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Mastery score vs quiz passing score: why your LMS records the wrong result

Updated 16 October 2026

Quick answer

A SCORM course carries two pass marks: the passing score of the quiz inside the course, and the mastery score in the course's manifest, which the LMS reads. When the two differ, a learner can see “You passed” in the course while the LMS records “failed”, or the other way round.

The fix is to make the two numbers the same (how). Alder's free check names both numbers and the file each came from.

Where each number lives

  • The quiz passing score is set in your authoring tool. In Storyline, open the quiz's result slide and go to Result Tools—Design → Quiz Settings → Passing Score. The course uses it to decide what to tell the learner and which status to send to the LMS.
  • The mastery score is in imsmanifest.xml, the file that tells the LMS how to launch the course. In SCORM 1.2 it is <adlcp:masteryscore>, from 0 to 100. In SCORM 2004 it is <imsss:minNormalizedMeasure>, from 0 to 1, so 80% is written 0.8.

How to fix it

Make the two numbers the same. In Storyline, set the passing score on the quiz's result slide (Result Tools—Design → Quiz Settings → Passing Score). Then open Publish → LMS / LRS → Reporting and Tracking. On the Tracking tab, tick “When the learner completes a quiz” and check that the result slide is listed. Publish again: Storyline writes the same number into the manifest. Avoid editing imsmanifest.xml by hand unless the published manifest still has no mastery score at all.

How to check your course with Alder

Learners marked failed after passing the quiz? Check your course for this. Alder puts the matching problems first and gives you a short test script.

  1. Open Alder and drop the published zip. It is read in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
  2. Read the findings. A mismatch is a blocker, MANIFEST-007, which names both numbers and the file each came from. MANIFEST-006 flags a quiz-tracked course with no mastery score, and TOOL-004 a mastery score on a course that reports no score.
    Alder's Must fix card for a mismatch: learners who score 80 to 89 pass in the course but can fail in a strict LMS. A score line marks the quiz passing at 80 and the LMS at 90, and a Fix it here box offers 80 or 90 as the one pass mark.
    The card for MANIFEST-007 on Alder's sample course, whose quiz passes at 80 and whose manifest says 90.
  3. To see it happen, launch the course in the test player, score between the two numbers, and click “I'm done”. “What an LMS would record” shows the result, and for SCORM 1.2 you can switch the LMS behavior to “Strict SCORM 1.2” to see what a stricter LMS records.

What the LMS does with the mastery score

SCORM 1.2. The standard lets an LMS decide passed or failed by comparing the score the course reports with the mastery score. SCORM Cloud does this only when the course never sets a status itself: its “Mastery Score Overrides Lesson Status” setting is off by default (we checked in September 2026). Stricter LMSs re-judge every attempt. So a mismatch can look fine in SCORM Cloud and still go wrong in your LMS.

SCORM 2004. The LMS must judge passed or failed by comparing the scaled score with the mastery score, whatever the course says. SCORM Cloud does exactly that, so a mismatch shows up there too.

An example

The quiz passing score is 80 and the mastery score is 90. A learner scores 85. The course tells them they passed, but an LMS that applies the mastery score records failed. Anyone scoring between 80 and 90 gets the wrong result, and the LMS report no longer matches what learners saw.

What the course reports and what the LMS recordsThe quiz passing score is 80 and the learner scores 85, so the course shows You passed and sends a score of 85 with the status passed. The mastery score in imsmanifest.xml is 90, so an LMS that applies it compares 85 with 90 and records failed.THE COURSEQuiz passing score: 80The learner scores 85Shows: You passedSendsscore 85, status passedTHE LMSMastery score: 90from imsmanifest.xml85 is below 90Records: failedSCORM 2004: the LMS must do this.SCORM 1.2: stricter LMSs do it.
The same example: the course and the LMS judge 85 against different pass marks.
  • A quiz-tracked course with no mastery score. Pass or fail then rests entirely on the status the course sends. LMS reports that show mastery have nothing to compare with, so the same attempt can show as passed in one LMS and completed or unknown in another.
  • A mastery score on a course that never reports a score, for example one tracked by slides viewed. An LMS that applies the mastery score can record “failed”, or never “passed”, for a learner who viewed everything.