2.2 Cut Score and Result Records

2.2 Cut Score and Result Records

TAB is scored as a hurdle, not as a public ranking list. The TSO JOA states that the assessment includes a cut score based on the minimum level of required proficiency in the critical general competencies. You must meet or exceed the cut score to be considered. You will not be considered for the position if you score below the cut score or fail to complete the assessment. Incomplete is not a neutral try-again-tomorrow on the same application. Walking out, freezing the session, or letting the clock expire without a completed sitting is treated as a failure to complete.

TSA does not currently publish the numeric cut score, the number of items you must answer correctly, or a conversion table from raw points to a scaled score. Do not invent one. Your result is recorded as passing or failing the assessment for hiring purposes, and that record is reused.

What on record means

The JOA's next-steps language is the retention rule you should memorize:

• Passing assessment results are kept on record for two years.
• Failed assessment results are kept on record for six months.
• Those results will be used toward future positions for which you might apply that require the same assessments during the specified timeframe.

In practical terms, a fail is a six-month wait before a new sitting can produce a fresh result that hiring can use. A pass is a two-year ticket you can carry to later TSO applications that require the same assessments, so you may not have to sit TAB again during that window. Neither period is a job offer. A two-year passing record does not freeze an airport's hiring need, a medical result, or a background investigation.

The six-month fail record is why deciding to submit a second USAJOBS application next week is usually the wrong recovery plan. The failed result follows you into later applications that require the same assessments until the six months run.

Cut score vs older category labels

Some older federal hiring write-ups, and this exam's third-party commentary, talk about Qualified, Highly Qualified, and Best Qualified categories. The live TSO JOA used as the official source for this chapter does not grade TAB that way. It uses cut-score language: meet or exceed the minimum required proficiency, or you are not considered. Study and talk about TAB with that official vocabulary. Do not spend study time trying to reverse-engineer a three-tier category score that the announcement does not promise.

The competencies behind the cut score are listed in the open. They are how you are evaluated, not a secret question bank:

For TAB as an x-ray interpretation aptitude test, Visual Observation and Attention to Detail are the most direct mapping. The other competencies still matter for later structured-interview scoring and for test-day integrity rules.

Cost, cheating, and overstating qualifications

There is no candidate fee to sit TAB. You are not buying a professional license seat. You are completing a federal hiring assessment. That does not make the sitting casual. The JOA warns that overstating your qualifications and/or experience in application materials or the application questionnaire may result in removal from consideration. Cheating on the online assessment may also result in removal from consideration. Those are official disqualification paths, not test-prep scare quotes.

Cheating includes using another person's identity, capturing items, using unauthorized notes or devices, or otherwise violating USA Hire / Pearson VUE test-center rules. Overstating includes claiming years of x-ray technician experience you do not have, or answering the vacancy questionnaire as if you already held credentials you do not hold. Integrity/Honesty is a listed competency because TSA screens people who will handle passenger property and follow Standard Operating Procedures.

Worked examples

Example 1 — Fail, then reapply in 14 days. Sam fails TAB on 1 March. On 15 March Sam submits a new TSO application for a different airport. The failed result is still on record (six-month clock). That later application still requires the same assessments, so hiring can reuse the fail. Sam is not starting over in two weeks. The practical wait is until the six-month record expires.

Example 2 — Pass, then move airports 18 months later. Nia passes TAB in January 2025 and later wants a TSO job in another city in July 2026. Eighteen months is inside the two-year passing window. If the new announcement requires the same assessments, Nia's passing result can be reused. She should still complete that announcement's application, questionnaires, and later gates (interview, medical, drug, background). The reused pass only covers the assessment record, not the rest of hiring.

Example 3 — Pass that is too old. Omar passed 25 months ago and applies again. Twenty-five months is beyond two years. He should expect to sit the assessments again rather than assume an expired pass still counts. Do not treat a single past pass as a lifetime TAB waiver.

Example 4 — Incomplete sitting. Chris becomes anxious, leaves the test center with items unanswered, and hopes to reschedule on the same invitation as if nothing happened. The JOA says you will not be considered if you fail to complete the assessment. Incomplete is not a free retry token.

Example 5 — Confusing TAB with academy tests. After a pass, Taylor thinks TAB scores follow into New Hire training and recertification. They do not. TAB is a pre-hire aptitude gate. Classroom tests, on-the-job training, and recurrent certification are separate employment requirements after you are hired.

What a passing TAB result does not do

A passing record does not:

• skip the structured interview / airport assessment
• skip medical evaluation, color vision, or drug screening
• skip the background investigation or Ready Pool wait
• lock a shift, airport, or final job offer
• convert you into a Competitive Service employee (TSA is excepted service)

It also does not publish a percentile. You will not receive an official you scored 92nd percentile in folding report. Plan for a pass/fail hiring decision plus a retention clock, not a score report you can put on a resume.

Traps

• Inventing a numeric cut score or a raw-correct-items requirement.
• Using Qualified / Highly Qualified / Best Qualified as if they were current official TAB outcome labels.
• Assuming a fail is erased when you click Apply on a second JOA.
• Treating a two-year pass as a two-year job offer.
• Paying a website for a TAB voucher — the federal sitting has no candidate fee; paid products are optional prep, not the test.

Memorize the clocks: 2 years if you pass, 6 months if you fail, reuse on later applications that require the same assessments, and not considered if you are below the cut score or do not finish.