# How is your score determined?



## Civil Eng Chick (Oct 15, 2009)

I realize that you are required to have a score of 70% to pass however, does that mean you have to get 28 correct in the morning and 28 in the afternoon or can you get all 40 correct in the morning and then just need 16 in the afternoon. I am trying to figure my odds for passing on the thrid geo attempt.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 15, 2009)

Civil Eng Chick said:


> I realize that you are required to have a score of 70% to pass however, does that mean you have to get 28 correct in the morning and 28 in the afternoon or can you get all 40 correct in the morning and then just need 16 in the afternoon. I am trying to figure my odds for passing on the thrid geo attempt.


The 70 perecent is not always a hard number, but it is based on the morning + the afternoon. The reason that results take so long is that NCEES determines the 'cut score' (start at 56 out of 80 correct), then adjusts the score based on the percieved difficulty of the exam (# of candidates that passed). The best approach is to shoot for 100% correct. Don't worry too much about 'the passing score'; just do your best, and if you are prepared, you will pass! Good luck in one week and one day!


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Oct 15, 2009)

You really should have a better understanding of how the exam is scored if you plan to pass. It is not 70%, it is a scaled score of 70. The cut score is arbitrarily assigned a value of 70. The cut score slides up or down depending on the difficulty of the exam and other factors.

NCEES does not publish their specific scoring method.

Your best bet is to try to get every problem right. You can't assume that you did well enough earlier in the session to take a couple problems off.


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## Vishal (Oct 15, 2009)

FLBuff, I disagree with 56/80 as the starting point. I have discussed this many time here, here it is again. 70 is a score and not % of questions to be answered correctly. Visit the following link from the NCEES website.

http://www.ncees.org/exams/scoring/scoring....php#difficulty

For further clarification visit here,

http://www.tpcb.org/ExaminationScoring.pdf

Basically, for each test the # of questions to be answered correctly differs and no one knows what it is. Unless it is published anywhere, we will never know. In fact, we don't even know if all 80 questions are even considered for scoring!! Some questions are thrown out of consideration due to insufficient data or ambiguity, etc. It is theoretically possible that on an "easy" test you can score 56 and still not pass.

I would encourage you to do your best and not worry about # of questions you get right. Don't give up and take this test head on.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 15, 2009)

Vishal said:


> FLBuff, I disagree with 56/80 as the starting point. I have discussed this many time here, here it is again. 70 is a score and not % of questions to be answered correctly. Visit the following link from the NCEES website.
> http://www.ncees.org/exams/scoring/scoring....php#difficulty
> 
> For further clarification visit here,
> ...


Thanks for the clarification. I never got too worried about the number of questions I had to get right to pass. I just tried to answer every question to the best of my ability.


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## chaocl (Oct 15, 2009)

Vishal said:


> FLBuff, I disagree with 56/80 as the starting point. I have discussed this many time here, here it is again. 70 is a score and not % of questions to be answered correctly. Visit the following link from the NCEES website.
> http://www.ncees.org/exams/scoring/scoring....php#difficulty
> 
> For further clarification visit here,
> ...


Let's say this is a easy test and the Avg throughtout the entire nation is around 70/80. Then how does the NCEE explain that in order to pass that you need to get 70% to pass?....I want the answer in a straight way before I took this exam.


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## benbo (Oct 15, 2009)

chaocl said:


> Let's say this is a easy test and the Avg throughtout the entire nation is around 70/80. Then how does the NCEE explain that in order to pass that you need to get 70% to pass?....I want the answer in a straight way before I took this exam.


I hope this is straight enough.

There is nowhere that NCEES says you need 70% (get that, 70 *percent*) to pass.

NCEES says you need a score of 70 to pass. 70 could mean 0 percent, or it could mean 100 percent. It has no official corellation with any percentage score.

Bascially, they are saying that inorder to pass you need to get a passing score. It's meaningless, and I have no idea what value it is to know what the pasing score is before you take the test anyway.


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## FLBuff PE (Oct 15, 2009)

benbo said:


> I hope this is straight enough.
> There is nowhere that NCEES says you need 70% (get that, 70 *percent*) to pass.
> 
> NCEES says you need a score of 70 to pass. 70 could mean 0 percent, or it could mean 100 percent. It has no official corellation with any percentage score.
> ...


I don't know about you guys, but I got a 70 (on my third try). And the time that I took it, 70 correlated to 100% correct (try to prove me wrong)!


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