How do I use different rating scales for different sections?

By default, your assessment has a single Base Rating Type that drives all scores, colors, and rating text across every section, subsection, and segmentation. All rating bands in Brilliant Assessments are percentage-based. What varies between rating types is where the thresholds fall, what the bands are called, and the rating text and colors used.

If you want different parts of your assessment to be rated against different thresholds or different rating labels, use Advanced Ratings.

When to use Advanced Ratings

Common scenarios:

• Different thresholds per section. For example, in a Leadership section, 0-50% might be "Development Area" and 51-100% "Strength". In a Compliance section, 0-80% might be "Not Compliant" and 81-100% "Compliant".
• Different rating labels. For example, one section uses "Red / Amber / Green" while another uses "Beginner / Intermediate / Advanced".
• Different number of bands. For example, one section uses 3 bands and another uses 4 or 5.
• Different colors for different parts of the report.

High-level setup

1. Create the Advanced Rating Type. Go to Assessment Settings > Ratings > Rating List, click Advanced Ratings, then Add Advanced Rating. Give it a name (for example, "Compliance Ratings") and note the ID assigned by the system. You will use this ID in your report.
2. Define the rating bands. Click Ratings next to the new Rating Type. Add each band with its Name (label), Maximum Score (the upper percentage of the band), Rating Color, and Rating Text if you plan to display it. Each Advanced Rating Type has its own independent bands. They do not need to match the Base Rating Type.
3. Add rating text for the new Rating Type in the sections or subsections where you'll use it. Once an Advanced Rating Type exists, it is automatically calculated at every level (Section, Subsection, Segmentation), no assignment step is required. In the Section or Subsection dialog, the Rating Type dropdown lets you select your new Rating Type and write rating text for each band. Only add text on the sections or subsections where you plan to use this Rating Type in your report.
4. Reference the Rating Type in your report. In your Word report template, add the RatingType=n parameter to your merge strings, where n is the ID from step 1. For example, {RatingSection.RatingText[SectionNo=2 RatingType=104]} pulls the rating text for Section 2 using Rating Type 104.

If you do not add the RatingType parameter to a merge string, it defaults to the Base Rating Type, so existing merge strings keep working unchanged.

For full details, see Using Advanced Ratings and Managing Ratings and Rating Scales.