How it works · Scoring
How grinds and claudescore are calculated
ClaudeMaster shows two numbers, and they measure two different things. Grinds (#) count the work you have put in. Claudescore (%) is the knowledge you have conquered on your current level. This page is the mechanics of both — the short version lives on how ClaudeMaster works.
Grinds — one point per completed piece of work
A grindpoint is awarded when you complete a piece of work, not when you get it right.
- Per completion. Answering a quiz item, grading a flashcard, finishing a coach turn that was actually judged — each of those is one completed piece of work.
- Difficulty-scaled. Harder work is worth more. A hard item completed is worth more grindpoints than an easy one, using the same difficulty rating the selection engine uses to pick the item for you.
- Outcome-blind. A wrong answer earns the same grindpoints as a right one. The number is a record of effort, so being wrong while trying honestly is not penalised.
- Append-only. Every award is a line in your grind history with its reason and what it referred to. Lines are never rewritten after the fact.
What grinds never do: they never move your claudescore, never qualify a level, and are not exchanged for anything. They exist so that the work you did is visible even on days when the knowledge number does not move.
Claudescore — scored per check, as a share of the level's requirement
Claudescore only reads evidence of understanding. Each check — a scored quiz answer, or a coach turn where the coach judged a named concept — resolves to one of three values:
- 1.0 — mastered. Handled correctly and for the right reason.
- 0.5 — partial. Right conclusion, shaky reasoning, or a two-of-five item where you found one of the two. Partial is deliberately not counted as fully correct.
- 0 — not yet. Missed.
Your claudescore is the sum of those values over the checks that the level requires, divided by what the level requires — expressed as a percentage, which is why it reads as "how far you have come on this level" rather than "how much you know in total". Each concept counts once with its current state, so re-answering a concept you already mastered does not inflate the number; it can, however, lower it if the current evidence is worse than before. The record follows current evidence, not your best day.
The same score is decomposed per track, and the six track numbers add up to the global one — no track is weighted for presentation. You can see the per-track split on any track page or on your home base.
How a level is qualified
The four levels — Capable, Fluent, Advanced, Master — are qualified on knowledge only. Each level carries explicit requirements, and you hold the level when all of them are met at once:
- Coverage. Enough distinct concepts on the level have been checked at all — a high score on three concepts is not a level.
- Cleared share. A required share of those checks must be cleared, counting partial as a half.
- Spread. The evidence has to be spread across tracks, so one strong track cannot carry a level on its own.
Whichever requirement you are furthest from is your bottleneck, and that is the one shown to you, with the number you currently have and the number needed. Time spent, sessions completed and grindpoints accumulated are never part of a level requirement.
No exchange rate, in either direction
There is no conversion between the two numbers. Grinds cannot be turned into claudescore, and claudescore is not backfilled from grinds. Two numbers exist precisely because effort and understanding come apart: a long session of honest wrong answers is real work and shows up as grinds, and a single well-reasoned answer on a hard concept moves claudescore with almost no grinds behind it.