CompTIA Learn Strengths & Weaknesses

[MarcioT]

Some of my students which are using CompTIA Learn are wondering how the "Strength & Weaknesses" score is calculated, and how they might be able to improve their rating. A few questions:

- Are there any guides explaining how this works on the backend?
- Does the system use historical performance, i.e., if I retake practice questions, will my rating improve?
- Baring specific details, are there any generic guidance on how one might go about increasing their score?

 

[Rick Butler]

The meta question here is a common one - How do I know that ____ score will indicate that I am actually prepared to take the exam? There's always that hope that one tool or another, this or that book, this or that training will provide some measure of confidence in how one might actually perform on the live exam. I would urge caution with that, because that can lead to issues of mismanaged expection.

So, this is what I believe from my experience with the product and @Jwehrle can correct me if I'm inaccurate. That being said...

1) I don't think CompTIA has anything published that talks about how these things are calculated and done behind the DM screen.

2) So when you take practice questions in CML or practice, the score shows your performance, but retaking does not improve the score in CML or CMP (afaik), because it wouldn't be an accurate reflection of knowledge. There are only so many practice questions in CML/CMP, so repeated exposure to them usually leads to a student memorizing the questions, rather than improving their knowledge. It's not going to be linear, as some questions are Easy, Medium, Advanced, and Expert level.

3) From a scoring perspective, if you really want to see a higher score, the learner would have to delete their scores and reset the module. Of course, that's where my original point comes in - that it doesn't reflect the actual preparedness, since those questions have been exposed to the learner.

/r

 

[Tristan | CompTIA]

Some of my students which are using CompTIA Learn are wondering how the "Strength & Weaknesses" score is calculated, and how they might be able to improve their rating. A few questions:

- Are there any guides explaining how this works on the backend?
- Does the system use historical performance, i.e., if I retake practice questions, will my rating improve?
- Baring specific details, are there any generic guidance on how one might go about increasing their score?

Thank you @Rick Butler

Hi Marcio,

One thing I can send you would be our reporting guide. If the Strengths & Weaknesses are courses. Based on their
answers and the difficulty level of the practice and assessment questions. One thing they can do is increase their pass rate on both of those being the practice questions and the assessments.



Strengths & Weaknesses provides a visual
summary of the student’s proficiency across
the Lessons in a given course. Based on their
answers and the difficulty level of the practice
and assessment questions, the student is rated
on a scale from Beginner to Expert.

 

[Rick Butler]

One thing I can send you would be our reporting guide. If the Strengths & Weaknesses are courses. Based on their
answers and the difficulty level of the practice and assessment questions. One thing they can do is increase their pass rate on both of those being the practice questions and the assessments.

Strengths & Weaknesses provides a visual
summary of the student’s proficiency across
the Lessons in a given course. Based on their
answers and the difficulty level of the practice
and assessment questions, the student is rated
on a scale from Beginner to Expert.

The question though is always on the "re-playability" factor. Once a student goes through the course, the review questions in CML are very few, so after one pass, they don't really measure much, which is why CMP is in play. However, having run through a couple of CMP's, the one thing is that I can retake the questions. As long as I never see the answers to them, theoretically, I can reuse them to some degree.

In practice questioning, there are two approaches to study:

1) Sharpening - In this mode, the student goes through questions, being made aware of the things they didn't know. This is where students usually find themselves because they want to get that improvement from 60 to 70 to 80 and so on. But the cost is high - each question revealed and answered diminishes its utility. Getting a 100 is not overly difficult for someone with a good memory, but that doesn't directly say that learner will get that high a score, or even a passing one, on the live exam.

2) Validating - In this, answers to fresh questions are never revealed. This would more closely model the certification exam. The benefit is that you can replay the questions and, for the most part, be able to measure improvement. The detractor is that a student doesn't get much feedback on the specific topics that require remediation. In this case, they would know how well they did in each domain objective, but not the specific learning points.

/r

 

[MarcioT]

Thank you for the replies! I will show my ignorance and ask what do the acronyms CML and CMP mean? Maybe CML is CompMaster Learn, if so, what is CMP?

 

[Rick Butler]

So, CML is CertMaster Learn, CMP is CertMaster Practice. I'll also reference CML/L - CertMaster Learn and Labs. Sorry for the ambiguity.

 

[Tristan | CompTIA]

So, CML is CertMaster Learn, CMP is CertMaster Practice. I'll also reference CML/L - CertMaster Learn and Labs. Sorry for the ambiguity.

Thanks, @Rick, for the quick reply there.

 

[Fanuel]

The meta question here is a common one - How do I know that ____ score will indicate that I am actually prepared to take the exam? There's always that hope that one tool or another, this or that book, this or that training will provide some measure of confidence in how one might actually perform on the live exam. I would urge caution with that, because that can lead to issues of mismanaged expection.

So, this is what I believe from my experience with the product and @Jwehrle can correct me if I'm inaccurate. That being said...

1) I don't think CompTIA has anything published that talks about how these things are calculated and done behind the DM screen.

2) So when you take practice questions in CML or practice, the score shows your performance, but retaking does not improve the score in CML or CMP (afaik), because it wouldn't be an accurate reflection of knowledge. There are only so many practice questions in CML/CMP, so repeated exposure to them usually leads to a student memorizing the questions, rather than improving their knowledge. It's not going to be linear, as some questions are Easy, Medium, Advanced, and Expert level.

3) From a scoring perspective, if you really want to see a higher score, the learner would have to delete their scores and reset the module. Of course, that's where my original point comes in - that it doesn't reflect the actual preparedness, since those questions have been exposed to the learner.

/r

Well explained Rick!