There is not a unique metric to define the accuracy of an excited states calculation, since not only the relative energy of each state is relevant, but also the intensity and character of such excitations play a crucial role in the interpretation of UV/Vis absorption spectra, photochemical pathways and reactivity. Commonly, the evaluation is based on simply comparing the results with experiments or higher accuracy calculations. But how can we systematically and generally evaluate the performance of a given method/functional? Being able to correctly calculate the energy of the brightest state is definitely the first fundamental prerequisite, but there is not a systematic error for any TD-DFT functional, with a difference in energy that can vary from 0.3 to more than 1 eV. The ideal goal of a calculation would be also to identify the correct character of the states, i.e. the orbitals involved in the electronic transitions, as well as their relative intensity and order. We here propose an excited states scoring system that is based on weighting together energy, character, and brightness of an excited state calculation with respect to a higher accuracy reference method.