Requirements for becoming a Student Judge
The requirements to become a Student Judge, as laid down in the Rules for Judges & Student Judges, are:
- the candidate must have been an active member in a FIFe club for at least five years
- participation as a steward a minimum of 10 times in shows where the stewards bring the cats to the judge, or 20 times where the owners carry their own cats
- at least 6 steward certificates must be obtained in at least 2 countries different from the candidate’s country of residence
- the candidate must have bred at least 3 litters under his own cattery name for a period of at least 3 years
- the candidate must have experience as an exhibitor, i.e. he must have exhibited cats at a minimum of 20 national or international shows
- at least one cat registered under his own cattery name must have obtained the title GIC/GIP during the last 5 years
- experience in organising shows is compulsory; relevant experience includes positions such as show manager, experience in the secretariat or prize room etc.
- experience as chief steward and/or ring secretary for various judges is highly recommended.
- sit a preliminary examination and attain a minimum score of 80%.
Application for admission as a Student Judge
To apply for the admission as a Student Judge to the Judges Training Programme and to sit for the preliminary examination, the Student Judge Admission form must be used. You can find this form in the section Rules & Forms.
Important documents for a Student Judge
With regard to the student judges training we would like to draw your attention to the following documents which are available for downloading on this site:
- the FIFe Standards of the breeds for each category, as well as the General Part to these Standards, in the section Breeds
- the FIFe Statutes and Rules in the section Rules & Forms
- an explanation of the FIFe EMS System in the section Rules & Forms
- the various forms for Student Judges in the section Rules & Forms.
Keeping track of Student Judge activities & Judges examination application
A tool has been developed to facilitate FIFe Members and their Student Judges in getting an overview of their activities; it can be used for European Student Judges as well as for non-European Student Judges. This tool is an Excel spreadsheet which contains several so-called “worksheets”.
Each category has its own worksheet which can be used in the following ways:
- by entering information regarding all past Student Judge activities when applying for the examination
- by entering information regarding each Student Judge activity separately right after each activity during the training period.
The tool must be used by FIFe Members when applying for examinations for their Student Judges; to this purpose the worksheet “Exam application” is made available.
The advantage of the worksheets is that it will show in one glance which requirements as laid down in the Student Judges training rules are met and which ones are not.
The tool is available for downloading in the section Rules & Forms: Student Judge Final Examination Application.
It is highly recommended to read the contents of the worksheet “Intro” which gives an explanation how the spreadsheet is set up and how it can be used.
Important notice about the training rules
We have noticed a lack of clarity and sometimes confusion amongst Student Judges as to which version of the rules regarding the Student Judge training applies to them. Some Student Judges are under the impression that these are the rules which were valid on the moment they started their training as a Student Judge. However, this is a misconception. Any change in a rule with regard to the Student Judge training is applicable to every Student Judge, no matter when the training started.