Assessments

Assessments

Assessments turn a survey into a scored one — a quiz, a self-test, a screening tool. You give each answer option a point value, LimeSurvey adds the points up when the survey is submitted, and an assessment rule shows the participant a message that matches their score range ("You scored 8 of 10 — well done!").

Assessments live on a classic admin screen. Open the classic Survey menu for your survey and choose Assessments from the menu list.

Tip: For more sophisticated scoring and mid-survey reports, use ExpressionScript; an Equation question can also store the score in your response data.

Enable assessments

  1. In the new editor, open Settings from the left icon rail and go to the Notifications & data section.
  2. Turn Enable assessment mode on.

Once enabled, an extra assessment value field appears next to each answer option when you edit the answers of assessable question types. If you use label sets as answer options, assessment values can be stored in the labels themselves — handy when many questions share one scale.

To turn assessments off later, set Enable assessment mode back to off in Settings → Notifications & data.

Define assessment rules

On the Assessments page, fill in the fields below the rules table:

FieldMeaning
ScopeTotal scores the whole survey; Group scores one question group.
GroupThe question group to score (only relevant with Group scope).
Minimum / MaximumThe score range this rule applies to.
Heading / MessageWhat the participant sees at the end of the survey if their score falls in the range.

Create as many rules as you need; several rules may match the same score, and existing rules can be edited or deleted from the Actions column. In the message you can use {TOTAL} (total score), {PERC} (group score — requires Group scope), and, elsewhere in the survey, {ASSESSMENT_CURRENT_TOTAL} for a running score.

Important: the result page is skipped if Autoload URL is enabled in the survey's Presentation settings — disable it or participants never see the assessment message.

Which question types can be scored

Assessable: Array, Array dual scale, Array by column, List (Dropdown), List (Radio), List with comment, Multiple choice, Multiple choice with comments.

Not assessable (among others): Yes/No, 5-point choice, numerical inputs, free-text types, Date, Gender, Ranking. Where possible, substitute an assessable type — e.g. use a List (radio) instead of a 5-point choice, or a List with Yes/No as answer options instead of the Yes/No type.

Worked example: a two-question health quiz

  1. Enable assessment mode (above).
  2. Add two List (radio) questions: "Do you smoke?" and "Do you exercise?", each with three answers. Give healthy answers an assessment value of 1, middling ones 5, unhealthy ones 10.
  3. On the Assessments page, add two Total-scope rules:
    • Minimum 1, maximum 10 — message "Well, that's what I call being healthy! You scored {TOTAL}."
    • Minimum 11, maximum 21 — message "You should start exercising! You scored {TOTAL}."
  4. Preview the survey. After the final submit, the message matching the total score is displayed.

For label sets, non-anonymous {TOKEN:…} placeholders, and other edge cases, see the full manual page on Assessments.