Room pointing

What is pointing?

All rooms in college are different, so we think it’s unfair to do what some other colleges do and have a flat rent charge. It seems better and more fair to tie the quality of the room to its price in rent. The way this is done at Corpus is for the quality of each room to be rated according to the criteria listed below.

The number of ‘points’ a room has corresponds to its attributes as rated by the Room Pointing System. The number of points a room has then used to calculate which ‘band’ a room falls into. Each room in the same band has the same price in rent. There are 14 bands; their prices can be found here.

The JCR has control over both the allocation of points and the division of rooms into bands.

Overview

Here is a quick overview of the Room Pointing System:

Room Type: Bedsits are given 110 points, sets 130 and flats 200.
Location*: Rooms in Old Court get 180 points whilst those further away from the main College site get fewer, such as T-Street which gets 80.
Area: The largest rooms (35+ m2) get 410 points whilst the smallest rooms (7 m2) have only 70 points.
Floor: Rooms on the ground floor have 40 points. The higher up (or lower down) a room is, the fewer points it gets.
Sink: Each sink is allocated 40 points.
Radiator: Each radiator is allocated 20 points.
Outlook: Rooms with the best view (King’s College) get 60 points, while those with the worst view (a brick wall) get 20.
Distance to…: The closer a room is to a toilet, bathroom or kitchen, the more points it gets on a scale of 65 (the closest to a facility) to 28 (the furthest away).
Kitchen facilities: The best kitchen (ovens/hobs/freezers) have 40 points, whilst the worst (a kettle) have 10 points.
Bathroom facilities: A bath gets 40 points, a shower 60 and those lucky enough to have both get 80.
Laundry facilities: If there are laundry facilities in the same building, a room gains 20 points, whilst if not, it gets none.
Noise: Depending on the location of a room, it can lose up to 14 points due to external noise.

A more comprehensive explanation of how the points were allocated to rooms is found below.

*Please note that some rooms have increased location points due to a recent refurbishment

Creating the system

Following widespread dislike for the original room pointing system created in the 1970s and due to it being completely inaccurate by 2009, the JCR redesigned the system and re-pointed every room in College for the 2010 Room Ballot.

The new Room Pointing System takes into account undergraduate feedback on the previous version and took over a year and a half to complete. It was approved at the JCR Open Meeting on Tuesday 4th May 2010.

Hopefully, using the room database you will find all the information you could want on your prospective rooms. Good luck balloting!

Room type

Room type was allocated approximately 15% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. Room types were defined thus:

Flat: has a private kitchen room and is en-suite.
En-suite set: is a set with an en-suite.
Set with culinary corner: is a set that has some of its own kitchen facilities within the room due to there being no convenient nearby kitchen.
En-suite: has a private bathroom.
Room with culinary corner: is a bedsit that has some of its own kitchen facilities within the room due to there being no convenient nearby kitchen.
Set: contains two or more rooms, one of which is usually a bedroom. It has only one front door.
Split set: two or more rooms that are not connected by an internal door. Instead there are two front doors.
Shared set: S1–2 and S6–7. These have a shared living room for two students, but each has their own bedroom.
Bedsit: A single room or a single room with an adjoining “bedroom” which is only large enough to fit a bed with no other furniture (there is no door to separate these two rooms).

Points were allocated to these as follows.

Room Type	Points
Flat	200
En-suite Set	170
Set with Culinary Corner	160
En-suite	150
Room with Culinary Corner	140
Set	130
Split Set	120
Shared Set	115
Bedsit	110

A shared set was given only a few more points than a bedsit, as although there are technically two rooms, the private space (the bedrooms) is very small.

Location

Location was allocated approximately 15% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. Points were allocated following the order of preference of College locations given by students, as outlined below. T-Street was given a low rating by students, which is why its points break the linearity seen for the rest of the locations.

Location	Points
Old Court	180
New Court	170
Library Court	160
Stable Yard	150
Bene’t Hostel	140
Botolph Court	130
Beldam	120
Newnham	110
T-Street	80

Room area

Room area was allocated approximately 15% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. To allocate points for room area, each room was accurately measured and points were given as follows. The categories containing rooms with a larger area are wider than those with a small area as there are far few rooms in College with an area greater than 25 m2. For additional information, the actual size of the room in square meters is also given in the room database.

