Practical Certification
A quick note: As mentioned in last month's teaser, this article was originally slated to be about some of the philosophical underpinnings of tournament policy and penalties. However, shortly after that teaser was published, Level 5 judges Sheldon Menery and Toby Elliott covered a lot of the material that I intended to write that article about in their own article on magicthegathering.com, which is a great read and which I recommend highly. Because of this, though, I'm pushing back my article by a month so I've got time to add some material and try and minimize overlap. Fortunately, a request for an article also just hit the mailbag …

What is the process behind becoming certified like?
A lot of articles written by judges naturally target other judges, who are already in the program and are looking to learn more about philosophy, higher-level judging, or judging at larger events. Another subset of articles address players, helping them to understand some of what happens behind the scenes and why things are done the way that they're done.

As a reader recently mailed in to point out, though, these are only tangentially helpful to people interested in becoming new judges, who want to certify for L1 for the first time, and while there are some good basic articles on what it's like to be a judge, what the responsibilities are, and what the process requires, there isn't a good guide for what actually happens and what somebody experiences as they take the journey into certification.

So, while the process will differ based on your specific situation (for example, how available you are for judging) and on who you work with, here are the basics of how the process actually works.

Getting Started
The first thing you need to do before you get certified is to take some time and consider why you want to be a certified judge. This is both for your benefit and for the DCI's. The process isn't trivial and will require a lot of work, both on your part and on the part of the certifying judge, so while we do want to bring in as many interested judges as we possibly can, we also don't want to waste anybody's time if it turns out that the fit isn't right.

Keep in mind that the majority of tournaments that are being run are being run by uncertified judges, many of whom are very competent and can do everything they need to without being certified. If all you're interested in doing is judging the occasional small sanctioned tournament for a local store when they need somebody, and you're primarily focused on playing and uninterested in doing more judging than that, then certification might not be the right path for you. While we don't expect anyone certified to immediately switch to predominantly judging instead of playing, we do expect that it indicates a certain level of desire and commitment to judge semi-regularly, to consider judging larger events, and to keep an eye on the latest updates in the judging world. Those expectations, not coincidently, match the things that actually do change when somebody becomes certified—they're more actively mentored in the local judge community, are often considered for staffing at local premiere events, and have access to the DCI Judge mailing list to help keep up to date on the latest discussions. If none of those are useful for you, then you might already be in the right place.

If those do interest you, though, the next step is to find a judge who can actually certify you to be your mentor (and eventually your testing judge). Any Level 2 Trainer or Level 3+ judge has the ability to mentor and certify Level 1 judges, so you'll want to find one close enough for you to work with and get in contact with them.  The easiest way to do this, other than going to a local premiere event and asking the judge staff there who the senior judges in the area are, is through the Judge Center. The people section of that site allows you to search for judges by area, level, or both, and should help you to locate a senior judge near you. Searching for Level 3+ judges can be done by creating a filter on the "DCI Level" attribute, while trainers can be found by searching under the "Role" attribute for the value "Trainer".

If there's an appropriate judge close to you, you can send them mail through the Judge Center telling them that you're interested and asking if they'll work with you through the process. If there isn't, though, not all hope is lost. Even if one is a number of hours away, try contacting them and you'll find that they often can find some way to work with you anyway. And if there aren't any close that you can work something out with, certification can also happen at any Professional level event (Grand Prix, Pro Tours, etc…), though this is most likely if you contact the judging staff in advance. In both of these cases, the same kinds of things will happen that would happen in the local mentorship case, but in a compressed and expedited fashion, given the time constraints. This is obviously not as good a process overall, so tends to be reserved for those who really have no local judge that they can work with.

Meeting Your Mentor
Now that you've located a mentor, you'll need to meet them and get acquainted. Though your mentoring judge is going to want to get to know a lot about you (expect to be asked about your motivations for getting certified, whether you've done any judging before, and other background questions that you've hopefully already thought about), it's also important that you have a chance to get to know them. The judges that have advanced to a point where they can certify new judges are all experienced, senior judges and have a lot of advice that can help you, but you'll need to be comfortable enough with them to ask and to figure out how best to learn from them.

Once you've gone through your initial introductions, you'll likely talk about a couple things. Have you become a Rules Advisor? If not, what can be done to help you accomplish that?

The Rules Advisor program is a good first step toward certification. It focuses specifically on rules knowledge and passing it is a good indication that you know the rules well enough for certification—enough so that most certifying judges will ask you to become a Rules Advisor before actually giving you a Level 1 certification exam, in order to maximize your chances of succeeding at that test.

While this may seem like needless extra work if you know the rules particularly well, it's useful for everyone involved, because failing a certification exam isn't fun for anyone, and this test gives you an easy way of validating your knowledge (or to find out whether you aren't quite as knowledgeable about the intricacies of the rules as you might think, which does happen regularly).

Additionally, passing the Rules Advisor exam gets you access to the Magic Rules mailing list, where you can ask questions about any rules issues that confuse you and get official answers. This can serve as an excellent resource for your judging and for preparing for your certification exam (and also makes it a good program for those who aren't interested in the things that certification entails, but who do like being local rules gurus and want to have better resources for doing their store judging).

Second, they'll want to schedule some time for you to actually judge tournaments where they can watch you and see whether or not you're ready and in what ways you can best improve your own skills.

Trial Runs
>While there is some flexibility at the discretion of your mentor, the standard is to expect new candidates to judge at least two tournaments under observation before taking a certification exam, and oftentimes these will be premiere tournaments, where a lot of judge mentorship happens. If you haven't judged at this level before, you need to be at the top of your game. The stakes will be higher, the days will be longer, and your feet will hurt more than at your local store tournaments.

