Skill Assessment — Theta Docs

The Skill Assessment measures the core skills of pure-tone audiometry — air and bone conduction testing, with masking — on a simulated patient. It is two Theta courses, side by side under one Skill Assessment entry in Play:

	Monthly Ranking	Certified Exam
Who can take it	Anyone with Theta Pro	Anyone — $99 a purchase (Pro doesn't include it)
The exam	A new case every month, one attempt a month	One exam a year, one attempt per purchase
Your result	Score per skill, testing confidence, your percentile, and whether it would pass the certified exam	Pass or fail, score per skill, testing confidence and — on a pass — your certificate
Certificate	None — the rounds are unofficial	The Theta certificate, valid for one year

The Monthly Ranking has its own page in Play, like the Audiogram of the Day: this month's round and your months. To warm up, play the Audiogram of the Day or work through the intro course. The Certified Exam is a course: an About reading, three optional practice cases, and its exam.

An organization can also run its own Skill Assessment for its people — set up by Theta from this one, with no ranking and no certificate. See Your organization's Skill Assessment.

What both measure

Both exams score exactly this — pure-tone thresholds, measured by you with the audiometer: air at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 6000 and 8000 Hz in both ears, plus other inter-octaves as necessary; bone at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz.

Every case is the audiogram alone — no speech testing — and is scored on three skills: final thresholds (air and bone, each within ±5 dB), effective masking — scored only where masking is needed: masking effectively there, not under- or over-masked — and each ear's pure-tone average (within ±1 dB). A frequency that needs no masking carries no masking point, so an ear with nothing to mask adds none, and a masking mistake where masking matters weighs more. A score of 90% or more — rounded to the nearest whole percent — with a testing confidence that isn't Low is a pass. Thresholds entered without testing count as wrong, with their masking — see How scoring works.

The masking levels you use at each point that needs masking — the initial stimulus and masking levels, where the plateau starts and ends, and the level you record — appear on the report for reference, but they are not scored.

Each exam opens on a short Before you begin page listing the ground rules — everything that is scored: test air conduction in both ears at the octaves 250–8000 Hz, with 3000 and 6000 Hz required as well as other inter-octaves as necessary; test bone conduction in both ears at 500–4000 Hz; save each threshold, masking wherever masking is needed; and calculate and enter each ear's pure-tone average. When an inter-octave is needed, and which frequencies the average takes, are yours to know — neither the page nor the audiogram says.

Every case uses the same settings: supra-aural earphones, 40 dB of interaural attenuation for air conduction (60 dB with insert earphones), 0 dB for bone, a 10 dB safety margin and a 15 dB plateau.

The certified exam's practice cases use the same kind of testing and scoring as the exam: air at 250–8000 Hz with 3000 and 6000 Hz in both ears, bone at 500–4000 Hz, and the same three skills — effective masking, again, only where the patient needs masking. Practice 1 and 3 test one ear's bone conduction (Theta's one-ear bone rule), Practice 2 both. They are optional: full feedback every time, unlimited tries, and a new audiogram on every try.

Neither course can be copied into an organization — not the course, not any of its cases one at a time, and not the patterns its exams are generated from, even once a pattern is retired — and Theta can't publish its cases to the lesson bank, so each exam stays a case its takers meet for the first time when they take it.

The Monthly Ranking

Who can take it

The Monthly Ranking is part of Theta Pro. Anyone who holds Pro can open it, however they hold it — their own Pro subscription, or Pro through an organization that gives its members Pro (a university's site licence, for example). Without Pro, it still appears — in the Theta course list as a locked card with a Pro badge and an Upgrade link, and in Play's Skill Assessment page as locked, with the way to the plans. It is never hidden.

If your Pro ends partway through an attempt, the attempt stays saved; you can submit it once you hold Pro again.

Theta's own courses are opened by the course's own access level — free, Pro, or a purchase — never just by being a member of the Theta platform space, which every account is. A free account sees every Pro course locked, in the list and by a direct link alike.