Area in m2	Points
36+	410
31–35	390
26–30	370
21–25	350
20	330
19	310
18	290
17	270
16	250
15	230
14	210
13	190
12	170
11	150
10	130
9	110
8	90
7	70

Floor

Floor was allocated approximately 4% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. Points were allocated as follows. The 1st floor and ground floor were allocated the same number of points as each has its own benefits. The ground floor does not have the annoyance of stairs, whilst the 1st floor has more privacy.

Floor	Points
4th	10
3rd	20
2nd	30
1st	40
Ground	40
Basement	30

Sink

Sinks were allocated approximately 7% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey.

Each sink in a room was allocated 40 points.

Radiator

Radiators were allocated approximately 4% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey.

Each radiator in a room was allocated 20 points.

Outlook

Outlook was allocated approximately 4% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. To calculate the points for outlook, the first step was to photograph the view from every room’s window. Roughly following student’s order of preference on outlooks given by the results of the survey (e.g. King’s College is the best view, Benet Street is average and a brick wall is the worst), these photos were arranged into groups of approximately 10–20 and the groups ordered by “niceness”. Each group was then allocated points as outlined below.

Category	Rooms	Points
1	Y7, D8, D6, D7, Y12, C3, M4, R4, N5, M6, N3, P3, N4, M2, R3, R5, Q1, P4a, Q2, N1, C8	60
2	G1, G2, N6, M5, H1, Y8, F14, G5, G6, F13, Y9, G11, G10, O6, P2, M1, E11, F9, E8, G16, O5	58
3	O0, O2, O1, P6, N2, H15, H10, H5, E9, G15, T2, E12, H14, Y11, S4, Y6, H9, C1, C7, BS15	56
4	D5, BS4, Y13, E10, D9, F3, F8, F15, S13, F12, E14, BS21, BS26, BS27, BS23, BS12, BS9, BS42, BS20, BS3	54
5	BS5, BS16, NH38, NH32, NH35, NH34, E13, BS10, X4, T3, Y1, NH17, NH36, Y9, BS28, BS8, BS17, BS22, BS6, BS7	52
6	BS13, BS11, BS25, BS14, BS18, NH11, NH13, BS19, NH12, NH14, BC17, BC11, BC12, BC13, BC4, BC20, BC19, BC18, BS44, I8	50
7	NH25, NH4, NH3, BS43, S11, BS35, T1, T11, T12, I6, BEL62, BEL61, Y15, G14, I10, T5, T6, T7, BS40, BS39	48
8	BS34, H8, I7, T10, Y3, Y16, T8, T9, T4, X6	46
9	X7, Y2, X8, S3, S1/2, G12, S8, G7, H11, S9	44
10	G9, S6/7, S10, BS24, G4, G3, G8, H7, H6, S5	42
11	BS30, H2, BS2, BC14, BC6, BC21, BEL60, BC15, G13, X2	40
12	X9, S12, 6TST18, P5, NH30, NH31, Y14, NH29, NH28, NH18	38
13	NH26, NH6, NH1, NH2, NH27, 6TST15, 6TST17, 6TST13, 8TST4, 6TST7	36
14	6TST10, 6TST11/12, 6TST11, 6TST12, BEL45, BEL46, BEL59, BEL47, BEL57, BEL56	34
15	BEL54, BEL53, BEL52, BEL63, BC8, BC10, BC3, BEL49, BC24, BC25	32
16	BC2, BC5, 8TST5, 8TST3, 6TST8, 6TST5, BC9, 6TST3/4, 6TST3, 6TST4	30
17	6TST16, BOT1, BS29, BS33, I9, BS31, H12, H13, BS36, BT37	28
18	BS41, BEL50, BEL64, BC7, 8TST2, 8TST1, BS32, I5, BS1, NH22	26
19	P4b, BEL51, 6TST14, NH9, NH16, X5, NH20, NH15, NH7, NH5	24
20	NH10, NH37, NH33, NH8, NH21, NH24, NH19, NH23, F7, 6TST6	22
21	6TST9, 6TST1, 6TST2	20

Distance to…

The distances to the nearest toilet, bathroom and kitchen from a room were allocated approximately 18% of the total points. Each distance was calculated separately by counting the number of paces from the room to the nearest facility. The three distances were allocated points using the same system as follows.

