Introduction

The Assessment Summary Report tells you how you performed on your TrueLearn mock assessment. Your report provides you with key insights about how you performed overall, by question, and by category. In this guide, you will learn how to read and interpret the data reflected in this report. Additionally, you will also learn how to use these data to identify areas on the assessment where you underperformed. By identifying areas for improvement, you can better target your future studies to make the best use of your time.

Before Taking Your Assessment

It is very important that you keep the following guidelines in mind when taking your mock assessment. Following these guidelines will improve the accuracy, validity, and usefulness of the data provided by the Assessment Summary Report. First, you should treat your mock assessment as seriously as you would your real-world exam. Give it the same effort and diligence you would give to your real-world exam. Second, you should take the mock assessment under conditions that most closely mimic the real-world exam (e.g., no study materials, complete the mock assessment in one sitting under timed conditions, etc.). Finally, you should take your mock assessment as closely as possible to when you will sit for your real-world exam.

Summary Cards

The Summary Cards are the first set of data you should review after opening your assessment summary report. These summary cards provide you with a quick overview of how well you performed on your assessment and how your performance compares with other learners. Let’s now walk through each summary card to help you understand what it’s telling you.

Figure 1. Summary Cards from a COMBANK Level 1 Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment.

Each of the Summary Cards offers insights into different aspects of your assessment performance. However, to understand your performance comprehensively, you need to consider these summary cards together. Let’s walk through each of these summary cards.

Overall Mean Score

The Overall Mean Score summary card reports the overall mean score you achieved on your assessment. Specifically, it is the percentage of questions you answered correctly overall questions on your assessment. The more questions you answered correctly, the higher your overall mean score. In general, you want to answer as many questions as you can correctly and push the Overall Mean Score to be as high as possible. Also, the higher your Overall Mean Score, the higher your Grad Year Percentile and National Percentile.

The Overall Mean Score gives you a baseline for your understanding and mastery of the content on your assessment. The higher your score, the more you understand the material. If your score is lower than expected, you will want to identify the material where you require the most improvement. As you will learn about later, the Question Performance and Category Performance tables of your report can help you identify your weakest areas to target additional study for improvement.

Test Time

The Test Time summary card reports the duration of time that you spent taking your assessment. It tells you the total number of hours, minutes, and seconds it took you to complete your assessment.

The time permitted for completing the mock assessment is based on the amount of time allowed on the actual exam. Utilizing this data in combination with your overall performance can help you identify opportunities to improve test-taking skills. For example, if you completed the exam with plenty of time to spare but scored poorly, then during practice testing, be sure to slow down a bit to carefully read each question and think through the answer choices. If you got through all of the questions but completed the exam with little time to spare or couldn’t answer all of the questions, then you will want to be sure you are leveraging Timed Mode more frequently in your practice testing, particularly as your exam day draws near.

Questions Answered

The Questions Answered summary card reports the total number of questions on your assessment. Importantly, it is not the total number of questions you attempted to answer on the assessment.

Grad Year Percentile & National Percentile

The Grad Year Percentile summary card reports your graduation year percentile. This percentile refers to the position of your Overall Mean Score relative to learners in the same graduation year as you. This percentile tells you what percentage of learners you have outscored in the same graduation year as you. It is not a measure of how many questions you have answered correctly but rather how your Overall Mean Score compares to others at (relatively) the same level of training. For example, if you have a Grad Year Percentile of 99, it means that you are in the top 1% of scores for your graduation year cohort. Your percentile can range between 0 and 99, with a higher percentile indicating that you performed better on this assessment relative to learners graduating in the same year as you.

The National Percentile summary card reports your national percentile. This percentile is very similar to the Grad Year Percentile. The key difference is that this percentile refers to the position of your Overall Mean Score relative to a national sample of learners; that is, all learners that completed the same assessment and not just those in your graduation year. This percentile offers a big-picture view of where your Overall Mean Score stands in relation to all learners who also took this assessment.

The higher your Overall Mean Score, the higher your percentiles. These percentiles put your Overall Mean Score in context with other learners who also completed the assessment. They serve as a benchmark for how competitive your score is to learners who also took this assessment nationally and within your graduation year, respectively. While there is no hard and fast rule for what constitutes a “good” percentile, a general rule of thumb is that scoring in the 60th percentile or above is a good indicator that your performance is competitive with your peers.

