It is quite common to specify a gear class for in-process quality requirements, usually calling for a lower quality class than is required for the finished gear quality. Although it is appropriate to have lower expectations for a pre-finish gear condition, it is not appropriate to subject the pre-finish gear to the same level of scrutiny as a finished gear. Gears in a pre-finish condition may have large feed scallops or generating flats, which are desirable for productivity and may be conducive to the finishing process. However, such features will be evaluated as errors when subjected to the full analysis as required by the finished gear class inspection. Therefore, the use of a finished gear quality specification is not recommended or even appropriate for pre-finish gear quality evaluation, even if the quality class has been adjusted to pre-finish expectations. Additionally, in-process requirements often require non-zero target helix and profile slopes, which necessitate a new method of analysis to determine the achieved quality class. Therefore, a pre-finish evaluation method and standard is proposed. This proposed standard would not make any recommendations regarding the required quality for any application. The intent is to establish standard pre-finish quality classes for typical finishing operations, which only include the inspection elements that are important to properly evaluate pre-finish gear quality as it applies to the finishing operation.