What score do you need
in the Marlins test?

01There is no pass mark — here is what there is instead

When you finish a Marlins test, the screen and the certificate show a percentage: your overall result and, under it, a result for each section — Listening, Grammar, Vocabulary, Time and numbers, Reading, and in the Seafarers test Different sounds too. Nowhere does it say pass or fail. Marlins is clear about this in its own help centre: the test is not a pass-or-fail test, and the company or flag state that sent you is the one that tells you whether your score is enough for your rank.

So who decides? Three levels, in this order. Your employer sets the score it wants for the position, and that is the only figure that matters for your contract. A flag state may set a score for the certificates it issues. And Marlins publishes a table of recommended minimums by rank that many companies simply copy — which is why the same figures appear in so many job adverts.

One detail people miss: the overall percentage is not the average of the section percentages. It is all the points you scored divided by all the points of the test. Marlins' own example, from its help centre: one mistake in Time and numbers (4 of 5 = 80 %) and one in Listening (24 of 25 = 96 %) gives 28 of 30 = 93 %, not the 88 % you would get by averaging. Big sections weigh more, so a weak Listening result pulls the total down far more than a weak Time and numbers result.

This is also why the sites that say "the Marlins pass mark is 65 %" are simplifying. 65 % is the level Marlins recommends for a cadet, a third engineer or a bosun — one row of a table with six thresholds. For a Master the recommended figure is 85 %, and for an OS 45 %. If you read "65 %" as the pass mark you may stop studying 20 points too early, or worry about 20 points you do not need.

03Cruise ship staff: what cruise lines usually ask for

The Marlins test for Cruise Ship Staff is a shorter test — 50 questions, 30 minutes, no Different-sounds section — for the hotel department: guest services, housekeeping, restaurant, bar, galley, shops and spa. Marlins publishes no minimum scores for it. Each cruise line sets its own figure per position, and the three levels below are what recruiters and crew sites report. Treat them as a guide and read the figure in your own offer.

Reported by recruiters and cruise-crew sites, 2020–2026 — not published by Marlins. Guest-facing roles (reception, guest services, entertainment) sit at the top because the whole job is talking to passengers; galley and utility positions sit at the bottom.

05How many questions can you miss?

Marlins counts the Seafarers test as 85 questions, so we turn each threshold into right answers out of 85. We round up: 70 % of 85 is 59.5 points, and you cannot score half a point, so you need 60. On the day the Reading task can carry more than one point (one per gap or heading), which moves the count by one or two.

The Cruise Ship Staff test has 50 questions, 50 points, so every mistake costs 2 %. That is what makes the 95 % many guest-facing roles ask for so demanding: two wrong answers in the whole test.

The Offshore Workers test is the odd one: its sections add up to 80 screens but 85 points, because the Reading task is one screen with six drop-downs and a point for each. Aramco's 80 % overall is therefore 68 points (miss 17), and its 70 % is 60 points (miss 25) — as long as every section also clears its floor, which the table in section 04 shows.

These counts are ours, calculated from the figures Marlins publishes. A certificate shows a rounded percentage; if you are one point from a threshold, read your result as points, not as the rounded figure.

07TOSE level by rank

Next to each written score, the same Marlins table recommends a level in its spoken test, the Test of Spoken English (TOSE) — a short interview with an assessor, graded in six levels. Many companies ask for both.

Same source as the written minimums — Marlins help centre, January 2022. Members get a free speaking pack with model answers in four tracks.

See your score by section before the test does

Create a free account, verify your email and phone, and run the timed simulation: the result screen shows each section next to the minimum for the rank you pick — and, for offshore, marks any section under the employer's floor.