PCNSE Certification 72.33% but still failed

[Ahmed_Nawaz]

 I sit in PCNSE certification exam Yesterday. The passing score for the exam was set at 70%, and I calculated my average score to be 72.33%. Despite this, the grade given was "Failed". I am quite confused about how this could happen. Has anyone else experienced a similar situation . PearsonVue asked to contact PaloAlto. Palo asking to contact PearsonVue , I am stuck in this loop.

PassingScore             70%

Score by Average       72.33%

Weight% by Domain  71.73%
Grade Given               Failed.

[kiwi]

Hi @Ahmed_Nawaz ,

I believe you need to get 70% in each domain. 

Looks like you failed in 2 domains.

Kind regards,

-Kim.

[Ahmed_Nawaz]

Hello Kiwi,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I have not accepted this as a solution because there is still a lot of confusion regarding this matter. As you said, the candidate needs to secure 70% in each domain to pass the exam. However, with that logic, I should have also failed the PCNSA, where I did not secure 70% in two domains but still passed.

 

[emr_1]

Even I'm not sure, you also need to calculate "weight" from below:

https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/content/dam/pan/en_US/assets/pdf/datasheets/education/pcnse-bluepri...

At next, I guessed score generally should not be decimal, so I round down it to be integer.

Now it is 69 (under the border of 70). How is it?

	weight	your score (%)	each score per domain (weight x 100 x score%)	round down
	0.12	0.78	9.36	9
	0.2	0.71	14.2	14
	0.17	0.58	9.86	9
	0.17	0.75	12.75	12
	0.16	0.9	14.4	14
	0.18	0.62	11.16	11
total	1.00		71.73	69

[Hi_1024]

Hi Ahmed,
I found it weird that you didn't pass the pcnse exam with 72.3%, but I saw also your reply about the pcnsa score report that you have passed.

I ask you where did you find that score for each domain, because I also passed the pcnsa but the performance in each domain is not appeared in the score report taken from pearsonvue account ?!

I thought that for passed exams there is no score performance per each domain, can anyone explain if this is an update from palo alto?

[Ahmed_Nawaz]

Sidoine-Rousseau (L0 Member) posted a new reply in Certification Discussions on 09-18-2024 12:47 PM: 

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@Sidoine-Rousseau You message was filtered just like many other who replied to this thread , I received notification over email so I am posting it here to make it public😉

Hi, 

I add same fail result as you (see atached), did you get some real explanations ? 

Someone answer me that :

"You are mistaken in your belief that the passing score for the PSCNE exam is 70%. I can assure you that it is not, which is the reason for your grade."

but when I asked what is the passing score, I didn't get any answer ... 

Opacity of this examination is  frightening ....

[Ahmed_Nawaz]

@Sidoine-Rousseau Replying to your post. Yes, I received a similar response from the certification team. According to them, they do not disclose the passing percentage for the exam. It's surprising, but as a candidate taking the exam, you don't actually know how much percentage is needed to pass—and this is real! (Screenshot).

Not knowing the exact passing score can indeed feel confusing, especially since success in any test often depends on knowing the goals upfront"