Interviews

[Anfony]

I was looking through at the criteria and I happened to notice that each team is allowed 10 minutes with the judges 5 for presentation and 5 for interviews from the judges...I was wondering what kind of questions the judges ask your represenatives?

[Lisa Perez]

They ask you to go into more detail about what you wrote about, i.e. how you felt when you did such and such activity, how that had an effect on your life, how FIRST affected you personally (as opposed to how it affected the team as a whole), how your team has progressed through the years in the different aspects of FIRST.

These are just a few of the questions I've been asked in the past. Just remember that you do have to be open to pretty much any question concerning your team, though.

[Eugenia Gabrielov]

Lisa really summed it up, I'm going to go into some more detail on that.

1) Impact

Judges like to know about individual impact stories, particularly really special ones. Try to think of a powerful example you can use that connects to the rest of your award.

2) Variety

They've read your award...try to present something more detailed or different, or show a sign of progress in one of your projects. They ask about team effort.

3) Clarification

Judges are human too, and they may have been confused by some aspect of your award. Even if they ask a quizzical question, it doesn't mean they hate you. It just means they need an answer with more information/definition.

Basically, be able to answer any question about the written award, and try to understand additional info.

[richardp]

Know everything you can about the presentation. Also know the yearbok page information. I have had judges ask questions about the size of the team and the number of girls we had on the team.

[darkstar]

Do you guys know the chairman's award site?

[brandy836]

Is this what you were looking for?

http://www2.usfirst.org/2006comp/Man...wards_RevD.pdf

[RoboMom]

Judges may ask for more in depth details about something in your submission. I encourage everyone to practice what to say in those 5 minutes. Time yourselves. It is unpleasant to interrupt a presenter, but judges need to do it to be fair to everyone. Make sure you don't save the best part for last and then never get to the best part.

The judges are on your side. They are not out to trip you up. Judges understand that you may be nervous. But please don't go into the interview unprepared. This is just like a job interview or a college interview.
Have fun!

[ooJosh384]

Emphasize your impact on the community and the outcome of FIRST on your team and graduates of your team. Don't be nervous and just let it flow.

[JC-75]

The best advice I can give you: Talk about what you know. We did a presentation with no notecards and basically just used the powerpoint to give us an order for things. It comes out a lot more professional if you just talk about topics you are very comfortable with, and describe in detail the impact that your programs have had and will have on the community at large. I hope this was helpful