Adaptive assessments adjust question difficulty based on your answers to accurately gauge your skill level in about 10 minutes. They personalize learning, track growth, and are available in various cybersecurity areas. Scores range from 0-300, categorizing skills as beginner, intermediate, or expert. Assessments can be assigned or taken voluntarily, with results viewable immediately after completion.
Adaptive assessments, and how they work
Adaptive assessments are a smart way to figure out your current skill level in a specific area. Think of it like this: instead of getting a fixed test, the assessment adjusts to you as you go.
Here's how it works:
You start with questions that match your initial responses.
- Answer correctly, and the questions get a little harder.
- Answer incorrectly, and they get a little easier.
This continues until the assessment has a clear picture of your skill level. Most adaptive assessments take about 10 minutes to complete.
Note: If you exit the assessment, your progress will be lost, and you will need to start again. Since the assessments are short, we recommend that you complete the assessment in a single sitting for more accurate results.
Benefits of taking adaptive assessments
- Personalized Learning: These assessments help pinpoint the best learning content for you, making sure you get the most out of your learning journey.
- Track Your Growth: Want to see how much you've improved? You can retake adaptive assessments later (for example, after finishing a learning program) to clearly see your skill growth.
Where to find adaptive assessments
Assignable content
Your manager might assign you an adaptive assessment or a career path with a "baseline" and "re-assess" adaptive assessment. You'll find these on your launchpad under Assigned activities.
User onboarding (Assess and Recommend)
If you're new to the platform, you might encounter a set of adaptive assessments during onboarding. These are part of our Assess and Recommend feature and help new team members find relevant career paths (for example, guiding you to beginner, intermediate, or expert learning paths). These assessments are available for certain technical roles (Cyber Professional, Infrastructure Penetration Tester, Web Application Penetration Tester, and SOC Analyst). Keep in mind that these specific assessments don't give you a score and aren't assignable by managers; they're a voluntary tool to help you get started.
The kinds of adaptive assessments available
We currently offer adaptive assessments in areas such as:
- Offensive Security
- Application Security
- Operational Technology*
- IT Operations
- Infrastructure Security
- Web Application Security
- Security Operations
- Cybersecurity
- Artificial Intelligence
*Subject to license package
How to see your results
Once you complete an assessment, you'll immediately see your score and skill level ranking. If you've taken the assessment before, you'll see your personal best score highlighted, and you can view your previous attempts from a drop-down menu.
If your manager assigned you an assessment, you can also view your score by navigating to Launchpad > Assigned to me, clicking the assignment card, and then selecting the My Progress tab.
How many times you can take an adaptive assessment
If an assessment is standalone (not part of a career path), you can take it as many times as you want.
If the assessment is part of a career path, you'll typically take it at the beginning for a baseline and then again at the end for a re-assessment.
How the scoring/ranking is determined
Our adaptive assessments are designed to computerized adaptive testing (CAT) standards used within psychometrics.
They use the CAT algorithm to generate a "theta" value to represent a user's capability. This is a continuous statistical measure where higher values indicate greater ability. The CAT algorithm continually refines this theta estimate based on a user's responses to questions.
Once the assessment concludes and a precise theta value is determined, it is then transformed into a more intuitive scaled score, ranging from 0-300 and split into beginner, intermediate, and expert. These groupings align with our content catalog and are used within industry to describe skill levels.
Score boundaries are:
- Beginner: 0 - 128
- Intermediate: 129 - 214
- Expert: 215 - 300