SPOKANE, Wash. -- Michelle Kwan normally smiles and pumps a fist when she sees a bunch of 5.8s and 5.9s. This time, though, she barely even glanced at the scoreboard.

Why bother? With no way to tell which marks matter under skating's new secret judging system, that might as well have been the stock ticker up on the screen.

''I don't like it. It just doesn't make any sense,'' Kwan said after getting her first look at the new system Thursday night.

This is supposed to be an improvement? Even the International Skating Union recognizes that it's far from ideal.

''Maybe there was some knee-jerking, like, 'Let's get out of this,' said David Dore, ISU vice president. ''The issue of accountability is an issue. It will be solved some way. I can't tell you how, because I'm working on it.''

Desperate to avoid more embarrassments like the pairs scandal that rocked the Salt Lake City Olympics, the ISU came up with a system it says will prevent cheating and bloc judging. A computer randomly picks which judges' scores will count, and no one -- not even the skaters or judges -- knows whose marks are used.

So when Kwan got three 5.9s for artistry, there was no guarantee that any of them counted. Ditto for that disappointing 5.1 Jennifer Kirk got for technical merit.

And how about that 5.7 Japan's Yukari Nakano got. With her next-highest mark a 5.4, was that what put her in eighth place?

''The World Series is going on right now. Think about not being able to keep stats. You just know who won at the end of the game,'' said spectator Renee Rico of San Rafael, Calif., who carried a sign that read ''No Secret Judging!''

''If secrecy were the solution, we wouldn't know how the Supreme Court justices vote on things.''

Under the old system, all judges' votes counted and they were posted for the public and skaters to see. A couple of quick calculations, and it was easy to see whether there was some funny business going on.

But there was nothing funny about Salt Lake City. French judge Marie-Reine Le Gougne said she was pressured to ''vote a certain way'' when she put the Russian pair of Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze ahead of Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier. Both couples wound up with gold medals.

Le Gougne later recanted her accusation, but the ISU suspended her and French federation president Didier Gailhaguet for three years and barred them from the 2006 Olympics.

''It was a good system,'' Olympic gold medalist Alexei Yagudin said. ''I would be more strong with the judges who made a mistake.''

Instead, the ISU came up with this new system. Marks are still posted, but they're shown in ascending order, and no one knows who gave what. Fifteen minutes before an event begins, a computer decides which seven judges' marks will be used.

The dance panel at Grand Prix events has nine judges. The men's, ladies and pairs competitions have 10-judge panels. At the world championships, the panel will be expanded to 14 judges, with nine marks counting.

''That's ridiculous,'' Yagudin said flatly.

And there are more changes to come. The ISU is working on a radical reform project that would replace the century-old 6.0 scoring scale with a points system. Every element -- jumps, spins, footwork -- would have a given value, and, using a touch-screen computer, judges would grade skaters on how well they performed each skill.

To ensure that it doesn't become a jumping contest, judges also would score skaters on their artistic performance, choreography and their interpretation of the program. Instead of the 6.0, there could be triple-digit scores and world records.

The program will be tested alongside the existing system next weekend at Skate Canada, but it's not ready yet. And no matter what anyone thinks, there's no timeline to implement it, said Ted Barton, a paid consultant hired to help the ISU develop the new scoring system.

''This program is a work in progress and will be developed over time,'' Barton said. ''We'll take the time we need to get this right.''

While Kwan and Yagudin are among the only skaters criticizing the faceless system being used now, there's plenty of grumbling about it behind the scenes. But few skaters want to risk the wrath of the ISU and Cinquanta.

''We are small persons in huge business,'' said Maxim Marinin, who won the pairs short program with Tatiana Totmianina. ''That's why no comment.''

Yagudin said he knows Cinquanta is unhappy with his outspokenness, but he doesn't care. As the reigning gold medalist and one of the sport's most popular figures, he's going to say what he thinks.

''I'm really unhappy with what's happening right now,'' he said. ''If they're not going to listen to me, who are they going to listen to?''