APAC FAQs

The APAC-BE passing score is 300, from a possible 500 points. The exam is scored using a scaled score, which converts raw scores into a consistent and standardized scale, like for example, SAT and ACT scores.

An Appeal may be made to the APAC Appeals Committee by an APAC applicant, candidate, or Certificant for any reason, including the following:

• the APAC Board’s interpretation of standards including candidate eligibility from the time of candidate inquiry or the filing of the initial application through the time of conferring of the credential;
• exam administration procedures;
• testing conditions severe enough to cause a major disruption of the examination process; 
• exam score based on exam content and/or keyed item responses; and
• the APAC Board’s interpretation of standards required for renewal.

The applicant, candidate, or Certificant who wishes to make an Appeal (the “Appellant”) must submit an Appeal in writing to the APAC Appeals Committee within thirty (30) days of receipt of notification of an adverse decision.

See APAC Standing Rules and Policies, Policy 16, for details. 

Scaled scoring allows direct and fair comparisons between exam scores. Scaled scores indicate the same level of performance, regardless of which version of the exam a candidate takes. Any differences in test difficulty are accounted for through the use of scaled scores.

To allow for consistency and ease of interpretation, candidates’ scores are changed from a raw score (i.e., number of test questions answered correctly) to a scaled score. Scaled scoring simplifies the interpretation of candidate scores; it enables the scoring of tests with different numbers of questions, difficulty levels, and pass points to be reported in the same way to all test takers. 

Scaled scoring is important for a number of reasons. It makes the exam scores standardized, fair, and consistent over time. Also, in order to gain accreditation for the APAC-BE through the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), APAC must use psychometrically defensible methods, like scaled scoring, to help ensure that all candidates are held to the same performance standard.

Think of the ACT and SAT. If a test taker takes two different tests (e.g., different tests on different dates), that test taker's scores would be interpreted in the same way, even when there are different numbers of items or different item difficulty between the two tests, and they indicate the same level of competence. 

For the APAC-BE, a candidate’s raw score is changed to a scale that ranges from 0 to 500, where 300 is the pass point. Therefore, regardless of how the test difficulty changes over time, the scores are reported and interpreted in the same way. That is, a score from 300 to 500 will always indicate a passing score and a score from 0 to 299 will always indicate a failing score.