There are multiple types of scoring shown on the Sova platform. You can access participants' scores via the Results tab in the Project. Read more about the Results tab here.
Activities (e.g. assessments, video interviews, assessment centre exercises) have an Activity Score and one or more Competency Scores.
Phases can optionally show an Overall Phase Score.
Activity Scores
An activity score provides a score for the activity as a whole. It is based on the activity’s competency scores but has been statistically transformed to provide meaningful interpretation, as is standard in the use of psychometric assessments.
Activity scores can be hidden from the Results dashboard if preferred, and display only an icon to show the activity’s completion status. In some cases, e.g. where behavioural assessments are used, this is recommended.
Assessments
For assessment activities, the activity score shown in the platform is a Sova Score.
The Sova Score is a standardised score ranging from 1 to 100, serving as an overall score on an assessment that evaluates multiple competencies.
How is the Sova Score calculated?
For each competency, a raw score is transformed into a standardised z score to provide meaningful interpretation. This is achieved by comparing the raw score against the mean and the standard deviation (SD) of the comparison group. A z score typically has a mean of 0 and an SD of 1, with a usual range of -3 to 3.
Z scores from all the competencies are then summed, with weighting applied if applicable, to produce a combined score. The numbers in this combined score are challenging to interpret or use due to their range. To address this issue, the combined z score is further standardised to create a scale from 1 to 100, with a mean score of 50 and a standard deviation of 20. This allows for meaningful comparisons between individuals on this scale.
In this way, the Sova Score is not merely a simple average of the activity's competency scores.
Note
For cognitive assessments (e.g. Sova’s Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and Logical Reasoning Ability Tests), the activity score used is a percentile.
For behavioural assessments (e.g. Sova’s Personality and Motivation Questionnaires), an activity score (the Sova Score) is not meaningful for interpretation purposes, and should not be displayed. Instead, competency scores should be used. These competency scores are used to form the interpretations within the wide range of reports available for participants and hiring managers.
Assessment centre activities
For assessment centre activities, the platform uses a DAC Score. The activity score is an average of all competency scores for that activity.
Competency Scores
Competencies refer to the specific skills, behaviours, and abilities that an activity is designed to measure. Competencies help to identify and understand the different pieces that make up a person’s overall ability to succeed in a specific area or role.
Competency scores in the platform can be displayed in a range of score types.
Percentile
A percentile ranks the percentage of the norm group a raw score exceeds. Percentiles allow us to arrange people in a rank order scale according to their performance, which works really well with ability.
Percentiles offer a representation of the percentage of the comparison group that the individual has scored above. For example, the 80th percentile is the point below which 80% of the members of the norm group fall. Only 20% will have scored higher.
Note
Percentiles only give an indication of rank order and do not offer equal units of measurement (for example a difference of 5 percentile points at one point in the scale, will be very different to at another point – differences are hugely exaggerated near the mean and minimised at the extreme ends).
Percentiles also cannot be manipulated mathematically (averaged or summed) for this reason, which means that a percentile score has to be considered in its own right and not combined with other percentile scores. For this reason, percentiles are not available when calculating Overall Phase Scores in the Sova platform.
Z score
The z score is calculated based on a mean and standard deviation. It represents a raw score that has been converted to standard deviation units. The standard z score formula is:
Where
Z = Standard z score
X = Individual raw score
= Mean score
SD = Standard deviation
Z scores have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation of 1. They are useful when combining multiple assessment or competency scores due to the fact they are standardised and everything is being compared on the same standardised scoring system. However, due to the mean being 0 and the standard deviation being 1, they can be cumbersome to handle as they often have decimals and approximately half of them can be expected to be negative.
Note
Z scores are not recommended for use in Results dashboards and reports as they are confusing to users. There are other options available that remedy the drawbacks of z scores (e.g. Stive, Sten, Stanine) which are recommended for ease of interpretation and understanding.
1 to 5 score (Stive or ‘Standard Five’)
Stive is an abbreviation for Standard Five and is a standard score system that divides the score scales into 5 divisions. It is based on a mean of 3 and a standard deviation of 1. The minimum score is 1 and the maximum is 5.
Stive = Z score + 3
If Z score = 2
Stive = 2 + 3
Stive = 5
Normally the Stive is taken to the nearest whole number, with a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 5. In the Sova platform there is the option to display whole Stives as well as Stives with decimal places. We recommend using whole numbers to simplify the output for users.
Stive scores offer a simplistic, easy to understand scoring system.
1 to 10 score (Sten or Standard Ten)
Sten is an abbreviation for Standard Ten, and is a standard score system which divides the score scales into 10 divisions. It is based on a mean of 5.5 and a standard deviation of 2.
Sten = (Z score x 2) + 5.5
If Z score = 2
Sten = 2 x 2 + 5.5
Sten = 9.5
Normally the Sten is taken to the nearest whole number, with a minimum value of 1 and a maximum of 10. In the Sova platform there is the option to display whole Stens as well as Stens with decimal places. We recommend using whole numbers to simplify the output for users.
Many users opt for a Sten score on the Results dashboard as it is easy to interpret but also offers significant differentiation between candidates.
Score 1 to 9 (Stanine or ‘Standard Nine’)
Stanine is an abbreviation for Standard Nine and is a standard score system that divides the score scales into 9 divisions. It is based on a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of 2.
Stanine = (Z score x 2) + 5
If Z score = 2
Stanine = 2 x 2 + 5
Stanine = 9
Normally, the Stanine is taken to the nearest whole number, displayed with a minimum value of 1 and a maximum value of 9. In the Sova platform there is the option to display whole Stanines as well as Stanines with decimal places. We recommend using whole numbers to simplify the output for users.
DAC Score
DAC Scores are relevant only to assessment centre exercises. They are typically direct inputs by assessors or an aggregation of scores from multiple indicators.
Overall Phase Scores
Overall phase scores provide a summary score for a phase, and can be calculated from some or all competency scores within the activities in that phase.
The overall phase calculation is an average or a sum of competency scores. The competencies themselves can be weighted differently or even excluded from the calculation, as required.
Overall phase scores can displayed as any competency score type detailed above with the exception of percentiles and Z scores.
To display and configure overall phase scores, you must be an Automation Admin (see Roles for more details).