How to Understand Score Reports
We cannot stress enough how critically important it is that each test administrator and hiring manager understand the score reports. While test results should not be the only factor in a hiring decision, scores do play an important role and our team is here to support you with any questions you have.
Customers may ask, “What is a good score for these tests?” The answer depends on many factors, including:
- Job requirements
- Benchmarking of current staff, if available
- Review of available scores norming data
Our team can often suggest an acceptable range, based on your feedback and the job description. But ultimately “acceptable/unacceptable” will be decided by the you, the customer, and your team.
General Score Report Terms:
Time: Clock time, based on your business time zone, when test was started.
Time Taken: Minutes the user was in this test, including reading of pre-test instructions. If test is timed, “time taken” will be higher than time limit because of pre-test instructions/tutorial.
Percentile Score: The percentage of users that the test taker scored higher than. For example, a percentile score of 55 means that the test taker scored higher than 55% of the people who have taken that test. It also means that the score was lower than 45% of the test takers.
Percentage Correct: The number of correctly answered questions divided by the total number of questions. This is conceptually similar to other percentage correct scores, as in an educational setting.
Test Specific Terms:
Computer and Software Skills Tests (MS Excel, Word and others)
Report Score (dial graph at top): Displays percentage correct
This account’s scores (if displayed): Average score for all test takers for your account for this test (minimum of 25 scores to appear).
All recorded scores (if displayed): Average score for all test takers for this test.
Scores by Level: Many tests have different difficultly levels (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and this is the percentage correct score for each level.
Score by Topic: Many tests cover multiple topics (editing, formatting, etc) and this is the percentage correct score for each topic.
Questions: This table shows correct (green check), incorrect (red X) or skipped/did not answer (-) status for each question (dash (-) may indicate that the user ran out of time due to time limit). Beginner/Basic, Intermediate and Advanced level is also listed for each question.
Profiles (Customer Service, Management, Workplace Success, Professional Success)
Performance Overview (dial graph at top): Indicates substantial strength, adequate strength or low strength. This overview should be used as the primary indicator of candidate suitability. Scores are presented as percentiles, indicating what percentage of population that the test taker scored higher than.
Competency: Detailed descriptions are provided for each topic, as well as sub-topic, and follow up interview questions, based on topic score, may appear at bottom of report.
Test norms are periodically updated on the score reports. More complete documentation is available from your account team so if you have questions about the reports, just call our friendly team at 1.800.836.1901.