North Texas Longhorns District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

Novice Competition

The District Committee has added an opportunity for novice competitors to participate alongside the national qualifying events this year!

What is a Novice?

A novice is a competitor that is in their first year of competition at the high school level.

Novice Congress:

Novice Congress will be held on Monday, April 7 at the Plano ISD Sockwell Center at the same time / place as the national qualifying version. Novice competitors will use the same legislation as the national qualifying students throughout the day. If there are 20 or fewer novice entries, we will have one session that covers the entire day. If we have more than 20 competitors, we will have a prelim session breaking to a Final and a Consolation session in the afternoon. Either way, novice students will be able to participate the full day.

Please note: Novice Congressional competitors who are National Qualifying eligible (25+ merit points) and from schools with incomplete congress entries may be "collapsed" into the varsity division for the morning session to ensure thedistrict takes the maximum number of qualifiers possible. Novice students bumped into the variety division who advance to varsity finals will be eligible to qualify for nationals based on their placement in the final round. Novice students who do not advance to finals will be placed in the highest novice chamber for the afternoon session.

Novice Interp:

Students competing in Novice Interp may perform either a Humorous or Dramatic selection. All interp performances will be combined into one event. Judges will be asked to recognize that HI and DI have different emotional tones and to evaluate the acting ability / effectiveness regardless of the genre presented.

Novice Platform Speaking:

Students competing in Novice Platform Speaking may perform either an original Informative Speech or Oration. All platform performances will be combined into one event. Judges will be asked to recognize that Info and OO have different styles and conventions (including the use of visual aids) and to evaluate the speaker's ability to effectively communicate the speech's message and goal regardless of the persuasive (or lack thereof) nature of the presentation.

Novice Extemp:

Students competing in Novice Extemp will draw from a mixture of DX and FX topics each round.

Basic IE Schedule:

Novice Extemp, Platform Speaking, and Interp will have two guaranteed prelim rounds. The top six will advance to a final round. All Novice IE rounds will take place on Saturday, April 12.

Novice Judging:

Schools are expected to fill judging obligations for the novice division. Each judge can fill two categories of obligation. All school provided judges must be able to objectively evaluate / rank students from their home campus.

REGISTRATION LOCATED HERE