Which statement best defines Raw Score?

• A. A fixed scale that measures performance with detailed descriptions of criteria that define each level of performance
• B. The consistency of similar results if a test were repeated
• C. The number of questions a student answered correctly
• D. The average score across all questions

Answer: (C)

Raw score is the number of questions a student answered correctly. It’s simply a tally of right responses, with no weighting or descriptions of performance levels. For example, on a 40-question test, a student who gets 28 right has a raw score of 28. This measure doesn’t reflect how difficult the items were, describe performance with criteria, or speak to the test’s consistency across administrations. Those ideas are captured by other concepts, like reliability (consistency of results), rubrics or performance levels (descriptions of how well you performed), or using a mean or scaled score (which involves averaging or adjusting scores). Often raw scores are converted to percentages or scaled scores to make interpretation or comparison easier.