**What do you think?**

[sac_engineer]

Is anyone listening to benbo? Please, all of you start from the top of the page and re-read.
Then erase 70, 70%, and cut score from your brains.

You will get "Pass" or "Fail". From the fail results they provide you can get some sort of idea how you did, but you still can not get a "grade" from that, all that you know is you did not get enough correct.

Exactly. Thanks.

If you can get a bunch of people to post their estimates from the diagnostics you can get some idea of the passing score - at least you can see a bunch of people who didn't pass and look for the highest score and assume it is a little above that. But still just an estimate.

And I suspect 70% or a little lower is a reasonable guess. But it's just a guess.

This discussion is about what would be a reasonable score to pass. There are some who think if they just score 56 out 80, they passed the exam. I firmly believe that 70% is a reasonable guess to pass the test but not guaranteed. A score of 56 is considered marginal in the eyes of NCEES and I doubt they would lower the passing score below 56.

I look at the statistics. The passing rate varies from 35% to 40% based on the CA PELS info. I doubt that the passing score fluctuates in proportion to the passing rate. The numbers tell me that the cut score has maintained a consistent level but the testing performance among the examinees has not.

 

[benbo]

Is anyone listening to benbo? Please, all of you start from the top of the page and re-read.
Then erase 70, 70%, and cut score from your brains.

You will get "Pass" or "Fail". From the fail results they provide you can get some sort of idea how you did, but you still can not get a "grade" from that, all that you know is you did not get enough correct.

Exactly. Thanks.

If you can get a bunch of people to post their estimates from the diagnostics you can get some idea of the passing score - at least you can see a bunch of people who didn't pass and look for the highest score and assume it is a little above that. But still just an estimate.

And I suspect 70% or a little lower is a reasonable guess. But it's just a guess.

This discussion is about what would be a reasonable score to pass. There are some who think if they just score 56 out 80, they passed the exam. I firmly believe that 70% is a reasonable guess to pass the test but not guaranteed. A score of 56 is considered marginal in the eyes of NCEES and I doubt they would lower the passing score below 56.

I look at the statistics. The passing rate varies from 35% to 40% based on the CA PELS info. I doubt that the passing score fluctuates in proportion to the passing rate. The numbers tell me that the cut score has maintained a consistent level but the testing performance among the examinees has not.

You are completely wrong, except in your underlined statement which is probably true.

THese statistics tell you zip. THere is nothing anywhere that NCEES says about 56 correct. Where in the world do you get this nonsense about a 56 score being marginal in the eyes of NCEES? You made it up. I send you information about the equating process which you have obviously not read. THey do a statistical analysis on a subset of questions in the exam with known rates of correct answers. That's why the passing score varies - they adjust it depending on the difficulty of the exam. It's easy enough to read about if you give a crap about what the reality is. I give up. Believe whatever fairy tale you want.

 

[Paul S]

This discussion is about what would be a reasonable score to pass. There are some who think if they just score 56 out 80, they passed the exam. I firmly believe that 70% is a reasonable guess to pass the test but not guaranteed. A score of 56 is considered marginal in the eyes of NCEES and I doubt they would lower the passing score below 56.
I look at the statistics. The passing rate varies from 35% to 40% based on the CA PELS info. I doubt that the passing score fluctuates in proportion to the passing rate. The numbers tell me that the cut score has maintained a consistent level but the testing performance among the examinees has not.

How do you know a score of 56 is considered marginal in the eyes of NCEES?

I went to the CA PELS website and looked at what I believe are the statistics you are looking at. You can not determine the passing score, or cut score, or anything based on the percentage of people that passed an exam, except how many people passed the exam! Please provide some facts, not speculation.

 

[benbo]

Listen to yourself. Think. If you score 69 who gives a dam what the score was. You know you are close and need a small push. If you get a percentage from the results, you can only guess what the passing score was. For all you know you could have scored a 56 and the passing score was 60. And for the blogs. Only a few respond with their results. There is no way to tell. With percentages they might as well do what they do here in California with the Seismic and Survey. They no longer give percentages. Explain that.

Actually, I agree 100% with you. You don't know what the score is. And if you get a 69 it does mean you are close, but you have no idea how close. It could be one, two, three, or more questions. So I don't know what we're arguing about. THe passing score could have been 60 and you could have gotten a 56. Or it could have been 56 and you got a 53. You just don't know.

A 69 score does not mean you are one question away from passing. And most people will never get this score anyway. THey only give them in Texas and Virginia.

 

[benbo]

For anyone who actually cares about how NCEES scores the exam-

http://www.ncees.org/Exams/Scoring.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equating

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchor_test