What score do you need to pass MO-210?
700 out of 1000. We confirmed that directly with Microsoft, which matters because you will not find it on their MO-210 exam page — it lists the time limit and the format but no passing score. The number is settled, so the useful question is the next one: how those 1000 points are spread across the tasks, because that is what decides whether you clear 700.
Checked against Microsoft’s own published pages on August 27, 2026.
The numbers
700 is the passing score, even though the exam page does not say so
The number is 700 out of 1000. We confirmed it directly with Microsoft rather than repeating it from elsewhere, because the obvious place to check does not have it: Microsoft's own MO-210 exam page tells you the exam is proctored, that you get 50 minutes, and that around 150 hours of hands-on experience is the recommended preparation — and then stops.
That gap is worth knowing about for a practical reason. If you go looking for official confirmation before booking, you will not find it on the exam page, and it is easy to conclude the figure is folklore. It is not. It is simply documented somewhere other than where you would expect.
Knowing the exact number does not mean you should aim at it. Target a comfortable margin above 700, because a single misread instruction on a heavily weighted task can cost more than the cushion you were counting on — and you will not know your score until the exam is over.
Tasks are not worth the same, so “I finished 8 of 10” tells you nothing
The 1000 points are distributed across the tasks, and they are not distributed evenly. A task that asks you to apply a number format, add a header and set a print area carries more weight than one that asks you to rename a worksheet, because there is simply more being checked.
So finishing eight tasks out of ten might leave you on 850 or on 600, depending entirely on which two you missed. Counting tasks is a comforting mental model and a misleading one. The only thing that matters is the weight of what you completed.
This is also why a practice exam that only reports a total is doing half a job. What you need to see is which tasks the points came from, and which ones quietly cost you a hundred at a time.
Partial credit is real, and it is finer-grained than the task
A task is not one pass-or-fail unit. It is graded as several separate checks, each carrying its own points. If a task asks you to create a table, name it, and apply a style, those are checked independently.
That means a half-finished task is not worth zero. Do two of the three things and you keep the points for the two. This single fact should change how you spend the 50 minutes more than any other piece of advice on this page.
It also cuts the other way. A task you skipped entirely because you ran out of time is the only kind that scores nothing at all — and it is the most expensive mistake available to you.
The exam grades the workbook, not the route you took
MO-210 instructions describe an outcome and usually avoid naming the exact command. That is deliberate. Whether you reach for the ribbon, a right-click menu, a keyboard shortcut or the Format Cells dialog, any legitimate method that leaves the workbook in the required state earns the points.
The corollary is less comfortable. A change you did not actually apply earns nothing, however well you knew the answer. Opening a dialog, choosing the right option and then dismissing it without confirming is worth exactly as much as not knowing. Before you move on from a task, look at the sheet and check the change is visibly there.
In our practice exams the object being graded is the workbook file you upload, so the same rule has one extra step: save the file before you upload it. Unsaved work is invisible to any grader.
What this means for how you spend 50 minutes
Because partial credit is per-check and unattempted tasks are the only guaranteed zeros, breadth beats depth. Go through the whole exam once and do the parts of each task you are confident about. Then go back and finish what you left.
The failure pattern we would expect to see most often is a candidate spending ten minutes perfecting one stubborn task, running out of clock, and leaving two untouched tasks at the end worth more than the one they salvaged.
Leave a couple of minutes at the end to confirm your changes actually applied, rather than to attempt one more thing.
How our practice exams score you
Our exams are scored out of exactly 1000, and that is enforced in code rather than by hand: a normalizer re-weights every exam so its check points sum to exactly 1000. The number on the results page, in the rubric and in the downloadable feedback is therefore always the same number.
You complete the tasks in your own desktop Excel and upload the workbook you built. We grade what is in the file, task by task, and report which tasks cost you points — so a low score comes with a list of what to fix rather than a verdict.
We grade against the same 700 line as the real exam, so a practice score means what you would expect it to mean. Your first full practice exam is free and does not need a card.
What costs people points
This is the most expensive habit available, because the work looks correct on screen. If a task asks for a calculated result, the check is looking for a calculation. A hard-typed number that happens to be right earns partial credit at best, and often nothing for that check. Our own exam instructions call this out explicitly, because it is the most common way that correct-looking work scores badly.
Partial credit means an attempted task almost always beats an untouched one. If a task has four parts and you can only see how to do two, do the two. Candidates routinely leave whole tasks blank because they cannot complete them perfectly, which converts a partial score into a guaranteed zero.
The grader reads the state of the workbook, not your intent. A dialog dismissed without confirming, a setting applied to the wrong sheet, or an edit made in the wrong cell all score the same as not attempting it. A glance at the sheet before moving on is cheap insurance.
If you are behind on time and choosing what to abandon, abandon the short task, not the long one. Weight follows how much is being checked, so a multi-part task is usually worth several times a single-step one.
Related questions
Is the MO-210 passing score always 700?
Yes — 700 out of 1000, confirmed with Microsoft. It is not stated on their MO-210 exam page, which is why you may have struggled to find it, but the figure itself is settled and it is the line our practice exams grade against.
Do all tasks carry the same number of points?
No. The 1000 points are spread across the tasks according to how much each one is checking, so a multi-part task is worth considerably more than a single-step one. This is why counting completed tasks is a poor guide to your likely score.
Do I get partial credit for a task I only half finished?
Yes. A task is graded as several independent checks, each carrying points, so completing part of a task keeps the points for the parts you completed. An untouched task is the only kind that reliably scores zero.
Does it matter which method I use to complete a task?
No. MO-210 instructions describe an outcome and generally avoid naming a specific command, so any legitimate route that leaves the workbook in the required state earns the points. What matters is that the change is actually applied, not how you applied it.
What happens to tasks I do not reach before time runs out?
They score nothing. Because partial credit exists at the check level, the highest-value use of your last minutes is usually attempting a task you have not started rather than perfecting one you have.
Do your practice exams use the same scale and pass mark?
Yes: scored out of exactly 1000 with 700 as the pass line, and the total is enforced in code so the score is consistent across the results page, the rubric and your feedback file. You also get a per-task breakdown showing where the points went, which the real exam does not give you.
Is MO-211 scored the same way?
Yes. MO-211 uses the same 1000-point scale and the same 700 passing score, and it is likewise performance-based. It is the Expert exam, so the tasks are harder and the margin for a misread instruction is thinner. See the MO-211 exam guide for what it covers.
Sources
Read on August 27, 2026. Where this page says something is not published, that means we looked and did not find it — check for yourself.
- The passing score for MO-210 is 700 out of 1000, and the same applies to MO-211.Confirmed directly with Microsoft by telephone · August 27, 2026
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