Last week I posted some basic statistical research on reviews and candidates making L3. One of the biggest problems is that counting raw review numbers doesn’t come close to telling the whole story. While I am the kind of completist megalomaniac that demands quality and quantity, given the binary choice between the two, I much choose quality.

So what is a quality review? Is there any way to measure this? And more importantly, is there any way to influence receiving quality reviews? I mentioned a few basic tips last time with the most important thing being to just ask. But who do you ask? Generally, there are two rules of thumb: someone who is more experienced than you and someone who knows you well, with the ideal being both.

This isn’t to discourage people with less experience from writing reviews, but based on the examples from the My First Review project, most newer judges write their first review just to write it, and don’t have much substantive feedback to give. “You seemed to do a good job, but I don’t know very much since this was my first PTQ” is a typical refrain from a first review.

No, you typically want feedback from those people who are more experienced than you, because they’ve been there and done that. They’ve made the same mistakes you’ve made or are about to make, and can guide you through the eddies. Levels have long served as convenient short hands for the experience of judges, and this question is no exception to that, so asking L3+s is always a good bet if you want to get quality feedback. In fact, my secondary research on the number of reviews that L3 candidates receive is going to focus on drawing this distinction. This is, after all, what these judges are trained and vetted for; 1 of the 12 Qualities of a Regional Judge is “Assessment of Other Judges” and it is an expected part of the job for L3+s to write reviews.

I have two quick caveats to this. First, not all judges are built equally in this field. If you do a little research at judge.wizards.com, you can find out who the most likely people are to deliver a review. Go to the “People” tab and click on “judges near you” to see who is writing reviews in your area. (Although, again, this only gives a pure numerical look.) Second, be mindful of a judge’s limited resources. As I said last time out, it is difficult to review everyone.

If the L3+s are occupied or you just don’t have any that you work with, all hope is not lost. Like I said, levels are just a convenient shorthand. There are plenty of excellent L2s out there who are perfectly adept at giving feedback. In fact, given that L3+s are often globe-trotting and don’t stay in the same city for two weekends in a row, L2s may be the best people to get feedback from in the long run because it is also the case that building a relationship with other judges will not only get you reviewed more, but also make the feedback that much more focused and useful to you. If you work two or three PTQs in a row with someone, getting a summary review could provide some very good, and qualitatively different, feedback.

If you’ve asked and gotten a verbal promise from a judge saying that they will write a review of you, there are a few things you should do to make sure this happens.

• Follow up on site and get verbal feedback. This frequently takes the form of the face-to-face debrief.
• Follow up after the event. Let’s say it’s been a few weeks and you still haven’t seen that promised review. Go ahead and shoot them an e-mail, Facebook message, judgeapps message, text, whatever form of communication you have with the judge.
• Follow up at another event you’re working together. At this point, you may be wondering if you’re being a pest. Truth is, yes, you are, but deservedly so because you were promised something. If you’ve reached the point where you are at another event with the judge, it may be time to give up the ghost and admit that the review from that last tournament isn’t going to happen. But hey, since you’re together at yet another event… maybe the review can even incorporate some feedback from the other event as well.
• Write a review. If you’re not into being a pest, this is a good way to lay a guilt trip while doing some work yourself.