Glossary
Pass mark (cut-off score)
A pass mark, or cut-off score, is the minimum score an applicant needs on an early hiring step, such as a first interview, to move forward for a person to review.
A pass mark draws a line through a list of applicants ranked by score. Above the line, someone reviews the applicant. Below it, the applicant is set aside. It lets you decide once, in advance, how strong the evidence needs to be before you spend more time on someone.
Why set one
Without a line, a person has to make a decision about every applicant who was interviewed, which undoes much of the time you saved. With one, reviewers focus on the people most likely to be a fit, and the rule for deciding is written down instead of living in someone’s head.
How to set it
There’s no single right number. A sensible approach:
- Start lower than feels comfortable. Early on, it’s better to review too many people than to miss good ones.
- Look at some applicants below the line. After your first group, read or watch some applicants who scored just under the pass mark.
- Adjust. If strong applicants keep turning up below the line, lower it. If reviewers keep rejecting people just above it, raise it.
- Check it again when the job or the interview changes. New questions or new skills mean the old number may no longer fit.
A worked example
Say 200 applicants have finished the interview and the pass mark is 65. You pull 20 applicants who scored between 55 and 64 and read their evidence. Five of them look worth talking to. That suggests the line is too high for this interview, so you lower it to 58 and check the next group the same way.
What a pass mark shouldn’t be
- Treated as exact. A 64 and a 66 are not really different. Take care with scores near the line.
- A trigger for rejection. Being below the line should mean “set aside,” not “send a rejection email automatically.”
- Permanent. Anyone set aside should be easy to bring back.
Fairness checks
Where the law allows you to collect information about applicants’ backgrounds, such as sex or ethnicity, compare how often each group passes. A big gap is a sign to look again at your questions and skills. See adverse impact.
In LessRounds
Applicants at or above the pass mark go to review. Those below it are set aside. Nobody emails them about it automatically, and they can be moved back at any time. If you don’t set a pass mark, scores of 50 and above go to review and the rest are set aside. The pass mark guide goes into more detail.