It can be very tempting to focus on your Overall Mean Score, Grad Year Percentile, and National Percentile, and either think, “I don’t need to study anymore” or “I’m never going to pass my exam.”. While knowing how you stack up against other learners who completed the assessment is useful, don’t assume you don’t need to study anymore or give up. The data in the Assessment Summary Report will help to identify the material where you underperformed and target your study to improve your understanding of these content areas.

Score Prediction

The Score Prediction summary card reports a prediction for whether you will pass your real-world exam based on your performance on your assessment.

For the COMBANK Level 1 Mock Assessment, score prediction is represented by the Probability of Passing (%) summary card. This summary card shows a probability of passing as a prediction. This probability is a percentage that ranges from 0 percent to 100 percent. Learners who completed a COMBANK Level 1 Mock Assessment before February 1, 2025, will be shown a Predicted Outcome summary card that reports either “Pass” or “Fail”.

For the COMBANK Level 2 CE and COMBANK Level 3 Mock Assessments, score prediction is represented by the Predicted Outcome summary card. This summary card shows a “Pass” or “Fail” prediction and a predicted score range of performance on the real-world exam.

While the purpose of the Score Prediction is to give you a prediction for whether you will pass or fail your real-world exam based on your mock assessment performance, it is very important to remember that your prediction is just that – a prediction! Your prediction is not fate and may be wrong. There are many factors that may influence your prediction, such as how you felt when you took the mock assessment and the time between you taking the mock assessment and your real-world exam. Predictions are educated guesses, and all guesses sometimes turn out to be wrong. You should never rely only on your Score Prediction to determine if you’re ready to sit for your real-world exam. Remember to consult with your faculty advisor and holistically consider other measures of test readiness. The Score Prediction is only one data point. You should also carefully review how you performed by category and topic to identify areas of weakness and consider the Overall Mean Score along with your Test Time to develop an appropriate study plan leading up to your exam.

You should keep the following guidelines in mind for the most accurate prediction. First, you should treat your mock assessment as seriously as you would your real-world exam. Give it the same effort and diligence you would give to your real-world exam. Second, you should take the mock assessment under conditions that most closely mimic the real-world exam (e.g., no study materials, complete the mock assessment in one sitting under timed conditions). Finally, you should take your mock assessment as closely as possible to when you will sit for your real-world exam.

Finally, the statistical model underlying the prediction was developed by leveraging historical performance data comparing students’ scores on the mock assessment to their actual performance on their real-world standardized exam. The model was developed using a predictive modeling approach. Data from a sample of students who completed TrueLearn’s mock assessments and sat for the actual standardized exam were used to train the predictive model. The data included the students’ percentage correct score on the mock assessment and most recent score on the actual standardized exam taken after completing the mock assessment. Several additional performance metrics are also used by the model. Internal testing found that this model accurately predicts how students will perform on the actual exam, given their performance on the mock assessment.

Now that you’ve learned how to read and interpret the Summary Cards to holistically assess your performance on your assessment, you should focus your review on identifying the material where you underperformed. The Time Per Question visualization, Question Performance table, and Category Performance table will help you to discover your weakest areas where you should target your review.

Time Per Question

The Time Per Question visualization plots the amount of time you spent on each question while taking your assessment. Each point on the visualization represents a question on the assessment, and the points are plotted in the order that you took the questions.

Different colored points are used to relate the correctness of the response you chose and whether your response was your first or final selection. The green and red points indicate whether your final selection was correct or incorrect, respectively. For questions where you selected a response as your answer and then changed your response for your final answer, a green or red square, which indicates whether your first response was correct or incorrect, respectively, is drawn around each point. The height of each point indicates the amount of time in seconds that you spent answering the question.

Finally, the summary cards below the visualization report the average time you spent per question, as well as the average time you spent on questions that you answered correctly and incorrectly, respectively.

Figure 2. Time Per Question visualization and summary cards from an Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment.

Now that you know how to read the Time Per Question visualization, let’s learn about how you can use it to help you better understand your performance on your assessment.

How Do You Use the Time Per Question Visualization?

The Time Per Question visualization provides you with holistic information about how you spent your time when taking your mock assessment. It shows you how much time you spent on each question, whether you answered the question correctly, and if your final answer was different from the first response you chose. Let’s learn about a few ways that you can use this visualization to help you understand the time you spent on the assessment.

