I'm taking my Preliminary moves test soon and was wondering if someone could explain how it's judged. thanks!

Hi IceAngel, I think I can help. Preliminary through Senior moves are judged a bit differently than PrePreliminary, which is pass/fail. For each element on the Preliminary test, you will receive a point value. I don't have my test sheet in front of me from when I took Preliminary moves, so I'm just guessing on these figures. Say there are four elements on the test, and each are given a "passing score" of 3.0. That means if you receive a 3.0 on each element for a total of 12.0 you pass the test. If you do poorly on one of the four elements, and say get a 2.7, you can still pass the test as long as you get more than 3.0 on the other elements, for a cumulative score of 12.0. Make sense? Whatever the "passing total" is for the test has to be achieved, whether it's by getting all 3.0's, or a combination of other marks. This is good in case you have one or two moves that are weaker than the others. As long as you have a few strong elements , you still have a chance of passing.

I hope this helps and is not too confusing!

The passing average for preliminary is 2.5 per move.

That would be an excellent question to ask your coach. To whom you pay a lot of money for his/her expertise. Panel sizes vary from club to club, so he/she could also give you info on that.

Don't know how it is in your club, but in my club they ask you to perform the moves in the prescribed order as in the rulebook:
1 Forward and Backward Crossovers (figure 8 pattern)
2 Consecutive Outside and Inside Spirals
3 Forward Power 3-turns
4 Alternating Forward 3-turns
5 Alternating Back Crossovers to Back Outside Edges

My (11 year old!) skating buddy took her preliminary moves test yesterday (and passed .2 over!) I had not seen a test like that run before.

They opted to have the 1 higher level judge. However, the kids were skating on an open freestyle session! Everyone warmed up and the tests were run with everyone else on the ice!! I had not heard of that before, but it seemed to mostly work. I didn't see anyone have to reskate due to another skater getting in the way.

Good luck on your test!! I am testing my bronze dances on Wednesday!

Hugs!
Danielle

O goodie! Im taking my test too!

I'm taking my Preliminary Moves test at the end of November. On the first move, the crossovers in a large figure 8, my coach has had me doing the front crossovers and then doing a mohawk and going right into the back crossovers. But the rulebook seems to indicate that they're sort of separate moves. Did anyone else do it all at once, or did you stop in between the forward and backward crossovers?

(And yikes, I hope they're lenient on the spirals!)

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Yepp i agree , i cant say that my spirals are the best!
I really need to work on my left forward inside, and always remember to look up!
The last few times i went flat on my face!

My club's test chair always makes the tester do a full stop, then start the backwards piece, instead of skating the forwards and backwards crossovers as 2 pieces of 1 continuous move.

I have always seen people stop too. In my silver moves, the day of the test, everyone in pre-juv was stopping between the halves of the two 3's in the fields move. That through me for a loop and I tried it that way for the first time during the test ;-)

I would at least practice the backward 8 from a stop a few times just in case!! Also, I would ask your coach about it.

Good luck!!
Hugs!
Danielle

Our testers definitely stop between moves and wait for the nod of the head judge to continue. You have to allow time for the judges to finish their scoring and notes. You don't want to start the next move and have them not be watching...

Well good luck to everyone who is testing them!

First of all, the judges are not lenient on spirals, from what I've seen. But remember, you only have to lift your leg to hip height. We're not talking Sasha spirals, here.

My coach worked with me a lot on getting into the spiral position quickly after the stroke; in other words, not waiting till you're halfway around the circle before you get your leg up. This was most difficult for me on the inside spirals.

As for the question about the crossovers -- DEFINITELY stop between forward and backward. The judges have a different line on their scoring sheet for each move, so they need time to stop and write comments. If you don't stop, the head judge may stop you and/or make you start over.

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