Score Calculation

AwardKit uses a transparent scoring system so anyone can verify how results are calculated. The formula depends on which voting method you're using. This page is the ground-truth reference: bookmark it for sponsors and judges who want to understand the math.

Score Criteria

With Score Criteria, the final score is a weighted average across all judges.

How it works

1. Each judge scores every criterion on the scale you configured (0-5, 0-10, or 0-100)
2. Criterion weights are applied to calculate each judge's weighted score for the entry
3. The final score is the average of all judges' weighted scores

Example

For an entry scored by 3 judges with 4 criteria weighted at 25% each (on a 0-10 scale):

Judge A's weighted score: (9 x 0.25) + (8 x 0.25) + (7 x 0.25) + (8 x 0.25) = 8.00

Final score: (8.00 + 8.50 + 8.75) / 3 = 8.42 / 10

Unequal weights

With unequal weights, criteria contribute proportionally:

Missing and excluded scores

If a judge hasn't finished scoring an entry, their evaluation is excluded entirely. Only completed reviews count toward the final score. For example, if 5 judges are assigned but only 3 have finished, the final score is the average of those 3.

A judge who declared a conflict of interest on an entry is excluded the same way: their scores for that work in that category are set aside (not deleted) and never enter an average, a rank, or a winner snapshot. Undoing the recusal brings them back.

Entries with no counted scores at all sink to the bottom of their category's ranking rather than being dropped.

Per-category rubrics

Each category is scored on exactly one rubric: its own rubric if you customized it, otherwise the default rubric. A category's own rubric replaces the default for that category, it isn't merged with it, so the weighted-average formula above always runs over a single set of criteria whose weights total 100%.

When a work is entered in several categories, it earns a separate score in each, computed from that category's rubric, and each score feeds that category's leaderboard independently.

Top Picks

With Top Picks, a ballot is a ranked list of favorites per category, and results are points: a rank-based tally (a Borda count) that rewards both how often an entry was picked and how highly it was ranked. The same math applies to the judges' Top Picks ballot and to the audience's favorites ballot.

How it works

1. Each voter selects and ranks their favorites in each category (for example 3 picks)
2. Points are awarded by rank: 1st pick gets the most points, last pick gets 1 point. With 3 picks: 1st = 3 points, 2nd = 2 points, 3rd = 1 point
3. The category result is the total points across all voters, shown next to the number of voters who picked the entry

A partial ballot still counts: every pick that was cast earns its points, so a voter who stopped after their first pick still contributed a first-place pick.

Example

With 5 voters and 3 picks each (1st = 3pts, 2nd = 2pts, 3rd = 1pt):

Entry Alpha: (3 x 3) + (1 x 2) + (0 x 1) = 11 points

Entry Echo received no picks, so it has 0 points and sits at the bottom. The maximum possible total equals the number of picks times the number of voters (15 here), reached only if every voter placed the entry 1st.

Assignment modes

Points are summed over the voters who actually picked, so an entry seen by more judges can collect more points. With the Per judge or Rooms assignment modes, keep the panels the same size (or compare within a room) so the totals stay comparable.

Ranking and ties

Entries are ranked by their final score, highest first. When two or more entries have the same score, they share the same rank using Olympic-style numbering (1, 1, 3). Within a shared rank, entries are listed alphabetically by entry name, so the order on the leaderboard carries no meaning beyond the rank number.

For ties at a critical position (Winner vs. Finalist, for example), you decide by assigning the award. The leaderboard remains visible for transparency. Best practice: document any manual override decision in your program records so you can explain it later if asked.

Judge vs. audience results

If your program also lets the public vote, judges and the audience are tallied independently, each on their own ballot: a weighted average for a rubric, points for a favorites ballot. The two are never averaged into one number. On the Results page, use the Judges / Audience / Compare switch to see each ranking on its own, or both ranks side by side.

This is the basis for "People's Choice" sidecar awards alongside the juried winners: the most audience points wins People's Choice, regardless of where the entry lands in the juried ranking, and a combined prize is decided by reading the two ranks together.