3 Things You Need To Know About Certification Exam Scoring

There are 3 key points you need to know about the scoring of Microsoft certification exams before you take them…

•  There is no penalty for guessing. Choosing an incorrect answer, simply means that you do not earn a point for that item. No points are deducted for incorrect answers.

•  If a question specifies that you must choose multiple correct answers, you must choose the exact number of correct answers specified in the question in order to earn a point for that item.

•  Some questions on the exam may not be included in the calculation of your score. To gather data to update and improve the quality of each exam, Microssoft presents new content to candidates without counting the results toward their score.

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) and Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) exams

All MCTS and MCITP exams are scaled such that the passing score is 700. The actual cut score (the number of items you need to answer correctly) is determined by a group of subject-matter experts. A common misperception is that you must answer 70 percent of the items correctly in order to pass the exam; however, the actual percentage varies from exam to exam and may be more or less than 70 percent, depending on the input provided by the subject-matter experts who helped us set the cut score. After you complete your exam, the number of items that you got correct is compared with the cut score to determine whether the result is pass or fail. The exam delivery provider’s software generates the scaled score and bars shown on your score report based on scoring information provided by Microsoft. The bars on the score report show your relative performance in the various subject areas covered by the exam–the longer the bar, the stronger your performance in that area. The length of the bars does not correspond to the number of questions you answered correctly on that subject. Additionally, because the subject areas contain varying numbers of items, the length of any bar or combination of bars does not correspond directly to your overall exam score or Pass/Fail status.