You need a scaled score of 170 to pass the LEED Green Associate exam. Scores run from 125 to 200. 170 is the pass mark for every GBCI professional exam, including all the LEED AP specialties.

That is the answer. The rest of this page explains what the number means, because 170 out of 200 is not what most candidates assume it is.

170 is not 85%

The instinct is to read 170 out of 200 as a percentage and conclude you need 85% of the questions right. That is wrong, and it frightens people unnecessarily.

The scale does not start at zero. It starts at 125. A candidate who answered every single question incorrectly would still score 125, because 125 is the floor of the scale rather than a measure of nothing. So the usable range is 125 to 200 — 75 points wide — and 170 sits 45 points up it. Reading it as a percentage of 200 compares your score against a scale that does not exist.

What a scaled score actually is

GBCI takes your raw score — the number of questions you answered correctly — and maps it onto a standardised scale between 125 and 200, with the minimum competency threshold always mapped to 170.

The word doing the work is always. Candidates do not all see the same 100 questions, and no two sets of questions are identical in difficulty. If your set happened to be slightly harder, the raw score needed to reach 170 is slightly lower. If it was slightly easier, it is slightly higher. The scale absorbs the variation so that the standard is constant even though the questions are not.

This is why the passing score is expressed as a scaled figure at all. A fixed percentage would mean the difficulty of your particular exam decided whether you passed, which would be unfair to whoever drew the hard set.

How many questions do I need to get right?

Nobody can tell you, and anyone who does is guessing.

There are two reasons. The raw-to-scaled mapping varies between exam forms, so there is no single fixed number. And the exam contains unscored trial questions mixed randomly among the scored ones, so not all 100 count towards your result and you are not told which.

You will find confident figures on forums and blogs — “you need 60 right”, “you need 85 out of 100”. They are folklore. GBCI does not publish a raw pass mark, and it could not, because it changes with the form.

The useful way to think about it. Stop targeting a number of correct answers and start targeting consistency. If you are reliably scoring above 80% on full-length timed practice across all eight domains, you are ready. If you are scraping past on some domains and failing others, the average is hiding a problem the real exam will find.

What your score report shows

Your scaled score appears on screen immediately when you finish, and a score report is emailed to your registered address within 24 hours.

The report gives you your scaled score. What it does not give you is a question-by-question review — GBCI states that it does not release exam content or answers or allow candidates to review proprietary content under any circumstances. That is standard for a professional credentialing exam, because the questions have to stay confidential for the credential to mean anything. The practical consequence, if you are planning a retake, is that you cannot plan on going back through the paper — the diagnosis has to come from your own timed practice instead.

Is 170 hard to reach?

It is a real bar and it is a fair one. The exam is designed to establish whether you understand green building and the LEED process well enough to be useful on a project team — not to fail people, and not to wave them through.

The candidates who struggle usually share one of two patterns. Either they revised from material written for an earlier version of LEED, so they learned things that are no longer true. Or they read widely without ever sitting a timed full-length practice exam, so the first time they experienced the pace was on the day.

Both are fixable, and both are cheaper to fix before you book than afterwards. Every attempt costs the full registration fee — see LEED Green Associate exam cost.

Does the passing score differ for LEED AP?

No. 170 is the pass mark for every GBCI professional exam, on the same 125 to 200 scale. The LEED AP with specialty exams are harder in what they ask — they test application rather than recall — but the number you are aiming at is the same.

Frequently asked questions

What is the passing score for the LEED Green Associate exam?
170 on a scaled range of 125 to 200.

Is 170 the same as 85 percent?
No. The scale starts at 125, not zero, so a scaled score cannot be read as a percentage. 170 is not a fixed proportion of questions answered correctly.

How many questions do I need to answer correctly to pass?
GBCI does not publish a raw number, and it varies between exam forms because scores are scaled. The exam also includes unscored trial questions that do not count. Aim for consistent performance across all eight domains rather than a target number.

When do I find out whether I passed?
Your scaled score appears on screen as soon as you finish, and a score report is emailed to your registered address within 24 hours.

Is the passing score different for LEED AP?
No. 170 is the passing score for all GBCI professional exams, including every LEED AP specialty.

Getting comfortably past 170

Sit a full-length timed paper before you book anything. Our 50-question mock exam is free, and the practice questions by domain will show you which of the eight is carrying your weakness. 3FOLD TRAINING teaches all eight in LEED Green Associate training — ask through the course enquiry form.