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How do I use the Diagnostic Report to understand my exam score?

ICC National Certification exams are graded as a whole and not by content area. To pass an exam, a candidate must answer a set number of questions correctly to receive a passing score. This means a candidate can answer every question incorrectly in a certain content area and still pass the exam. Conversely, a candidate can answer 100% of questions correctly in a content area and still fail. While exam questions may be different for each exam form, both are developed with the same set of content specifications as identified on the Exam Catalog.

To determine an approximation of how many questions will appear on the exam per content area, we recommend using the Exam Catalog content outline. Convert the content area percentage to a decimal (xx% = .xx) and multiply by the number of total exam questions (content areas may be rounded up or down based on percentage).

Fire Inspector I (66) Content Outline
Content Area 1  18% (60 x .18) = approximately 11 questions
Content Area 2  48% (60 x .48) = approximately 29 questions
Content Area 3  17% (60 x .17) = approximately 10 questions
Content Area 4  17% (60 x .17) = approximately 10 questions
                                  100%                                            60 questions

The Diagnostic Report uses a bar graph to convey the percentage of correct answers per content area. The diagnostic report should be used in conjunction with the content outline to guesstimate the percentage of questions answered correctly based on the content outline.

Answered approximately 81% of the 11 questions from Content Area 1 (11 questions x .81= 9)

Answered approximately 61% of the 29 questions from Content Area 2 (29 questions x .61 = 18)

Answered approximately 50% of the 10 questions in Content Area 3 (10 questions x .50 = 5)

Answered approximately 20% of the 10 questions in Content Area 4 (10 questions x .20 = 2)


The candidate answered approximately 34 of 60 questions correctly which does not meet the minimum number of questions required to be answered correctly in order to pass the exam.

Updated on September 3, 2024

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