Rounding rules decide how Cirrus rounds the candidate's final percentage score. Use this article to pick a rule and understand its effect on grades and pass / fail outcomes.
Rounding is a tenant-wide setting. It affects every user. Changes only apply to schedules that have not yet started.
Where to find it
Open Admin > Global settings > General and find Rounding rules.
The four rules
- Round down: percentages are always rounded down to the next integer.
54.4,54.5, and54.8all round to54. - Round up: percentages are always rounded up.
54.4,54.5, and54.8all round to55. - Round up or down conditional: standard rounding. Decimals of
.5and above round up; below.5round down.54.4rounds to54;54.5and54.8round to55. - Use two decimals: the same three rounding behaviours, but applied to two decimal places.
54.485%becomes54.48%(down),54.49%(conditional), or54.49%(up).
Effect on pass / fail
The pass mark is checked against the rounded percentage, not the raw percentage.
Example with pass mark 50% and Round up:
| Raw % | Rounded % | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 49.5 | 50 | Pass |
| 49.3 | 50 | Pass |
| 49.0 | 49 | Fail |
With Round down the same candidates would all fail until they hit 50.0% exactly.
Effect on grades
Assessment scales match the rounded percentage to a grade. Cirrus always uses the rounded percentage, not the raw score, to decide the grade.
The interaction with the scale boundaries is the main thing to check when changing rounding rules:
- With Round up, a candidate hovering just below a grade boundary will be lifted into the higher grade.
- With Round down, the same candidate stays in the lower grade.
Set the assessment scale percentages with the chosen rounding rule in mind, otherwise candidates near a boundary may land on the unexpected side.
Underlying score is unaffected
The raw points-based score is always calculated exactly. Rounding only applies to the final percentage, which then drives the grade and pass / fail. The candidate's raw points stay precise in the reports.