Distance in Paces	Points
0	65
1	64
2	63
3	62
4	61
5	60
6	59
7	58
8	57
9	56
10	55
11	54
12	53
13	52
14	51
15	50
16–19	49
20–23	48
24–27	47
28–31	46
32–35	45
36–39	44
40–43	43
44–47	42
48–51	41
52–55	40
56–59	39
60–63	38
64–67	37
68–71	36
72–74	35
75–78	34
79–82	33
83–86	32
87–90	31
91–94	30
95–98	29
99–100	28

Kitchen facilities

Kitchen facilities were allocated approximately 6% of the total points. To calculate the points value for the facilities, points were given for each kitchen appliance in the room’s closest kitchens as outlined below. Although facilities will vary slightly with time as appliances get replaced, kitchens tend to remain better in places such as T-Street and Newnham than they are in College. This is reflected in the points for this category and therefore it should not need updating every year.

Every kitchen has a minimum standard, which means that it contains a sink, fridge, microwave, kettle and toaster. These items were not included in the points. A kitchen with 0 points is therefore at the minimum standard.

Appliance	Points
Oven	10
Freezer	10
Hob	10

Bathroom facilities

Bathroom facilities were allocated approximately 6% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. Points were given for the facilities in the nearest bathroom to a room, as follows.

Facility	Points
Bath	40
Shower	60
Bath and Shower	80

Laundry facilities

Laundry facilities were allocated approximately 4% of the total points, based on feedback from the survey. Points were given on a location rather than per room basis as follows.

Location	Points
Old Court	0
New Court	0
Library Court	0
Stable Yard	0
Bene’t Hostel	10
Beldam	20
Botolph	20
Newnham	20
T-Street	20

Bene’t Hostel was allocated 10 points as it lies equidistant between Old House and the Beldam laundry facilities.

Noise

During the pointing, we lacked a decibel-meter and therefore could not measure noise accurately. In addition, noise is likely to vary depending on the time of day, day of the week and the time of year. Because it could not be accurately pointed, noise was only allocated approximately 2% of the total points and on a location rather than per room basis. Only external noise was included in the points. Noise from other students will vary year-to-year and so was ignored. The reduction in points due to noise are as follows.

Area	Points Reduction from Noise
Newnham Interior	0
Botolph Court Interior	-1
Beldam	-2
Old Court	-3
New Court Interior	-4
Biochemistry Department	-5
Newnham Exterior	-6
Library Court Interior	-7
Botolph Lane	-8
Pembroke Street	-9
Stable Yard Interior	-10
Bene’t Street	-11
Eagle Pub Garden	-12
Trumpington Street (by College)	-13
Trumpington Street (by T-Street)	-14

In cases where rooms experience a large amount of external noise in an otherwise “quiet” area of College, the maximum reduction of -14 was given (e.g. Benet 36, due to music from the Café below).

Number of students sharing…

This additional information was calculated by seeing how many students shared a common closest facility (toilet, bathroom or kitchen).

If two or more of the same facility were equally close to a room, the number of students sharing these was found by dividing the number of students using them by the number of facilities available. This is why in some cases half a student is using a facility!

It was not possible to point this category as it changes on a yearly basis depending on which rooms are in the Room Ballot.

Outlook directions

Many students suggested in the survey that the amount of natural light a room received should be included as a pointed category. It was not possible to measure this as it will vary throughout the day and throughout the year. However, google maps provided us with the directions a room’s windows face, so we have included this additional information to give some indication of the amount of light a room may get.

Categories that were not used

The following categories were suggested in the survey to play a role in the rent calculations. However, for the reasons explained they could not be used.

Flights of stairs

From wandering around College whilst creating this system, it became apparent it was impossible to find a College average definition of “a flight of stairs”, as it varies in each accommodation building. An alternative would have been to count how many stairs there are to each room, but this was deemed to be relatively pointless extra information when the floor each room is on is a pointed category. Essentially “flights of stairs” would repeat the same piece of information as “floor” (with the exception of Botolph 8 where you have to go upstairs and then downstairs to reach the room).

Furniture and decoration

The furniture and decoration of a room changes too frequently for it to be feasible for the JCR committee to keep updating the points. Therefore it was decided not to use this category.

Ceiling height

We lacked a laser measuring device whilst making this system and the ceilings in some rooms were just too high for us to reach with a tape measure! Sorry, but that meant we couldn’t use this category!

Storage space

Few rooms have permanent, built in storage space and as furniture changes frequently and may not be replaced with something of the same size, we couldn’t think of any way of documenting this category that wouldn’t mean updating the points every year.