Use Skill IQ to gauge your initial skill level, identify gaps, and measure how your skills increase over time.

Skill IQ and privacy

A Skill IQ level is the efficient way to measure a learner's performance relative to others who have taken the same assessment.

If you use Pluralsight Skills on a team plan, your plan admin and team manager will not be able to see your specific Skill IQ score — only your skill level (Novice, Emerging, Average, Above Average, Expert), along with your team’s skill level and skill distribution.

Learner view

Leader view

For example, your leader could see in their inventory report that your level in a particular skill is "Average" and that 18.03% of the team also has an Average skill level in that same topic. However, they cannot see your exact score. For more information about skill level and scores, check out Introduction to Skill IQ.

Using Skill IQ levels for employment decisions

Pluralsight’s skill assessments are not designed to be used as a candidate screening tool in the hiring process. Skill IQ scores and levels are relative to scores and levels of other users who have taken the same assessment. While the results of Skill IQ are useful to motivate users to learn and benchmark abilities within an organization, Pluralsight does not support a standard set of features that are commonly perceived requirements for screening tools. Therefore, Pluralsight does not recommend using Skill IQ as the singular measure of hard skills in the hiring process.

For other employment-related decisions, Skill IQ can be used as one of many data points and considered in context of other information the employer has available on the employee.

Comparing Skill IQ with other learning tools

Skill IQ vs certificates and badges

Pluralsight Skill IQ is a numeric assessment of your skill proficiency, while badges or certificates mark course completion or activity points earned. Each Skill IQ measurement is built with high statistical significance by Pluralsight's content team and expert network, so you can trust the results.

Skill IQ vs vendor certifications

Skill IQ rankings are not vendor certifications. The Skill IQ assessments are intended only to measure your skill proficiency in specific areas. While this measurement can be used in combination with industry certifications, they are not intended to replace vendor certifications.

Skill IQ assessments are less time-intensive and expensive than vendor certifications, which makes measuring your skill in a technology area more accessible. You can also remeasure your skill to keep your Skill IQ level current with your knowledge.

Skill IQ vs certification practice exams

Skill IQ measures your relative proficiency in a topic and diagnoses your strengths and gaps for development purposes, but it doesn't necessarily tell you how prepared you are to take a certification exam. For learners who want to build confidence and prepare to take a certification exam, you can take a practice exam.

Skill IQ vs learning checks

Learning checks are focused on helping members check their knowledge of course material and retention and are best used as learning aids. They can be retaken multiple times and are not timed.

Skill IQ looks at a skill in a much more holistic way, measuring the total level of the skill of the test taker compared to other professionals. The result or skill level provided gives the test taker a much better representation of their skill level compared to other professionals, and helps them determine what skills to watch next to keep advancing. Skill IQ is a great feature to quantify skill level, determine what to watch to skill up, and to validate growth along the learning journey.