Scoring Policies and Procedures

The National Science Olympiad scoring procedure is followed at the Arkansas Science Olympiad State tournament. Teams get points for each event as follows:

  • After all teams have competed in an event, the event supervisor assigns place points for each team. The team with the best score in the event receives one place point, the second best team receives two place points and so on.
  • Each event has a method to break ties. There are no ties allowed in any event with the exceptions of Participation point (P), No Show points (NS), and Disqualification (DQ) points.
  • In the very unlikely case that a team participates in an event but cannot be ranked by the event supervisor, e.g. because of total mechanical failure of a device, the event supervisor will assign participation points (P) for that team. Participation points equal the number “n” of teams registered for the tournament.
  • The event supervisor will assign no show points (NS) for teams that do not show up to an event. Teams with NS points in an event will receive n + 1 points for that event.
  • The event supervisor will assign disqualified points (DQ) for teams that are disqualified for behavior problems or poor sportsmanship. Teams with DQ points in an event place will receive n + 2 points.
  • The scores for each team will be totaled in the scoring room to determine an overall score team that will be used to rank teams from first to last place.
  • The team with the lowest overall points wins the first place trophy, the team with second lowest overall points wins the second place trophy and so on. Teams that participate in all events generally achieve a better overall rank than teams that do not participate in all events.
  • If two teams tie for total points, the tie breakers are, in order,
    1. The team with the highest number of gold medals wins the tie.
    2. If the teams are still tied, the team with the highest number of silver medals wins the tie.
    3. If the teams are still tied, the team with the highest number of bronze medals wins the tie.
    4. If the teams are still tied, the team placed higher in a predetermined event wins the tie.