First, you should use the Time Per Question visualization to identify questions that you spent a long time answering. These are the questions that you most likely found the most difficult, especially the questions that you answered incorrectly. For the questions that you answered incorrectly, take notice if you frequently changed your answer from correct to incorrect. The incorrect questions where you changed your answer may suggest content where you only have a partial understanding or misconceptions that require additional review. Use the Question Performance table to review these questions carefully. Also, keep in mind that spending a lot of time on questions that you answered correctly may indicate that you are using extra time to ensure accuracy.

Next, you should use the Time Per Question visualization to review the full distribution of questions and time spent over the duration of the exam. The goal here is to identify whether your test performance was consistent throughout the exam or if there were fluctuations. Spending more time on the questions or answering more questions incorrectly at the end of the exam, for example, may indicate that you experienced fatigue or loss of focus due to loss of stamina. Leveraging Timed Mode when taking practice tests and taking quizzes more frequently and closer together over time will help you build test stamina.

Question Performance

The Question Performance table shows your performance on each question on your assessment. Beyond summarizing which questions you answered correctly versus incorrectly, this table is very useful for helping you to identify the material on the assessment where you need the most improvement. Let’s break down each field in this table to better understand what it is telling you.

Figure 3. Question Performance table from an Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment.

Question Number (#)

The Question Number (#) field shows the order of each question as it was presented to you when you took your assessment.

Stem

The Stem field shows the first one or two sentences in the question. You may click on a question’s Stem field, and the table will expand to show the full Stem for the question, as well as its response options (the bolded option indicates the correct answer). The question’s bottom line, which provides a short explanation for the correct answer, is also shown below the question stem and response options.

Result

The Result field reports whether you answered each question correctly or incorrectly.

Selected Answer(s) (First -> Final)

The Selected Answer(s) field reports the response option you selected as your answer for each question on your assessment. This field also shows you the first and final response option you selected for each question if your first selection differed from your final selection.

National Average (Natl. Avg.)

The National Average field reflects the percentage of learners nationwide that also took the assessment, and that answered each question correctly, providing a benchmark for the difficulty of each question.

Topic

The Topic field shows the topic associated with each question. Each question is associated with one and only one topic.

Now that you know how to read the Question Performance table, let’s learn about how you can use it to help you better understand your performance on your assessment.

How Do You Use the Question Performance Table?

The Question Performance table is critical for helping you to identify where you need to target your study for improvement. It shows you how you performed on each question and allows you to directly target individual questions for review. Let’s learn about a few ways that you can use it in your review.

First, identify and review each question that you answered incorrectly. For each question that you answered incorrectly, review the Natl. Avg. for the question. Remember, this field provides you a benchmark for question difficulty. The higher the national average, the more learners that took this assessment answered it correctly.

Focus on the questions that you answered incorrectly that report a high national average. These are “easy” questions that you missed. Click on the Stem field in the Question Performance table to review the question, response options, correct answer, and bottom line. Also, use the Selected Answer(s) field to notice if you second-guessed your answer. Sometimes, overthinking a question can lead you to select the wrong answer. Use this field to identify if overthinking is a common test-taking pattern for you.

Figure 4. The “Review All Questions” interface for an example question from a sample mock assessment. Click on the “Review All Questions” button located above the Question Performance table to access this interface for reviewing questions.

For additional review, make a note of the Question # and then click on the “Review All Questions” button. This button will open the “Review All Questions” interface. Navigate to your question of interest. Carefully review the question’s explanation. As you review each incorrect question, think about the reasons you selected the wrong response option when taking the assessment. Compare and contrast your understanding of the question with the explanation and bottom line. Identify where your understanding is incorrect and update it during your review.

Category Performance

The Category Performance table provides a summary of your performance across the categories of content tested by the assessment. This table groups together questions that are associated with the same category and reports your performance. Keep in mind that each question may be associated with one or more categories. By using the data in this table, you can quickly identify the areas of content where you need additional study. Let’s break down each field in this table to better understand what it’s telling you.

Figure 5. Category Performance Table from an Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment.

Name

The Name field lists the category or categories that you have selected from the drop-down menu above the Category Performance table. You can use this drop-down to select the categories that you are interested in reviewing. It is very important to highlight that the Question Performance table automatically updates after using this drop-down to select a category to show your performance for questions in your selected category.

Questions

The Questions field reports the number of questions on your assessment linked to each category. Questions may be associated with one or more categories.

% Correct

The % Correct field shows the percentage of questions in each category that you answered correctly on your assessment.

Avg. Time Per Question

The Avg. Time Per Question field shows the average time that you spent answering questions associated with each category.

