When a Learner gets all or nearly all of the questions in a non-adaptive assessment correct they will be located above the scale locations of all or most of the questions in the assessment. This is because it is most probable that the Learner is capable of answering many questions that are more difficult than the ones that were administered. This can happen for instance, when a Learner does very well on an assessment targeted at Steps 1 to 3. In order to achieve this rate of success, the Learner is likely to be at Step 4 or above.


It is important to remember that when this happens the shaded plus or minus range associated with the Learner's score will be relatively large, sometimes covering two or more steps. This means the result is imprecise and that a second assessment could provide a different result. If an Educator wants a more precise result they will need to use an assessment where the Learner is likely to get some questions correct and some incorrect.