How do you set a passing score for a professional licensing or certification examination? Does someone pick a percentage like teachers do? Is scoring based on the distribution of scores like achievement tests or is it like "grading on a curve?"

None of these approaches is acceptable, since a major requirement for certification accreditation is to ensure that all candidates have an equal chance of passing and cannot be affected by the score of anyone else. The answer is criterion-based scoring.

Criterion-based scoring provides for translating test scores into a statement about the behavior to be expected of a person with that score or their relationship to a specified subject matter, which is appropriate for our certifications. This type of scoring involves a cutscore, where the examinee passes if their score exceeds the cutscore and fails if it does not. There must be a passing score based on meeting a standard which applies to all candidates, which is not arbitrarily chosen.

BCSP and CCHEST follow accepted psychometric procedures for setting a passing score as outlined by CASTLE Worldwide, one of the nation's leading certification and licensure testing companies. The setting of cut scores requires convening a panel of subject matter experts representing the breadth and depth of the safety profession. The panel evaluates the examination, panel members' individual ratings are aggregated and a cut score is determined representing the minimum competency.

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