A Rasmussen CBE course is six skill-aligned projects plus a final that combines them, self-paced within the term, rubrics visible from day one. Each deliverable is scored per criterion on the 4-3-2-1 competency scale, every criterion must reach at least 2 to pass, and the deliverable's overall score is the lowest criterion score, so the winning method is coverage discipline: draft to the weakest-looking rubric row first, verify every row at the 4 band's own language, and resubmit strategically inside the attempt limits when feedback names a row. Projects need not be done in order, but the final rewards doing them coherently, it recombines their skills into one artifact.
The seven-project architecture
Every CBE course, italicized in the catalog, publishes its full project set up front: six projects, each mapped to specific employer-approved skills, plus a seventh final project synthesizing the lot. There are no weekly deadlines; the term is the only clock, with 14-day attendance windows keeping enrollment active. That structure rewards planners brutally well: a student who dates all seven projects in week one owns the term, while a student who "starts soon" meets all seven in the last month. Order is technically free, but skills chain in practice, and the final assumes fluency in everything before it.
The 4-3-2-1 scale and its conversion
| Competency score | Percentage band | Letter equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 94 to 100 | A |
| 3 | 85 to 93 | B |
| 2 | 78 to 84 | C |
| 1 | below 78 | Not passing |
Two rules give the scale its teeth. Passing requires at least a 2 on every criterion, no exceptions. And the deliverable's overall score equals its lowest criterion score, not an average, a project scoring 4-4-4-4-2 across five criteria records as a 2, a C, despite being eighty percent excellent. Whatever intuition you carry from averaged rubrics elsewhere, retire it here.
The drafting method that clears every row
Read the rubric bottom-up
Find the criterion you would naturally do worst, the citation row, the data row, whichever, and plan it first. The lowest-criterion rule means your weakest row is your grade, so the weakest row gets the strongest effort.
Write to the 4 band's own words
Each criterion's top level describes exactly what a 4 means for that row. Treat it as acceptance criteria and quote its verbs back in your structure; graders recognize their own language.
Build the artifact the skill implies
These projects grade workplace competencies: a plan should look like a plan, an analysis like an analysis someone could act on. Homework-shaped submissions read as 3s even when complete.
Run the row-by-row audit
Before submitting, point at the passage that earns each criterion at 4. Any row where pointing takes effort is your future overall score talking; fix it now.
Resubmission, used strategically
CBE deliverables can be revised and resubmitted after feedback, within published attempt limits, commonly reported as up to three attempts for undergraduate work and two for doctoral, and your course's own policy page is the authority. Strategy follows from the lowest-criterion rule: feedback names the low rows, and a resubmission that fixes only those rows, thoroughly and visibly, is the efficient play. Never spend an attempt on cosmetic revision, and never bank on the last attempt, it has no safety net behind it. Our resubmission rescues answer the evaluator's row comments line by line, which is why they convert.
The final project: synthesis is the seventh skill
The final combines the six projects' competencies into one artifact, and it silently grades coherence: the plan from project two and the analysis from project five must feel like one professional's work. Students who did the six projects in scattered bursts, or with scattered help, hit the final owning six styles and no synthesis. One team across the whole course is the structural fix, which is exactly how our course bundles run, and why final-only rescue orders start with us reverse-engineering your own earlier voice.
The done-with-you version
Everything above is the in-house method: drafts built row-first against the weakest criterion, audited to the 4 band, delivered in 24 to 48 hours with the criterion map, resubmissions answered comment by comment, finals synthesized by the team that drafted the six. The first sample is free, and where a $149 Knowledge Credit test-out beats buying help at all, we say so before you spend, that honesty is cheaper for you and better for us.
Put the method on your project
Send the code, project number, and rubric. A draft with every criterion cleared comes back in 24 to 48 hours.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official and independent sources, and anything that matters is worth checking against the originals:
- www.rasmussen.edu/student-experience/empowered-learning: Rasmussen's official Empowered Learning pages, source for the CBE project structure
- www.rasmussen.edu/tuition: official subscription and per-credit tuition published by Rasmussen
- www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/course-catalog: the official course catalog, source for grading scales and course codes
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, the institutional accreditor
- www.ccneaccreditation.org: Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the nursing accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the official style authority behind the formatting rules