A new round every month

A new case each month — every month. Each month's ranking round is a new patient, generated from Theta's exam patterns and titled by its month — Ranking round — November 2026. The first month the ranking runs is generated the same way.
The same case for everyone that month, against the same answer key.
One attempt a month. Each month's round is its own lesson with one attempt. Having taken last month's round doesn't count against this month's.
Months run on UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) — the same months as the Audiogram of the Day's monthly leaderboard.
A month closes with the month. Once a month has ended its round takes no new attempts. An attempt you started before the end can still be finished and gets its result — but only attempts submitted within the month are ranked with that month's takers.

Before a period's case is used — a ranking month, or a certified exam's year — Theta checks it: every threshold the exam asks for is one the audiometer can present, no point is a masking dilemma, every masking level needed is one the audiometer can produce, and masking is really tested — in air and in bone. A draw that fails is redrawn. The exam patterns themselves are checked ahead of time, so a pattern that couldn't give a sound case is fixed before its period comes round.

The round's rules

One attempt. It counts from the moment you start it. Your work saves as you go, so you can leave and come back to the same attempt, but you can't delete it or start over. The Monthly Ranking page says which month's round it is and when the next opens. Play this month's round asks you to confirm first — it is your one attempt.
No time limit.
One answer key for everyone. No element preset — yours, your account's or the course's — changes the key.
Submitted is final. A submitted attempt can't be reopened or changed.

Your result

When you submit a round you see your score for each skill, your testing confidence, your percentile (on a month with enough takers) and whether the attempt would pass the certified exam — This would pass the certified exam, or This would not pass the certified exam (90% needed). A ranking round passes no one and earns no certificate: the line says how the same work would fare on the Certified Exam. The answer key and the right answers are never shown.

The Monthly Ranking page (Play → Skill Assessment → Monthly Ranking) shows this month's round — Play this month's round, Continue, or your result once you've taken it — and when the next month's round opens. Under it, Your monthly results lists every month you have taken, whether it would pass, and your percentile for it; pick a month to see that month's result again. How the ranking works at the foot of the page has the full rules. An attempt left open from an earlier month never blocks this month's round: the page offers it apart (Finish it) — submitted late, it gets its result but no ranking. On the platform home, the Skill Assessment card shows your latest percentile and — while this month's round is still yours to play — its play button.

Your percentile

Your percentile says how you did against everyone else who took the same month's round: better than 62% of this month's takers.

The rule. It is the share of the month's other takers who scored below you, with anyone who scored exactly the same as you counting half: (takers below you + half of those tied) ÷ (all takers but you) × 100, rounded down. The top score of the month reads 100, the lowest 0, and a tie neither helps nor hurts.
Who is ranked. Finished attempts that haven't been voided, whose testing confidence isn't Low, started once the month's round opened and submitted within the month — one per person. An attempt with low testing confidence shows Not ranked this month; one submitted after its month ended is graded but not ranked.
Theta staff aren't ranked. An attempt by Theta's own staff counts in no one's percentile; its result says Not ranked — Theta staff. An organization's own instructors are ranked like anyone else.
When it appears. Only once 20 people have been ranked that month — until then the result says Your percentile appears once 20 people have taken this month's round.
It moves, then it's final. Your percentile updates as more people take the month's round, until the month ends (UTC). After that it's final.

There is no board of names: no one else's score, result or percentile is ever shown to you, and yours is never shown to other takers or to organizations. (Theta's own staff can see it beside your result, as they can see every result.) Every round also builds Theta's normative data on these skills.

The Certified Exam

Who can take it

Anyone can take the Certified Exam. Each purchase is $99 and includes one exam attempt and 12 months of the practice cases. Theta Pro doesn't include it. Open the course, or its card in Play, and Buy takes you to checkout; promotion codes Theta runs are entered there. Back from checkout, the course page shows Finishing your purchase until your payment is processed, then opens — and while it is being processed, Buy won't take a second payment.

One exam a year

2026's exam is the case Theta's reviewers approved, exactly as it is.
Each later year brings a new case, generated from the certified exam's patterns and checked the same way — Certified exam — 2027.
The same case for everyone that year, against the same answer key. Years run on UTC.
A year closes with the year: an attempt started before it ends can still be finished.

