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Consumer Judging

Consumer judging is a 4-H consumer education activity that teaches decision-making skills in the marketplace.

By participating in the project, 4-H’ers learn to:

make knowledgeable, rational decisions when purchasing goods and services;
select and use goods and services to meet personal needs and reflect lifestyles, goals, values, and resources;
act as an informed citizen with an understanding of consumer rights and responsibilities; and
communicate justification of consumer choices and decisions in a logical and articulate manner. Consumer judging can help participants to break the spiraling cycle of buy now, buy lots, and pay later!

The South Carolina 4-H State Consumer Judging Contest, held most years in June, attracts about 200 youngsters. During the years we have held this contest, participants have judged a large variety of consumer goods and services. We usually have one category that contains food items, such as sports drinks, fast food chicken nuggets, muffin mixes, popcorn, and vending machine snack foods. We also try to have a clothing class that contains items like jeans, boxer shorts, beach towels, sweatshirts, and sweaters. Each year we also have a Mystery Class, for which participants are not given any specific fact sheets. We feel this is a true test of their consumer decision-making skills.

You can view more information for the 2005 Consumer Judging Contest online.

Contest Eligibility

4-H participation is open to all youth regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, marital, or family status.

Juniors: For the Consumer Judging Contest, youth must be 9 years old as of 12:00 a.m. on January 1^st of the present year to compete as a Junior.
Seniors: For the Consumer Judging Contest, youth must be 15 years old by 12:00 a.m. on the date of the State Contest, but not older than 19, to compete as a Senior.

The Consumer Judging Manual is also available online for your use.

There are educational kits available to use to train youth for this exciting contest. You may borrow these kits from the online ordering system. The following table lists the consumer judging kits by item code and title/description.

Item Code	Title/Description
7724	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #10
7725	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #11
7791	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #12
6770	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #2
6771	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #3
6781	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #4
6782	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #5
6783	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #6
6845	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #7
6846	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #8
6992	Consumer Judging Practice Kit #9
6753	Consumer Judging Skills for a Lifetime

If you have questions about the fact sheets, please contact the appropriate subject matter specialist directly. If you have questions about the contest, contact Nancy Porter.

Additional Resources

Washington State University has a 4-H Learning Guide, “Learning Through Judging” that might be useful in training your Consumer Judging participants.

The Financial Champions 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System (4HCCS) curriculum also contains a unit entitled “You Be the Judge” in Book 2, Money Moves. These project books are available by ordering from the 4HCCS webpage.

** You need the free Adobe Reader to access the Consumer Judging Manual.
If you do not have it installed on your computer, you can download it now.

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Webmaster: Linda McGee, Extension Family and Consumer Sciences, Clemson University
Last update: October 1, 2007