Rules for Public Speaking

• There are 2levels of competition for Public Speaking Bee:
  • PS1 (Junior): Grades 6, 7 and 8
  • PS3 (Senior): Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12
    
• A 1 st rank winner at the National Finals of the North South Foundation PS3 (Senior) contest is not eligible for competing in this and future Public Speaking contests conducted by the Foundation. However, national champion of PS1 (junior) can participate in PS3 (senior.) A contestant who participated in a higher level bee cannot participate in a lower level bee in subsequent years.

Contest Procedure:

• The contestants for the competition will be placed in a separate room. Badge numbers will determine the order of the speakers.
  
• Each contestant will be escorted to a separate room 30 minutes before the contestant’s turn, where he/she will be given the speech topic. Thus the contestants will not know the topic ahead of time. The contestant can ask for an index card so that he/she can make notes that can be referred to during the speech. To increase the effectiveness of the speeches, it is highly recommended that contestants just refer to the notes on the index card and not read verbatim from the notes on the index card.
  
• The contestant will be escorted to the contest room to give the speech. The contestants will have up to 3 minutes to give a short speech on the “given topic.”
  
• The contestant will be shown a green card when 2 min are reached, a yellow card when 2 min 30 sec have been reached, and a red card once 3 minutes have been reached. The contestant should strive to finish up his/her speech within the 3 minutes limit. If the contestant goes beyond 3 min 30 seconds, points will be deducted from the total score.

Judging Rules

• Each contestant will be scored by a panel of three judges. Please click here for the judging criteria.
  
• The results of the Public Speaking Contest will be announced on the day of the contest.

Winners and Ranks

• Based on the combined scores of three judges, winners will be determined. In announcing the ranks 1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd, the judges will follow these rules:
• Announce Ranks 1, 2 and 3, if and only if there are at least 10 contestants;
• Announce Ranks 1 and 2 ONLY, if there are 8 or 9 contestants;
• Announce Rank 1 ONLY, if there are 5-7 contestants;
• DO NOT announce any ranks if there are less than 5 contestants.

Invitation to National Finals

• Only PS3 will be held at the national level during 2006. Invitation to the national finals event is based on the relative scores of all the contestants nationally and is not based on a direct correlation of ranks achieved by a contestant in a regional contest. Thus, the score of each contestant relative to all such scores around the country will determine whether the contestant will be invited to the National Finals.