. With pre-pageant, they are helping the pageant night judges to make credible judgments and choose the right candidate. Not having it would give way to undesirable results as the girls will be on equal footing once again on pageant night. Not to mention, everything would have already been enhanced with their heavy make-up and with the lighting effects. Natural beauty may be harder for them to detect as well as natural talent and character.
Pageant Criteria
1. Beauty of Face (Pre-judging)
– 10 points
2. Figure & Catwalk (Swimsuit)
– 10 points
3. Poise and Bearing (Gown)
– 10 points
4. Intelligence (Question & Answer)
– 10points
Possibly, the preliminary scores in Beauty of Face will be added to the pageant night scores to complete the final scores of the semi-finalists. But, if you prefer to allot a casual interview during the pageant night as a qualifying round together with their swimsuit and gown score, then, by all means, do. Be cautious, though, for this is going to extend your target time to finish the show. Instead of having the casual interview on the stage, I would recommend it to be done 1 hour before the contest on a closed-door and close-up set-up so as not to prolong the main show on the stage.
Binibining Pilipinas Beauty Pageant Judging Criteria
For reference, here is a criteria of a pageant in the Philippines before.
1. Beauty of Face (Self-Intro)
– 50%
2. Figure (Swimsuit)
– 30%
3. Poise and Personality (Gown)
– 10%
4. Intelligence (Question & Answer)
– 10%
Universal Beauty Pageant Judging Criteria
Personality
A pageant is a parade and celebration of beauty participated in by beauty-queen-aspiring-candidates who fulfill a set criteria as a basis for selection. In a prestigious pageant with hundreds of applicants, you are sure to find that the official candidates are almost all equally beautiful, making it difficult to choose one winner based on physical attractiveness alone. Beauty then cannot be the only criterion to set winners apart from numerous hopefuls. Personality plays a great and vital role.
Personality matters. Most beauty pageant selection committees deem this as one important factor. They dread the idea of choosing a beautiful girl and nothing more to represent their institution or pageant. Beauty without character is flat. What they want is to choose someone who can talk. Someone who is respectable and reciprocates respect from others. Someone who is of good repute, including the reputation of family and relatives. Someone disciplined and responsible. And finally, someone who is mature regardless of her age.
The committee does not need a girl, what they need and look for is a woman. A lady in the fullest, finest sense of the word.
Confidence
A beauty pageant is not just about being yourself. That is easy to say when you have already won. A pageant is a show according to beauty queen maker Jonas Antonio Gaffud of Aces and Queens before.
“…it is a show, so you have to show something… And from that, you need confidence.” He said.
Gabriela Isler, Miss Universe 2013 once told:
“If you have confidence, you can show your personality. You can have a beautiful face and beautiful hair, but if you’re not confident, you cannot show your personality. If you do not believe in yourself, nobody will believe in you. So, be confident and enjoy the moment because it’s (a) once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Ariella Arida, Miss Universe 2013, 3rd runner-up also affirms:
“Beauty pageant is not about being perfect. It is about confidence. It is about bringing out the best in oneself and being who you are.”
Miss International 2013, Bea Rose Santiago:
“Beauty pageant is not about face and figure. Usually, the ones who make it are not necessarily the prettiest, but the most confident.”
With these statements from beauty queens and a premier pageant trainer, a great personality may go unnoticed and is useless if you do not have the right amount of confidence to show it.
Intelligence
When you decide to join a beauty pageant, intelligence does not just denote your vast knowledge of the world. Intelligence in beauty pageants means a full understanding of yourself – how well you know and understand your own person. It encompasses your maturity in thinking and your level of responsibility and concern over matters that may be relevant during the question and answer portion. Intellect also includes proper usage – which provides for fluency, pronunciation, and delivery – of the language you are to use in answering.
Intelligence also contributes to one’s confidence. Knowing the answer to each and every possible question in the pageant gives you the confidence you need to deliver your answers effectively.
Beauty of Face
As much as facial aesthetics or beauty of face can give you a fair advantage over other candidates, it is not the totality by which the pageant revolves around. Sure, it may help in getting you chosen as the judges’ bet or the crowd favorite and etc., but you need to be more than just a pretty face to win the title and the crown.
What you need is holistic beauty. Beauty in appearance and personality, intelligence and confidence, and of course, a big heart, will surely help you win the pageant.
Figure
A stunning figure is also a factor critically judged in a pageant. In prestigious events, figure (swimsuit competition) is given more points than poise (gown competition). An unflattering figure of a candidate denotes a lack of discipline, motivation, and disregard for one’s health. This is the common reason why some candidates are unable to join the final cut though they have qualified for the semi-final round.
Scoring Systems to Interpret your Criteria
Based on observation, here are four common ways used to interpret or tally scores in the pageant judging criteria:
1. Standard System
This system removes the highest and the lowest scores (sample score 92, 89, etc.) of the candidates, respectively, and average what is left to avoid bias.
2. Standard System with Pure Ranking
This system is almost the same as the first one. However, it is not the total scores that you sum and average but the ranks (sample rank. 1, 3, 5, etc.) of the candidates without their lowest and highest rankings. This is the fairest scoring system for me.
3. Local Averaging System
This system is what we often use here in our local pageants. Using this system, the scores are simply summed and averaged, and that’s it – we have our set of winners.
It may be the easiest, but it is not without bias. The results may easily be manipulated by a judge in favor of his bet. He can score his favorite candidate unreasonably higher than all the other girls, and this will surely affect the general scores and final averages.
This kind of bias is not possible in the first two systems I have mentioned.
4. Local Averaging System with Pure Ranking
In this scoring system, the committee tallies and averages the rankings of a candidate from the different judges’ scorecards.
These scoring systems do not have much of a difference when it comes to validity, provided that none of the judges would favor a candidate unfairly by giving her too high or too low a score in the Local Averaging System. The importance of knowing the beauty pageant criteria is discussed in How To Win A Pageant.
Bonus: Line to Remember for the Judges
To all who would be invited as a pageant judge, here is my favorite line to remember, from the song, The Prayer:
And help us to be wise,
In times when we don’t know.
Let this be our prayer,
When we lose our way.
Songwriters: David W. Foster / Tony Renis / Carole Bayer Sager / Alberto Testa
Leave a Reply