Tempo grades against competency rubrics with three outcomes: Mastered, an A, requiring 80 percent of rubric rows at Exceeds Expectations; Achieved, a B, with every row at meets-or-exceeds; and Not Achieved. You get three attempts, and an Achieved is permanent, it can never be upgraded. So the winning strategy is simple to state and demanding to execute: never submit until a row-by-row self-score says Exceeds on at least four rows in five. This manual shows how; our team does it for you in 24 to 48 hours if you would rather hand it off.
The scale, and what Exceeds actually means
Every Tempo rubric row describes its Meets and Exceeds levels in writing. Meets is completeness: the task done correctly. Exceeds is almost always one named step further, deeper analysis, an additional perspective, sharper application to practice, or evidence beyond the minimum. Because Mastered needs 80 percent of rows at Exceeds, the unit of work is the row, not the assessment: you win Mastered four rows at a time.
Attempt strategy: the rules reward patience
Three attempts sounds generous until the two edge rules land. First, Achieved is final, submit a solid-but-not-exceptional Work Product and the B is locked forever. Second, each failed attempt raises the stakes on the next, with an appeal required for a fourth. The strategic consequence is counterintuitive: slowing down the submission by a day to lift two rubric rows is the highest-return hour in the whole format. Never spend an attempt to find out what the evaluator thinks; the rubric already told you.
The five-step method
Rebuild the rubric as your outline
Every row becomes a section or a checklist item, with its Exceeds description pasted underneath. The assessment brief is context; the rows are the contract.
Collect evidence per row
Current scholarly sources mapped to the rows that ask for support. Rows that mention evidence without a citation nearby are the most common Meets-not-Exceeds outcome.
Draft to Exceeds, row by row
Write each section to the Meets standard, then add the named extra the Exceeds description asks for. It is written down; use its exact verbs.
Self-score honestly before submitting
Score every row E, M, or below. Count the Es. Under 80 percent means one more pass, not a submission.
Submit once, on purpose
With the self-score clean, submit and move to the next competency while evaluation runs. That overlap is where fast Tempo students live.
By assessment type
| Type | The Mastered move |
|---|---|
| Work Product (WP) | Structure mirrors the rubric rows; evidence current; the applied section grounded in a real setting, yours if possible. |
| Performance Task (PT) | Work the scenario's specifics, names, numbers, constraints, into every decision; generic answers cap at Meets. |
| Short Answer (SA) | Answer first, justify second, cite third. Completeness plus one analytical step per item. |
| Selected Response (SR) | Prep, not prose: drill the competency's concepts before sitting it, and bank it early in the subscription. |
Pacing: the subscription is the scoreboard
Flat-rate 3-month subscriptions turn pace into tuition. The format allows up to three competencies at once and demands activity every 30 days; the fast pattern is two competencies moving while a third sits in evaluation, submissions spaced so something is always progressing. On that cadence, verified Tempo programs like the RN-to-BSN run at the fast end of Walden's own as-few-as-10-months marketing, and every subscription you skip is money kept.
Want first-attempt Mastered without the grind?
Send the competency and its rubric. A premium original Work Product or Performance Task, drafted to the Exceeds rows, back in 24 to 48 hours.
Sources and verification
The claims here rest on official and independent sources; check anything that changes your plan against the original:
- www.waldenu.edu: Walden's public site, where program pages and cost figures are published
- catalog.waldenu.edu: the official Walden University catalog
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: nursing accreditation, held by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the authority that publishes the formatting rules