One attempt per purchase

Your purchase's attempt counts from the moment you start it, whichever year's exam it is. Every purchase brings its own attempt: if two purchases go through, you have two, used in the order you bought them. Once they are used — and submitted, not still open — the course page and the exam's page show Buy another attempt — $99: a new purchase brings a new attempt (and twelve more months of practice from that day). While a purchase's attempt is still unused, another can't be bought — the checkout says so: You already own this course, and the exam attempt your purchase includes hasn't been used yet.

While an attempt is open, nothing is for sale: the course page says it's in progress and its Continue leads to it — even an attempt started in the last days of one year and picked up in the next, which stays on its own year's exam — and the checkout refuses: finish and submit it before buying another attempt.

The lesson page says 1 of 1 attempt remaining with this purchase, and asks you to confirm before you start: the attempt counts from then.

Refunds

A purchase is refundable in full until its exam attempt starts. Write to support@audiologysimulator.com. (Theta's admin pages show, beside each purchase, whether its exam attempt has started — your attempts are counted against your purchases in the order you made them — and a refunded purchase brings no attempt.)

A payment that is refunded in full, or disputed with your bank, takes back what it bought: the course's access and the certificate its exam attempt earned, which then shows as Revoked. (If another purchase of yours had already gone through before you started that attempt, and its own attempt was still unused then, the attempt counts against that purchase instead, and its certificate stands.)

If the payment is reversed while its attempt is still open, that attempt earns no certificate when it is submitted — even if you buy the course again to get back in and finish it: a purchase made after an attempt started never pays for it. Your result still shows whether the attempt passed, without a certificate.

The exam's rules

An attempt can't be restarted. Your work saves as you go; you can leave and come back to the same attempt, but you can't delete it or start over.
No time limit.
One answer key for everyone. No element preset changes it.
Submitted is final. A submitted attempt can't be reopened or changed.

Your result

When you submit you see your exam result: whether you passed, your overall score, a score for each skill, your testing confidence and — on a pass — View your certificate. No percentile: the certified exam isn't ranked. The answer key and the right answers are never shown — not on the screen, not in the PDF, and not by opening the attempt again. Questions about a result go to support@audiologysimulator.com, for everyone.

Scores, verdicts and fixed results (both courses)

Your overall score is shown rounded to the nearest whole percent (a half rounds up), beside the points it counts, and the pass is judged on that score: 90% or more passes. For example, 43 of 48 points is 89.6%, which rounds to 90% — a pass. The course's lesson list and My submissions show the same score. Wherever an exam's score is shown in colour — the course's lesson list, and the submissions lists staff see — the colour is the verdict: green when it passed (or, on a ranking round, would pass), red when it didn't, whatever the percentage. My submissions labels it the same way: Passed or Not passed on the Certified Exam, and Would pass or Would not pass on a ranking round, which passes no one.

Your result is fixed when you submit. Your points, the verdict, your testing confidence and your score for each skill are recorded the moment your attempt is submitted — however it was submitted — and that is the result you, your PDF, your certificate and the month's ranking read from then on. If Theta later changes how attempts are scored, a result you already have stays exactly as it was. Only Theta re-scoring your attempt, on a review, can change it — and even that never adds or takes away a certificate by itself.

Your certificate

A pass of the Certified Exam earns you a Theta certificate — certificates come only from the Certified Exam, never from a ranking round.

Earned by a pass. The moment a passing attempt is submitted — a score of 90% or more and a testing confidence that isn't Low — Theta issues your certificate. However the attempt ends, it counts: when you submit it, or when a time limit or a deadline submits it for you.
Dated to your exam, valid for a year. It is dated the day you submitted the attempt, names the exam's year (2026 exam), and is valid for one year from that date.
Renewed by a later pass. To renew, buy and pass the current year's certified exam: each pass earns a new certificate, valid for a year from its own date. Earlier certificates stay valid until their own expiry.
Low testing confidence earns none. An attempt with Low testing confidence doesn't pass, whatever its score, so it earns no certificate.
A certificate never changes because a result is looked at again: re-scoring an attempt doesn't add or take away a certificate.

No score or percentile is printed on a certificate — it says you passed, and when.

