To protect the security and integrity of the specialty certification examinations, neither BPS nor its examination administrator release examination questions, individual answer strings, or the answer key to any individual or organization. Efforts are made by BPS, its specialty councils, and its examination administrator to produce completely accurate examinations; however, if a candidate believes there is an error in an examination question, the concern should be noted in the candidate’s comments on the examination and the candidate should contact BPS immediately after the examination.
Passing Standard
The passing standards, or cut scores, used in BPS examinations were established using criterion-referenced procedures that are widely used in certification. Criterion-referenced passing standards link the score required to pass an examination to the minimum level of knowledge required for specialty certification. Each BPS specialty certification program establishes its own passing standard.
Equating and Scaled Scores
BPS creates new versions, or forms, of all examinations on a regular basis. In assembling the new forms, BPS follows best practices in certification testing so that all forms of an examination are comparable.
A statistical procedure called equating is used to consider any differences in relative difficulty of the test forms and to ensure that candidates are measured against an equitable and consistent passing standard. Test scores are then transformed onto a score scale between 200 and 800, with 500 representing the passing point. The process of scaling allows for a consistent means of score reporting and interpretation for all candidates.
Scores will range from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 800. The minimum passing score on BPS examinations is 500. Pass/fail decisions are based exclusively on the total score indicated on the score report.
Interpreting The Score Report
The score report is designed to inform examinees of their performance on the examination and serves as a record of their testing session. Each score report will identify the name of the examinee, the examination, and the date of examination administration.
For examinees who are successful in achieving a passing score, the score report will notify them of their passing outcome and identify next steps for the maintenance of their certification. The examinations are designed to differentiate those who meet the minimum requirements of knowledge, skills, and experience. As such, no numerical score or any other feedback is provided to successful certification and recertification candidates, in order to avoid any unfair comparison among successful certification and recertification candidates.
For examinees who are unsuccessful in achieving a passing score, the score report will notify them of their total score, include a description of their performance by content domain, and identify next steps should they choose to retake the examination. The total score is provided to help unsuccessful candidates determine how their performance compares to the minimum passing score. Domain-level performance feedback is also provided to unsuccessful candidates to give candidates a sense of their performance in each major area of the examination content outline, but candidates are advised to exercise caution in interpreting this information. The qualitative domain-level performance feedback of high, moderate, and low corresponds to the number of examination items answered correctly in the respective content domains, but the difficulty of content within each domain may differ from one another. Unsuccessful certification candidates are advised to review all areas of the examination content outline before a subsequent attempt, regardless of domain-level performance on previous attempts.