There are 10 categories, each scored out of 10, for a total possible score of 100 points per judge. Most competitions have 5 judges, for a total possible point value of 500.
Placements in competition are determined by Rank Point Total (RPT), not total points. A tabulator takes the scores and assigns Ranks to each team for each judge (i.e. highest scoring team gets a rank of "1".) The highest and lowest ranks are dropped for each team, and the remaining ranks are added together to get a team's RPT. The team with the lowest RPT wins.
Example: "Judge 1" gave Team A the highest score of all teams and Team B the second highest score, so Team A gets a Rank of "1" and Team B gets a Rank of "2" from "Judge 1". "Judge 2" gave Team B the highest score of all teams, and Team A the second highest score of all teams, so Team B gets a Rank of "1" and Team A gets a Rank of "2" from "Judge 2". The process repeats for Judges 3-5 for all teams. Team A gets ranks of 1, 2, 1, 1, 3. Drop a "1" and the "3" for a RPT of "4". Team B gets ranks of 2, 1, 2, 3, 2. Drop the "1" and the "3" for a RPT of "6". Team A wins because they have a lower RPT.
Learn more about how dance team scoring works by watching the video below!