How VerbalWars scores a case
Every case is scored the way the ABR describes its oral exam: Observation, Synthesis and Management, each banded from 68 to 72, against an answer key written before you opened the case.
These are practice scores, modeled on the ABR’s published description of the DR Oral Exam. They are not official ABR scores. What the ABR has said about the exam.
The answer key is frozen before you start
Each case is built from one source article and reviewed before anyone plays it. The review fixes three things: the essentials, the points an examiner needs to hear; the refinements, depth beyond the essentials; and the safety flags, claims that are dangerous to get wrong. Nothing is written or changed while you practice, and the examiner can show only the prepared studies and prepared facts.
Credit follows the whole conversation
When the case closes, a grader reads every answer you gave and judges each answer-key item as said, partly said, not said or contradicted, quoting your own words by turn. A later summary never erases an earlier correct answer. A second reader checks the marks and can send them back once.
An essential you said only after the examiner’s follow-up for that item counts as said, but prompted. It lowers the band within its range and never fails a case on its own. Correcting yourself is credited; correcting after a hint is recorded as help.
Two rules fix the range
- A flagged unsafe claim you did not withdraw, or a dangerous omission: the case and the affected domain can only be 68 or 69.
- Every assessed essential said and nothing unsafe: at least 70. Missing refinements alone can never pull you below 70.
- Otherwise the range is open from 68 to 72, and the grader judges the quality of the reasoning within it.
There are no percentages anywhere. The band is a judgment within a range the rules set.
The bands
| Score | In VerbalWars |
|---|---|
| 72 | Outstanding. Exceptionally strong, concise reasoning, with a clear rationale across the important decisions. |
| 71 | Good. Strong, coherent reasoning with few gaps. |
| 70 | Satisfactory. Safe practice with gaps in depth. |
| 69 | Marginal. Below the line, with substantial correct fundamentals beside the failure. |
| 68 | Unsatisfactory. The central interpretation or plan collapsed, or the approach was unsafe throughout. |
An essential you said only after a follow-up, or a pertinent negative you left out, lowers the band within its range; neither alone takes a case below 70.
Observation, Synthesis and Management get separate bands, and the overall band is a judgment, not an average. Material you never saw is not assessed and never counted as missed.
What the examiner was listening for
After every case you read the answer key itself, item by item, with your words beside each point. Then, for each question, what an outstanding candidate would have said, written without sight of your answers. A diagnosis counts as covered only when you mark the debrief complete, whatever the score.
Practice again
Retake keeps your earlier attempts. Retake misses builds a set from the cases below target. Exam mode holds feedback until the whole set ends; Challenge mode removes hints.