How to calculate your USPSA Score?

[RolexJohn]

Greetings,

I shot my 2nd USPSA match this weekend, and placed 4th.  I'm trying to analyze the Practiscore data to see where I can improve my performance.  What I don't know is the formula for combining your hits, time, etc. into your final score.  Can someone help me understand how the scores are calculated?

[motosapiens]

math is hard, but google sent me this: http://www.travis-tomasie.com/hit-factors-and-uspsa-ipsc-scoring.html

might be some other useful info there too. Travis is a skilled shooter.

[racknrider]

Now how about explaining how I can finish ahead of someone in the overall standings and behind them in the division. 

[wav3rhythm]

Now how about explaining how I can finish ahead of someone in the overall standings and behind them in the division. 

I still haven't figured that one out. I need someone to explain it like I'm a two year old. Until then, I'll just keep hitting the "I believe" button.


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[Sandbagger123]

when comparing overall you have to remember that the stage points are allocated to the top shooter on that stage . when comparing division the stage points are allocated only to those in that division.  so the open guy might lick you down a couple of shooters and the pints to you will be less, but your points may be higher when compared to a guy in your same division,

its how it was explained to me.

[ChuckS]

2 hours ago, wav3rhythm said:

 

 

I still haven't figured that one out. I need someone to explain it like I'm a two year old. Until then, I'll just keep hitting the "I believe" button.


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And this is why USPSA doesn't want to post overall scores. It's called a "Flip Flop". The difference is in who had the high hit factor for each stage. Here is an old example: (I think Nik did this)

flipflopexample.pdf

Edited October 26, 2016 by ChuckS

[Kraj]

Basically points divided by time is your hit factor. Whoever has the highest hit factor gets all the stage points, and everyone gets a percentage of the stage point that they shoot relative to the highest hit factor on the stage. 

Match scores are are the sum of stage scores. 

 

The only way you could beat someone in your division and lose to them in the overall is if tanked a stage they did well on and vise versa. In your division it didn't make that big of deal but then when you compare your scores with everyone else in the match the person that did better on the high point stages will be better off

[motosapiens]

15 hours ago, racknrider said:

Now how about explaining how I can finish ahead of someone in the overall standings and behind them in the division. 

it's just math. if on the stages where you beat your buddy, some open gm crushed everyone, but on the stages where he beat you, both of you were closer to the top it will magnify the effect of those differences, so you might beat him in the division, but all your good stages don't count as much in the overall because the winner was so much better.

[mlmiller1]

The key to calculating your uspsa score is your HF, aka hit factor, aka how many points you scored each second you were shooting.   To calculate that number, take the number of points you earned, subtract any penalties, then divide it by the time it took you.   Now you have the HF.   The shooter that scores the highest HF gets awarded all the points available on that stage.   e.g. 5 paper targets requiring 2 hits each, has 50pts available.   High HF gets all those points for that stage.  Let's say you shoot it in 10 seconds & get all A.   That is 50pts divided by 10...   then your HF is 5.   The faster shooter shoots it in 5 seconds & gets all A, his HF is 10.  Your score was only 50% of his so he gets 50pts, you get 50% of that which is 25.   Those are your stage points.   Overall scores are NOT official since you are not competing against other divisions, only your division.   Does that make sense?

[rowdyb]

in the overall you're graded on a curve against the whole school. in your division you're graded just against your class.

if you think if your hit factor  (hf) as awarding you points in relation to a high hit factor (hhf) then the points will be divided up in different ways depending on if you're looking at the whole school's results on the test (overall match results) or just your class room's (division).

And to think they came up with this scoring system when you really just had adding machines.... Can you imagine doing a whole match score by hand now? At least then they only had one division to worry about, in their favor.

It's funny when i take people to matches and they want to know right away if they "won" or "beat you" on a stage and I say, "we'll know in a few hours" and then when they ask how can that be i say "well you shot Z amount of points in B seconds. so they take Z and divide it by B to get you H. when we all have value H then they take the person who had the highest value H and he sets the curve, he gets all the points. not the points Z he first shot, but he becomes 100% now so he gets all the points and the percentage of our number H compared to his number H get's us that percentage of points. for that stage. then you do this for all the rest of the stages and add all of those points up and whoever has the most wins. and if you want to look at the overall....... or if you want to compare major to minor scoring......." and their eyes glaze over.

[ATLDave]

57 minutes ago, rowdyb said:

It's funny when i take people to matches and they want to know right away if they "won" or "beat you" on a stage and I say, "we'll know in a few hours" 

??  You can tell immediately after both competitors have shot whether they beat you (or vice versa) on a stage.  You just look at the hit factors.  Period.  

What you cannot tell is how many stage points you will be awarded for that stage until after the whole match is over, nor how big the spread will be between the two individual competitors.  But in 100% of instances, the shooter with the higher HF on a stage beat the shooter with the lower HF on the stage.  No exceptions, no need to wait for any other information.  

[rowdyb]

oh yeah for sure, you can tell person to person instantly by comparing hit factors.

my poorly worded example/sentence was more about new people asking me generally at the end of a stage "how'd i do?" as it relates to a score overall or in the division. not soo much a me vs them, that was a bad example on my part.

[ATLDave]

Yeah, that makes sense.  It's a treat explaining this stuff to newcomers, ain't it?  

My experience is that I can explain it to them as slowly as they want, but they're not going to understand it until 1) they've shot at least 3/4 matches AND 2) they do the math themselves.  They don't have to score a whole match, but doing at little "what if" math among, say, a squad or 2-4 particular competitors can really help figure stuff out.  E.g., figure out if that mike on stage 3 really is the reason they finished 1% behind their buddy. It might be, or it might not.  If they sit down and do the math to answer that question, they end up understanding the whole scoring system WAY better.  

[johnbu]

The flip-flop occurs because of the math in using averages and normalization.

(It's technical) lol.

Getting a HF of 10 on a 5 pt stage and winning the stage doesn't help overall as much as getting a HF of 10 on a 150 pt stage and winning the stage.

And zeroing a 5pt stage doesn't hurt as much as messing up a 150 pt stage.

 

Edited October 27, 2016 by johnbu