## How compensation actually works

Your three component scores are combined by weight into one total, and 55% of that total is the
pass mark. In that arithmetic, yes, a strong performance in one area lifts a weak one. Reading and
writing carry 45% of the weight, so strength there moves your total more than strength anywhere
else.

That is the whole of the compensation. It applies to the total, and only to the total.

## Where it stops

The second rule is a floor, not a weighting. A minimum of 25% is required in every component. Fall
below it and the result is a fail, whatever the weighted total says.

So the honest answer to the question is: reading can carry a *weak* speaking score, and cannot
carry a *failed* one. The distinction between weak and failed is the 25% line, and nothing in your
reading performance moves that line.

## The practical version

Do not build a plan around the idea that one strong component will do the work. What actually
protects you is:

1. **Clear the floor everywhere, with margin.** Identify your worst component honestly and put
   enough time into it that 25% is never in question.
2. **Then build the total where the weight is.** Once nothing is near the floor, extra hours pay
   best in reading and writing.

## Find your weakest component before the exam, not after

The results page gives you a percentage per component, which is the only diagnostic CAPLE ever
provides. Getting that information after you have already failed is an expensive way to learn it.

Practising under timed conditions and scoring yourself against both rules tells you the same thing
beforehand, which is when it is still actionable.