What is a Good Score in the Pymetrics Balloon Game

There is no universal good score in the Pymetrics balloon game. Pymetrics, now part of Harver, says there is no right or wrong way to complete its games. Your choices are treated as behavioral data and used to match you to roles, so the same way of playing can fit one job well and another less well. Pymetrics does not publish a target number of pumps, a target total, or a pass mark.

How pymetrics uses your results

Pymetrics describes its games as a way to evaluate behavioral data points and match candidates to jobs, rather than to grade them. Its candidate guidance says your behavioral attributes make you a good fit for a job, and often for many jobs.

In practice, that means:

• There is no answer key. A cautious player and a bold player are not "right" and "wrong"; they show different traits.
• Fit depends on the role. What matches one role's profile may not match another's, and pymetrics does not publish those profiles.
• Your total money is not the whole story. The game records how you behave across many balloons, not just how much you collected.

What the balloon game records

The balloon game is based on the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART), a research measure of risk taking. In the original research, the main score was the average number of pumps on balloons that did not pop: a way of capturing how far someone tends to push for a bigger reward when a loss is possible.

Pymetrics does not publish exactly which measures it takes from its version of the game or how it weights them. Treat any website that gives you an exact "good score" as guessing.

So how should you play?

The approach that matches pymetrics' own guidance is simple: play as yourself.

• Make decisions the way you naturally would. Trying to look extra bold or extra careful usually produces choices that do not reflect you.
• Read the instructions first. Know which control pumps and which one collects before you start.
• Give it your full attention. Pymetrics says the games cannot be paused and each lasts about 1 to 3 minutes, so start when you will not be interrupted.
• Treat each balloon on its own. A pop on one balloon does not predict when the next will pop.
• Avoid random clicking. Rushing through balloons adds noise instead of showing how you decide.

For a step-by-step walkthrough of a few balloons, see our Pymetrics balloon game example.

FAQs

What is a good score in the Pymetrics balloon game?

There is no universal good score. Pymetrics says there is no right or wrong way to complete its games, and results are used to match you to roles rather than graded against a pass mark.

Is collecting more money always better?

Not necessarily. The game is about how you handle risk across many balloons, and pymetrics compares that behavior with role profiles. It does not publish a target total.

Can you fail the balloon game?

Pymetrics does not describe its games as pass or fail. It describes matching your behavioral profile to jobs, so a weak match for one role can still be a good match for another.

How can I improve my balloon game result?

Pymetrics says no preparation time is required and that the more you are yourself, the more helpful your results will be. Read the instructions, play in a quiet place, and decide as you naturally would.

Sources

• pymetrics, candidates page (pymetrics.ai, archived October 2024; pymetrics is now part of Harver): no right or wrong way to complete pymetrics; behavioral data used to match candidates to jobs, often many jobs; games cannot be paused and last 1 to 3 minutes each; no prep time required.
• Lejuez, C. W., et al. (2002). "Evaluation of a behavioral measure of risk taking: The Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART)." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8(2), 75–84.