What is the passing score for an exam?

This depends on the exam. Some of our exams state the exact passing score as a percentage required. Some of our exams’ passing scores are based on the knowledge and skills needed to demonstrate competence in the subject matter and the difficulty of the questions that are delivered to a candidate. 

The actual cut score (the number of items you need to answer correctly) is based on input from a group of subject-matter experts who review the difficulty of the questions in relation to the expected skills of the target audience. As a result, the number of items that you have to answer correctly varies depending on the difficulty of the questions delivered when you take the exam. This ensures that regardless of which combination of items you see, the evaluation of skills is fair. If you see a more difficult set of questions, the number of correct answers needed to pass is less than if you see an easier set of questions. As a result, providing a simple percent correct wouldn't provide useful information to someone who had to take the exam multiple times and saw different combinations of questions with different levels of difficulty. 

Because the number of correct answers needed to pass varies based on the difficulty of the questions delivered, if you see a difficult combination of questions, your performance may actually be higher in relation to the passing standard even though you answered fewer questions (in other words, a lower percentage) correctly than if you saw an easier set of questions. Scaled scores simplify your ability to evaluate improvements in your performance over time. This is a standard practice across the certification and licensure industry.

Each exam has a different passing score. You can learn more about passing scores by looking through the Scoring and Test Performance section here

If you still need more information on the passing criteria you can raise a ticket and one of our support agents will get back to you.

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