Hello All
This 2022-2023 season, we have won Innovate, Excellence, and Design awards! Unfortunately we did not get a Worlds invite from the MN State Championship.
However, I would like some tips for oral presentations when judges interview us. Usually what I do is I split the team with their strengths and have them talk about it (e.g. I talk about programming, notebook, alliances, and team Captaining).
I also show a slideshow and documents about the notebooks, and other documents showing things like goals, achievements, alliance selection notes, etc.
However this does take up over 10 minutes.
Any suggestions on how I should still have a top notch interview but in the time limit this upcoming season? I did create a script for the team, but anyone have suggestions?
Thanks!
Don’t show a slideshow, and don’t write a script. Just answer the questions the judges ask to the best of your ability. No need to make it complicated.
So basically just more simplified?
Read the Judging Guide - it spells out what they are looking for and the processes they use. Go to volunteers.recf.org
For note booking quest:
Thanks! I will be sure to check these out!
Yes. Your plan on having each team member cover their area of expertise is solid, but not as a set scripted presentation. Have each member introduce themselves and state their area, then let the Judges ask questions.
Each member can prepare themselves with a few things to answer questions like “What part or your program/robot/team organization are you most proud of?”
In some cases it might be useful to make copies of specific pages from the notebook that you want to talk about in case it comes up. Same with print-outs of code.
Some judges leave things open, like “Tell us about your robot for the next N minutes”. Other judges may direct the conversation with more targeted questions. If you have a script prepared, be prepared to roll with a more conversational style if that’s how the judges interact with you.
Practice your presentations interactively. Find other coaches/mentors/adults/teams to act as “judges”. Give your parents the judging rubric and have them conduct practice interviews and give feedback.
Thanks! I will definitely make sure to take this into consideration!
Got it, thanks! (20 char)
Speaking from my experience as a judge, if I start hearing you recite a script, I guarantee that I’ll (politely) interrupt your presentation with a question. My goal is to ensure you actually know what you’re talking about, and not just reciting something that your “engineer-mentor” and/or “dad-bot mentor” wrote for you to say.
To clarify by what I mean when I say “script”, I mean having something to practice with but not reciting it word-for-word. Kinda like writing important points, but not reading off of it.
My advice for teams, if you have your robot at the interview (in-person), use it to direct your responses during interview - point out mechanisms (builder/designer), point out sensors (coder)… having notebook (physical also helps to show features “ah ha” moments (e.g.“our team had a real challenge with discs getting stuck under our robot, so we spent time as a team to determine cause of problem and brainstormed different solutions … we selected the most promising one (how) and when we went to next competition, we did better as you can see in our match results in our competition reflection section…”). Trust me if your teams speaks to how the robot came to be, and the robot in front of judges and the documentation all lines up, you are headed in the right direction. Also note judges are observing your teams on the field, in the pits, …, and within a specific region, they have watch your team grow over the season, and in some cases, over multiple seasons.
Judging is one of the most rewarding aspect of VRC, ask a team to tell you about their favorite part of their robot, you usually can’t get them to stop 
I really like this idea! Thanks!