United States
Hong KongThe ten unscored questions
Ten of the 90 administered questions are unscored pilot items being trialled for future forms. They are indistinguishable from scored questions and must be answered as though they count.
A feature of most large certification exams, rarely explained, and occasionally misunderstood in a way that costs marks.
Why they exist
A new question cannot be scored until it is known to behave properly: that competent candidates get it right more often than weak ones, that it is not ambiguous, and that its difficulty is measured.
The way to find that out is to put it in front of real candidates under real conditions without letting it affect anyone's result. That is what a pilot item is.
They are indistinguishable
Candidates sometimes decide mid-exam that an odd or difficult question must be one of the ten and give it less effort. There is no way to tell, and the reasoning is backwards: a pilot item is often perfectly ordinary, and the question you found strange is at least as likely to be scored. Answer all 90 the same way.
What it means for your score
Your scaled score is built from the 80 scored questions. Performance on the pilot items does not affect it in either direction.
It also means you cannot reconstruct your result afterwards. Counting the questions you think you got wrong tells you nothing when ten of them may not have counted.
And for the blueprint
The domain weights apply to the 80 scored questions. So the paper you sit will not visibly contain exactly 15 Federal Requirements questions, because some of the federal questions you see may be pilots.
The weights are still the right guide to your study time. They describe what counts.
The time cost
All 90 take time. That is why the pacing arithmetic uses 90 rather than 80, giving 1.22 minutes a question rather than the more comfortable figure you get by dividing 110 by 80.
Anyone planning their pace on the scored count alone has budgeted about 15 percent more time than they have.
Common questions
How many PTCE questions are unscored?
Ten of the 90 administered. Eighty are scored.
Can I tell which ones they are?
No. They are indistinguishable from scored questions by design.
Do they affect my score?
No, in either direction. The scaled score comes from the 80 scored items.
Why do they exist?
To trial new questions under real conditions before they count towards anyone's result.
Do they cost me time?
Yes. Pacing must be planned on 90 questions, not 80.