The certificate itself

Your certificate opens as a one-page, landscape certificate in Theta's colours that you can print, or save as a PDF from the print dialog (Safari asks you to choose Landscape yourself). It carries:

your name — as it was on your account when the certificate was issued — and the credential, Audiometry Skill Assessment, with the exam's year (2026 exam);
Passed — the date you submitted the passing attempt — and Valid until — a year later;
its certificate number, and the address that verifies it (see below);
Theta's signature.

A certificate that has expired or been revoked still opens, but says so — on the page, and stamped across the certificate itself, so a printout can't pass for a valid one. Your certificates are always yours to open, even after your access to the course has ended.

The name on a certificate is fixed when it is issued. Changing your account's name afterwards doesn't change a certificate you already hold — so a certificate always names the person who earned it. If the name on one is wrong, or your name has legally changed, write to support@audiologysimulator.com: Theta can correct the name on the certificate, and the corrected name shows on it and on its verify page straight away.

Finding your certificates

Right after you pass, your result shows View your certificate. It's there whenever you open that attempt's result again, too — from the course, or from My submissions.
On the course page, My certificates lists every certificate you hold for the course, newest first, each with its status (Valid, Expired or Revoked), when it was issued and until when it's valid (for a revoked one, when it was revoked), Open / print, and Copy verify link. A revoked certificate has no verify link to copy: its verify page would only say it's revoked.
Once you hold one, Certificate appears in the course's left rail under My submissions, on the course's row in the course list, and on the course's card on your dashboard — there even if you never enrolled — each opening your current certificate.
After your access ends, the course's own pages — its left rail and My certificates with them — show the way to buy again instead. The Certificate link on the course's row in the course list and on its dashboard card stays, and the attempt's result under Submissions in Theta's left menu still shows View your certificate.

Proving it: the verify page

Every certificate has a public verify page — the address printed at its foot, …/verify/ followed by the certificate number. Anyone you give it to (an employer, a licensing board) can open it without a Theta account, and sees only:

the name on the certificate, the credential (Audiometry Skill Assessment) and the exam's year;
the date it was issued and the date it's valid until — or, once it's revoked, the date it was revoked instead;
its status today: Valid, Expired or Revoked.

Nothing else — no email, no score, no percentile. The page always shows the status as of the moment it's opened, and it isn't listed in search engines: only someone you give the address to can find it. Certificate numbers are case-sensitive.

A verify link keeps working for as long as the certificate exists: a course that has issued certificates can't be deleted — it can only be hidden or locked — so retiring the course never takes a certificate, or its verify page, with it.

Before it expires

About 30 days before your newest certificate expires, Theta emails you once: Your Audiometry Skill Assessment certificate expires on …. To renew it, buy and pass this year's certified exam. — with a link to the Certified Exam. If you've already passed a later exam, your newest certificate runs for a year from that pass, so there's nothing to remind you of and no email comes.

Reviews

If you believe an attempt should have earned a certificate — your testing confidence came out Low, say, but every threshold was really tested — write to support@audiologysimulator.com. Theta reviews the attempt, and can grant its certificate: dated to your exam, valid for a year, and exactly like any other. Only a Certified Exam attempt can carry one.

Theta can also revoke a certificate — for example, one earned on an attempt its holder didn't take themselves. A revoked certificate shows as Revoked everywhere: in your list, on the certificate itself, and on its public verify page. A certificate is also revoked when the payment that bought its attempt is refunded or disputed (see Refunds), and when Theta voids the attempt that earned it — if the attempt is reinstated, so is its certificate.

A certificate revoked by mistake can be reinstated by Theta. It then shows exactly as it did before — Valid until its original date (or Expired, if that date has passed) — in your list, on the certificate and on its verify page, with the same certificate number and the same verify address.

Where to find it

Play, in the Theta platform space's sidebar, lists Skill Assessment next to the Audiogram of the Day. It opens a page with both: the Monthly Ranking (its own page with Pro; locked, with the way to Pro, without it) and the Certified Exam — $99 (its price and Buy for anyone who doesn't hold it, or the way in for someone who does). The platform home shows the same entry under Play. Before a course opens it shows as Soon for everyone, and doesn't link anywhere yet.