The standard is
written down.
Six dimensions, five points each, 30 available. A complete six-drill cold bore test produces the number and the number produces the rank. Every band on this page is read straight out of the scoring engine.
Says the thing three times in three different ways and lands none of them. Answers a direct question with background. Hears the tone and misses the content. When a message goes wrong, defends the intent instead of fixing the miss. The thought is usually there. It arrives in pieces.
Gets to the point, eventually. Can be understood by anyone who is paying attention, and loses anyone who is not. Listens well in calm rooms and reverts to defending under pressure. Repairs by apologizing rather than by naming what happened. Competent on a good day.
Leads with the answer. Holds shape when the room gets hot. Asks the question that gets the real information instead of the polite one. Restates what the other person meant before responding to it. Occasionally overbuilds when the stakes rise.
One sentence, correct, first time. Says less than everyone else in the room and is quoted afterward. Takes a charged line without flinching and answers what was actually said. Repairs in two sentences with no grovel and no excuse. Silence is a tool, not a gap.
What each one measures.
The listener can reproduce it correctly. Plain words, one idea per sentence, zero jargon. Say a thing you know deeply to someone who does not, and have them repeat it back accurately to a third person. Fidelity is the score.
The answer lands in sentence one and everything after it earns its place. No runway, no throat clearing, nothing left to cut. A hard question gets two sentences.
Order and structure. What comes first decides whether the rest is heard. Goal named, one reason, clean ask, and the load carried by the opening lines. Form is the work you do before you open your mouth.
Direct address under pressure. You own the point, hold the tone, and neither hedge nor escalate. Transmit is what survives the moment your pulse rises.
Take in what was actually said and what was meant, then respond to the real content. Acknowledge first. Ask before assuming. The reply is composed after the intake, never during it.
Own the damage in plain terms, state what you meant, and return to the work. Repair is the only dimension that runs after the damage is done. It ends facing forward.
The same drill at a 1, a 3, and a 5.
A surgeon steps out mid list. "Do you want me to operate today or send him home. I need the answer now."
Two sentences. That is the whole budget.
So it's complicated, his blood pressure was all over the place last night and the family have been asking about the anaesthetic risk since Tuesday, and I know the last patient like this had a rough recovery, so I don't want to say something now and have to walk it back on you later.
The answer never appears. The listener has to assemble it from the background.
His pressure swung overnight and the family still have questions about the anaesthetic, so I've been holding off. But yes, operate today.
The answer is present and arrives second, behind the reasons.
Operate today, on one condition: an anaesthetic review before he goes under. His pressure swung overnight, so I want a repeat reading in theatre.
The answer is in the first two words, and both live facts survive the cut.
A teammate catches you after standup. "You changed the schema without me and I found out from the changelog."
Say what you would say out loud, right then.
It was in the changelog though, that's literally the point of the changelog. And you were out Thursday, so I couldn't exactly wait around. You do the same thing to me all the time.
Rebuts the sentence, ignores the person, and adds a charge of its own.
Yeah, fair. I should have pinged you. I don't think it was that big a change, but I get why it landed badly.
Acknowledges the miss, then quietly withdraws it with the second half.
So you learned about your own schema from a changelog entry. Which part is the problem, that I changed it or that you found out that way?
Restates what was actually said and asks for the specific instead of defending.
You told your sister you would pay the venue deposit. You did not. She found out when the venue called her.
Write the two sentences you send her.
Sorry if that caused any stress, I genuinely thought I'd set it up and honestly the venue should have chased me not you. Anyway it's sorted now.
A conditional apology that ends by moving the fault to the venue.
I'm really sorry about the deposit. Things have been mad here and it slipped, but I feel terrible that you got the call.
Owns the feeling and never names what was actually wrong with the act.
I said I would pay the deposit and I did not, so the venue called you instead of me. It is paid as of this morning and I am handling every call from them from here.
Names the miss, owns it once, and ends facing the work. Two sentences.
- A complete six-drill cold bore test sets your rank. All six dimensions, one sitting, fresh scenarios.
- Working reps on The Range never change rank. They build the skill and they enter your record.
- A dimension clears at two consecutive working reps scoring 4 or higher.
- Rank moves only on a full re-test. Take one when your targeted dimensions clear.
- Every score cites your own words as evidence. No score is issued without a quote.
Find out where you stand.
The public assessment is free: twelve written situations, about six minutes. It returns a provisional rank on all six dimensions. Members take the cold bore test in Sniper School, which sets the real one.
The frame, the four ranks, the six dimensions, and these scored examples as one printable PDF.
The frame and the standards as a printable PDF. No account needed.