Because there is a limit of how many candidates a judge can handle at any given time and the demand can be high, the actual mentorship and training you receive will often be considered to be your compensation for working the event and you may not receive anything else. This isn't because tournament organizers don't think judges should be compensated or that you aren't valuable, but because training really is a limited resource, and because it's symbolically important to realize that judging has to be about more than material compensation because it's always harder work than the stuff you can reasonably receive in return. While compensation is nice, you have to have some other motivations that drive you as well.

Take advantage of your chance to judge these tournaments. Watch how the other judges who are more familiar with tournaments do things. Don't be afraid to ask questions, both of your mentor and of the other judges around. Keep notes on what you think you're doing well and what you think you might need to work on so that you can compare those notes with your mentor afterward. And don't forget to have fun!

After the tournament is over, your mentor will sit down with you and give you feedback on how the tournament went, what they think your strengths are, and the areas that you should work on improving. Taking critical feedback on your skills isn't something that many people encounter on a regular basis, and these discussions can be difficult, but it's an important part of the program that continues throughout your judging career, and it's important to be open to this feedback. It's certainly fine to discuss their feedback with them and to tell them the ways in which you agree and disagree, but it's also important to really think about their feedback and not just reject it out of hand.

One more important thing for you to do after judging these tournaments that isn't often mentioned—take stock of how you felt and whether you actually enjoyed yourself. What you just did was the heart of what being a certified judge is about, and it's important to realize that it's not just the DCI determining whether you'd be a good judge in the program; it's also you deciding whether the program is something that interests you. This is a good point to be honest with yourself about whether or not the program is right for you, and there's no shame in realizing that it's not right for you and to find another way to be involved that suits you better.

Getting Prepared
Once you've made it through these tournaments, assuming that all is going well, you'll be coming up on time to take your certification test, which involves a written exam as well as an interview with your mentor.

The written test is designed to gauge whether you know the rules and DCI Policy well enough to be a certified judge and a representative of the DCI. There are four principal documents at play here—the Comprehensive Rules, the Universal Tournament Rules, the Magic Floor Rules, and the Penalty Guide. You'll need to know these documents fairly well in order to pass your test, and it's important to read them through carefully, study them, and ask questions about things that confuse you.

The other judges in your community can be helpful for this—it's not uncommon for judges to get together and study together, if multiples are certifying or trying for promotions at the same time, or even just for fun. Most judges are also happy to help answer questions informally. Another good resource is the oft-mentioned IRC channel for judges, where people are happy to discuss just about anything related to judges at all hours.

Finally, back on the Judge Center, Practice Exams are available that mimic the format of the actual certification exam. The Easy Practice test is a bit easier than the test you'll be taking, but still a good guideline, while the Hard Practice test is tougher and if you can pass that, you're probably in good shape. Take a number of these and make sure you're doing well on them before taking the actual test and you'll be much more likely to succeed.

Testing and Interviewing
While sometimes the testing and interviewing process takes place away from an event, generally the most convenient thing for everyone involved is for you to take your test during an event that you're judging. While you should always be careful to take care of yourself during tournaments, drinking plenty of water and taking ample breaks, it's particularly important on a testing day, as both judging and testing can be very grueling and it's important to be at your best for both. Make sure you've gotten plenty of sleep the night before and make sure you're well prepared for your exam so that you aren't too stressed out.

The actual exam will be much like the practice exams you've already taken, but on paper. It may not be possible for you to be in a totally quiet environment since a tournament is happening, so usual test taking rules apply—make sure that you read carefully and double check your work. There will be questions that can hinge on a small detail or a word or two, and while this may seem nitpicky, real judging can also hinge on small details and the test is designed to reflect this. Take your time—there's no time limit, and ask questions if you have them.

Once you're done, your mentor will grade your test and then you'll go through an interview. A big portion of that interview will consist of going over your test, looking at the questions that you got right and wrong and using that both to better probe your understanding (finding out how much guessing was involved or figuring out what parts of the rules particularly trip you up), and to see your thinking process and how good you are at discussing rules with people and explaining your thinking, both valuable skills for dealing with players and other judges.

Assuming that you passed the test, your interview may also include other elements to talk about what you're going to do with your judging and other questions about some basic philosophy and what you bring to the table. This is much more likely to happen with testing that happens with remote mentors or at Professional events, since less of this will be known to the certifying judge, whereas with a local mentor, they should already know most of this from having worked with you.

Finally, your certifying judge will take advantage of the opportunity to give you detailed feedback on how you've been doing and will give you concrete advice on things that you need to do to improve going forward, as certification is part of an ongoing process of improving yourself as a judge.

If all has gone well, congratulations, and welcome to the ranks of the DCI-Certified Judges!

Wrapping Up
Hopefully this has been a useful guide for any of you out there who are considering starting along the journey to getting certified (or for any judges who are just starting to certify new judges). Remember that this may differ based on who you work with and your situation, and any of you who have experienced anything drastically different or who had something happen that was particularly useful for you and wasn't described here, please feel free to share it in the forums.

Next week: Johanna Virtanen with her monthly look at the world of DCI judging.

Next month: Most judges and players are familiar with the notion of the various levels of rules understanding, progressing from simply knowing the answer to a rules question to understanding how to derive that answer and why that derivation is correct. What most players might not consider, however, is that this kind of continuum also applies to tournament policy. We'll examine how to build up this level of understanding and discuss how it can help you to decipher the most difficult and borderline cases.

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Nicholas J. Fang
DCI Certified Level 3 Judge—Redmond, WA
mtgjudge@live.com
Agbaar and Ag|Work on EFnet's #mtgjudge