diff --git a/register_judges.inc.php b/register_judges.inc.php
index 2ec97a5..eb9603e 100644
--- a/register_judges.inc.php
+++ b/register_judges.inc.php
@@ -56,6 +56,19 @@ function personalStatus()
 	$r=mysql_fetch_object($q);
 	if($r->num==0)
 		return "incomplete";
+
+	//and they need to rank all of the age categories
+	$q=mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(id) AS num FROM projectcategories WHERE year='".$config['FAIRYEAR']."'");
+	$r=mysql_fetch_object($q);
+	$numcats=$r->num;
+
+	$q=mysql_query("SELECT COUNT(id) AS num FROM judges_catpref WHERE year='".$config['FAIRYEAR']."' AND judges_id='".$_SESSION['judges_id']."'");
+	$r=mysql_fetch_object($q);
+	$numprefs=$r->num;
+
+	if($numcats!=$numprefs)
+		return "incomplete";
+
 		
 
 	//if it made it through without returning incomplete, then we must be complete
diff --git a/register_judges_personal.php b/register_judges_personal.php
index 7ecef49..dc426b9 100644
--- a/register_judges_personal.php
+++ b/register_judges_personal.php
@@ -33,12 +33,6 @@
 
  if($_POST['action']=="save")
  {
-/*	if($_POST['catpref']) $catpref="'".$_POST['catpref']."'";
-	else $catpref="null";
-	if($_POST['divpref']) $divpref="'".$_POST['divpref']."'";
-	else $divpref="null";
-*/
-
 	mysql_query("UPDATE judges SET ".
 			"firstname='".mysql_escape_string(stripslashes($_POST['firstname']))."', ".
 			"lastname='".mysql_escape_string(stripslashes($_POST['lastname']))."', ".
@@ -80,7 +74,8 @@
 	{
 		foreach($_POST['catpref'] AS $k=>$v)
 		{
-			mysql_query("INSERT INTO judges_catpref (judges_id,projectcategories_id,rank,year) values ('".$_SESSION['judges_id']."','$k','$v','".$config['FAIRYEAR']."')");
+			if($v!="")
+				mysql_query("INSERT INTO judges_catpref (judges_id,projectcategories_id,rank,year) values ('".$_SESSION['judges_id']."','$k','$v','".$config['FAIRYEAR']."')");
 		}
 	}
 
@@ -157,12 +152,13 @@ while($r=mysql_fetch_object($q))
 	echo "</td>";
 	echo "<td>";
 	echo "<select name=\"catpref[$r->id]\">";
+	echo "<option value=\"\">".i18n("Choose")."</option>\n";
 	foreach($preferencechoices AS $val=>$str)
 	{
-		if($catprefs[$r->id]==$val) $sel="selected=\"selected\""; else $sel="";
+		if($catprefs[$r->id]==$val && $catprefs[$r->id]!="") $sel="selected=\"selected\""; else $sel="";
 		echo "<option $sel value=\"$val\">".i18n($str)."</option>\n";
 	}
-	echo "</select>";
+	echo "</select>".REQUIREDFIELD;
 
 	echo "</td>";
 	echo "</tr>";