FAQ Entry #504

This is a respond to a previously asked question about the A' Design Award and Competition. The full list of frequently asked questions can be accessed here.

#504: For the very same design, with the very same images, and within the very same competition category, I got totally two different preliminary scores when I submitted from different accounts. How and why this happen?

This happens rarely in cases when your design is most likely voted by different preliminary jurors and different people have different ideas, and in rare cases, a person could have a different idea in a different time, or even the same day; psychological studies have shown that, even a lunch break, or time of the day, could have a significant effect on decision mechanisms. Under normal conditions, each design is randomly assigned to a specific preliminary jury member, we usually prefer to have the same jury member to check the same work whenever you update it, this provides a level of consistency; i.e. your design would initially be assigned to a random preliminary jury member, and get a score, and later if you made an improvement to your design, the same preliminary jury member, who gave you the first score, would could check it once again and provide you with an update, however in some cases, the same jury member is not available so your work might get voted by another jury member, likewise, and especially if you created another account and submitted the very same design, this very same design will most likely be assigned to a totally different jury member, a different person, with different preferences, different taste, in this case, the preliminary score you get could be significantly different (could be lower or higher or maybe it could be the same) from the score you get from another jury member. Why? Because different jurors have different opinions on how good a design is, and some jurors assign higher scores always, while some jurors assign lowest scores always; this is due to personal biases; some people are picky, and others are more liking. In any case, if you receive contradictory scores, you might take the average of such scores, as a point of consideration. In the end, you should remember that the preliminary scores are not binding, furthermore the preliminary scores will not be visible to the grand jury during voting, and your preliminary score will not have any effect on your design evaluation or ranking; only the grand jury votes and scores will be relevant. Indeed, we eliminate individual biases, such as the one you experienced (different preliminary scores from different people) during grand jury voting; we do not consider the absolute scores of individuals; the preliminary score is an absolute score assigned by one individual, but the final jury ranking is based on relative scores of many individuals, final score and voting is based on standard deviations of individuals; let us explain this further; if your design is voted by a jury member (juror A), who on average gave everyone a 2 out of 10; and then gave your work a score of 3 (absolute score is 3), that 3 score is actually positive vote (relatively), you get good score from juror A, even though it seems low in absolute terms, it is relatively high for the juror A herself; on the other hand, if your design is voted by another jury member (juror B), who on gave average everyone an 8 out of 10, a 7 (absolute score) by that jury member B, is a negative vote (relatively), a vote of 7 by Juror B is negative in relative terms. If only absolute scores were considered, your design would not be fairly judged, in the final voting, we consider relative scores. That's why a big jury is important, having a big jury helps us eliminate personal biases, and focus on real preferences. Please do not fixate on the preliminary juror's scores so much, they can be biased and we remove such bias during grand jury voting by considering relative meanings of scores instead of absolute numbers. For further details please check methodology section.

Keywords: preliminary score, score issue, preliminary check, deviation in preliminary score, preliminary score difference, difference in preliminary score, preliminary checks, preliminary evaluation.

The following questions could be related:

