How the POST dispatcher test is scored, and what counts as a pass

What a T-score is

Your raw score on each subtest is converted to a standard score and the eleven are combined, so your result is relative to how other candidates performed rather than a percentage of questions you answered correctly. The scale has an average of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, which POST describes as 40 or below being below average and 60 or above being above average.

You also get separate scores for the four abilities — verbal, reasoning, memory and perceptual — which is more useful than the overall for deciding what to work on.

The recommended range, and what it is not

POST publishes a recommended passing range of 48 to 57 on the overall T-score, and says in its agency FAQ that "It is the responsibility of the user agency to set the cut score." So the range is guidance POST does not impose, agencies may set a standard above it, and the only number that decides your application is the one the agency you applied to uses. Ask them.

The guessing rule, which is worth knowing before the day

POST states that a fraction of a point is subtracted for each wrong answer and that a blank costs nothing, so random guessing is worth nothing on average — its own worked example is that four random answers on a four-option test earn one point and lose three thirds of a point, for a net gain of zero.

That matters most on the two-option Clarity section, where a wrong answer costs a full point rather than a third of one. If you genuinely cannot separate two versions of a sentence, leaving it is not a worse decision than guessing.

Related guides

• Whether your POST dispatcher score expires, and whether it travels
• The eleven subtests on the POST dispatcher battery
• Evaluating Facts and Clarity: the two sections with fewer than four choices