Abstract: A two-pass classification system and method that post-processes HMM scores with additional confidence scores to derive a value that may be applied to a threshold on which a keyword verses non-keyword determination may be based. The first stage comprises Generalized Probabilistic Descent (GPD) analysis which uses feature vectors of the spoken words and the HMM segmentation information (developed by the HMM detector during processing) as inputs to develop a first set of confidence scores through a linear combination (a weighted sum) of the feature vectors of the speech. The second stage comprises a linear discrimination method that combines the HMM scores and the confidence scores from the GPD stage with a weighted sum to derive a second confidence score. The output of the second stage may then be compared to a predetermined threshold to determine whether the spoken word or words include a keyword.