Unanswered

The Unanswered field shows the number of questions on your assessment that you did not answer in each category.

The Category Performance table reports your performance for all categories tested by the assessment. The drop-down menu above the Category Performance shows you the currently selected category. For example, in Figure 6, the category currently selected is Body System. You may click on the drop-down menu and select a different category. The Category Performance table will automatically update to report your performance by the category you selected.

It’s also important to recognize that the categories are organized in a hierarchy. Specifically, there are two levels of categories. The first is the top-level category. The second is the second-level category. In Figure 6, Body System is a top-level category, whereas Head & Neck and Cardiovascular System are second-level categories. If you select a top-level category, the Category Performance table will update to show you performance for all second-level categories associated with your selected top-level category. You may also select a second-level category using this drop-down menu. In this case, the Category Performance table will only show the single second-level category that you selected.

Figure 6. Category Performance table from an Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment. This figure shows the drop-down menu for selecting a category, as well as the hierarchical system used to organize categories. Top-level categories show second-level categories below them.

Now that you understand what each field in the Category Performance table is telling you and how to select different categories, let’s learn more about how you can use it to review your performance.

How Do You Use the Category Performance Table?

The Category Performance table provides you with critical information for identifying your weakest areas of understanding so that you can strategically target those areas for improvement with future study.

First, you should review the Category Performance table to identify the categories where you underperformed. By focusing your review on your underperforming categories, you will best target the material on the assessment where you are weakest. Improving your performance in your weakest areas is key to increasing your future exam score or outcome. The drop-down menu shows you all the categories tested on your assessment. Select the first top-level category. The Category Performance table will update to show you only the secondary-level categories associated with the top-level category that you selected in the drop-down menu.

Figure 7. Category Performance table from an Assessment Summary Report for a sample mock assessment. The table is sorted by the % Correct field in ascending order (note the single arrow pointing up).

Next, as shown in Figure 7, sort the % Correct field in ascending order (click on the % Correct header to sort the field). Identify the second-level categories where your % Correct is 50% or less. These are the second-level categories where you most underperformed and should focus your future study for improvement. For each second-level category where you scored less than 50%, click on the “Review Questions” link. This link will open the “Review Questions” interface. Here, you can focus your review only on the questions associated with the second-level category that you selected. For example, as shown in Figure 7, clicking on the “Review Questions” link for the Head & Neck second-level category will open up the “Review Questions” interface for only the 17 questions associated with that second-level category.

Figure 8. The “Review Questions” interface for an example question from a sample mock assessment for the Head & Neck second-level category.

As you review each question, think about the reasons you selected the wrong response option when taking the assessment. Compare and contrast your understanding of the question with the explanation and bottom line. Identify where your understanding is incorrect and update it during your review.

You should repeat this exercise to review all questions you answered incorrectly within each second-level category where your % Correct is less than 50%. Take your time when conducting your review. Focus on a single second-level category, one at a time, and systematically work through each question. As an additional step in your review, consider creating a new practice test with random questions just from the second-level category you are reviewing. Practicing on questions associated with the categories where you underperform is a great way to focus your study in a targeted manner and make the best use of your review time.

What to Do After You Complete Your Review?

Now that you have completed your review of your Assessment Summary Report and learned about how you performed on the mock assessment, there are several critical actions that you can take to improve your future performance going forward.

The first and most important action is to take more practice tests. The more practice you get, the more confident and prepared you will be for your real-world exam. A good strategy is to create practice tests that disproportionately include questions from the categories where you underperform. Practicing with questions in your lowest-performing categories will strengthen your understanding of the content you know least well. Don’t forget to throw in at least a few questions from categories where you performed well to keep your skills sharp.

Also, you should consider taking your practice tests in Timed Mode. Using this test mode will provide you with additional practice taking questions under tight time constraints. This practice will help you to build test stamina and endurance over time, which is very important for performing well on long exams. You might also consider taking multiple practice tests in short succession.

Finally, you might consider purchasing a retail mock assessment from TrueLearn’s website. The retail mock assessment includes a different set of questions from the ones you completed for your institutional mock assessment. Completing the retail mock assessment will provide you with even more practice and includes its own Assessment Summary Report for you to review your performance after you finish it.

*COMLEX-USA® Level 1, Level 2 CE, and Level 3 are trademarks of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners® (NBOME®). This content is not endorsed or approved by NBOME.

Guide for the Assessment Summary Report (COMLEX)