• #92: Can I send you my designs so that you can check it if they are good enough for the competition?
• #94: I am not so sure about which competition category to join for, can you help me?
• #149: How can I learn if my design is applicable, or if my entry be counted or if my design is eligible for winning the award?
• #151: I have received many status updates, what do they mean?
• #161: I have received an email stating that I have passed the preliminaries, but do I need to nominate my submission to win, could you please explain how this works?
• #229: I have submitted a design with images, but received an email stating that there is not any images, is there anything wrong with my submission?
• #242: I see that my vote went down (or up) after I updated the presentation very slightly, could you explain why this happens?
• #247: I wanted to inquire on what is the average time duration for the free preliminary evaluation to complete to know if our designs are adequate for nomination.
• #256: How can I know if my design project is good enough to win the contest?
• #257: If I fix the client / studio section and input my brand info, would it raise my preliminary score?
• #264: My preliminary score decreased after making improvements in design, how is this possible? Which award status will my design have?
• #271: I have uploaded my entry several days ago, but I did not see or receive any updates so far for this entry, its status still seems to be new, I wanted to ask that if there is any absent info for preliminary check?
• #274: I have put a substantial amount of effort into all of our submissions to boost my submission analysis scores and each submission has now gained a 99/100 score. Yet I received a low preliminary score. Could you advise what is required to get a better score then I have received.
• #299: Why was my preliminary score decreased from 7 to 6 after I improved and modified all suggestions from preliminary jury?
• #300: My project got X points from the preliminary tests. Is there any chance to raise my design points to the 9-10 range if I consider and apply your recommendations?
• #316: I have uploaded the new images. Could I expect a new voting for preliminary score?
• #317: I uploaded my project in order to have a preliminary judging service, but I haven't been able to get it. How can I get it?
• #318: Do we have to nominate each project that we upload to the system. I mean that can we decide to nominate our projects according to the preliminary checks?
• #320: We have just updated all the text fields with better descriptions. However, after we've done that, the preliminary score we received earlier, seems to have disappeared. Is there a particular reason for that? Moreover, is it possible to get a new preliminary score (besides the professional preliminary evaluation) ?
• #330: The preliminary check was not as accurate as I expected, I am an important designer and I deserve to know more about my work.
• #331: Honestly I can't settle with the preliminary score that was given already by the jury member.
• #335: At the end of the competition, I would like to ask you about preliminary score, it decreased the last day, can you please increase it?
• #360: If we choose to get a preliminary evaluation for our design by uploading or work, is it obligatory to nominate the projects later or can we decide and pay the nomination after known the score?
• #363: I have uploaded my design, how should I apply for Free Preliminary Check?
• #366: I would like to know if the nomination procedure is compulsory for each design entry?
• #375: After awards announcement, I notice my presentation score changed, it went to 98 from 100, how come!
• #378: Which is the next stop if our design has passed the preliminary test? Do I have to nominate my design, how can i do it? which is the deadline?
• #381: I have already registered my entry but I need to know that do I have to pay any money for the first judgment or not? How many times our entry would be judged?
• #383: I got different preliminary scores on different dates with different account types, there was one point difference. Has the account type any effect on our score?
• #384: We will not nominate our design due to the negative feedback of the preliminary test but are we obliged to nominate our design or can we participate with another project?
• #391: I would like to ask about registration fees since it is not very clear to me. If I understand it correctly, we can submit our products for free and pay after preliminary checking if the results are good, right?
• #397: Can we submit our products free and decide on nomination after the preliminary score?
• #398: After nominating my work and paying for the nomination, it possible for me to win the prize？
• #414: My friend has not gotten any preliminary score, there is a question mark in her page, how she can get preliminary score?
• #415: I have updated the details of the entry as well as images, but my preliminary score remained the same. Is that because there are no more evaluations before the deadline? I am too late for a preliminary score?
• #441: I had nominated my design and got a Preliminary Evaluation and score. As your suggestion, I am working on editing my design and updates, can I still get a Preliminary Evaluation again with free of charge?
• #442: I recently nominated my design so that I could take advantage of the early nomination fee. I am now a little worried as my submission needs a lot of work and I will be unable to make it perfect for the next few months as my photographer is away. How long do I have to make the required changes to my design please?. As I would like to make it perfect before final judgement. Also will my submission compromised as I nominated the design too early or is it only fully judged at a later date?
• #462: I have uploaded my designs in my hidden cabinet, and I would like to use Preliminary check before nomination. How could i activate this service?
• #470: I have submitted my designs but did not get scores, did I forgot anything?
• #476: My better design got a worse preliminary score than my other design, why is that and how does it happen?
• #482: May I purchase the entry now, but submit my work later? Do I need to firstly do the Preliminary Score Test ? When can I use the ticket last?
• #492: I did not get a preliminary score and my entry was rejected! WHY!
• #496: Our preliminary score is low can you increase it? We think if you increase our preliminary score, the grand design award jury might give us a higher evaluation?

If you did not find your answer, please feel free to check the faq pages for more questions and answers. You will also want to check our webpage for details; thanks to our transparency policy, we document and publish everything.