To rank respondent choices, you can use the Rating Scale question type.

When creating this question type, you assign a "weight" or value to each column choice to produce a Rating Average in your results. In addition to the weighted columns, you can select to "force" respondents to chose only one selection per column (forced ranking).

Take a quick survey to see how this question type calculates results.

Watch the video demo

This example shows how to create the rating scale question used in our example of question types. (Survey display)

	Select the Rating Scale Question from the question menu
	Enter the question text
	Enter each Row Choice on a separate line
	Select the number of ratings from the rating drop-down

Labels and Weight  

Enter the label for the columns in each Label field and assign a Weight to each label ("1" for the lowest ranking and so on.) If you select the N/A column, it will automatically be assigned a value of "0" so that it will not affect your results. (This question type allows 16 ratings or column choices. It is not possible to add additional column choices to this question type.)

  Add N/A column

The N/A or "Other" option is given a value of "0" so that it does not affect the response average. It is not calculated in the response average because the system assigns a zero value to that column choice and automatically subtracts any responses submitted to the N/A choice when calculating the response average. (See example rating average below)

  Forced Ranking

If you check 'Allow Only One Response per Column (Forced Ranking)' under the column name field, respondents will "be forced" to order the row choices by importance.

What does forced ranking do? 

When the same column is selected again, the program de-selects the first selection made under that column. Simply, respondents cannot make the same selection more than once as shown in this example survey: Take a quick survey

When setting forced ranking, it is important to note the number of columns and rows you add to the question in order to allow respondents to answer the question as intended.

For example if you create 4 Row Choices, you will need to use 4 ratings (Columns). If you were to add 5 columns or ratings, respondents would not be able to select the 5th column. Instead, when they selected the 5th choice one of the previous responses would be de-selected to select the 5th choice.

Rating Average =

The sum of the frequency times the column weight divided by the Response Count minus the N/A frequency. (The frequency is the number of respondents that selected a column choice. It is the number beside the % selected.) 

Column / Weight 

• Extremely Important = 4
• Important = 3
• Doesn't Matter Much = 2
• Deal Breaker = 1
• N/A = 0

Here's how the Rating Average for the row Salty shown below is calculated.

Sum of frequency times column weight:
21 (4) + 4 (3) + 8 (2) + 1 (1) = 113
Sum of selected choices or calculated frequencies:
21 + 4 + 8 + 1 = 34
Sum of frequency times column weight divided by the sum of selected choices:
113/ 34 = 3.32
The rating average is 3.32
This means the respondents selected between columns 3 and 4 or between Important and Extremely Important, but closer to Important or 3.
21 respondents or 60 % selected Extremely Important. (The column choice selected most for each row is highlighted with the bold text.)

Calculating Row Crunchy 

Crunchy: 11 (4) + 13 (3) + 3 (2) + 1 (1) + 2 (0) = 90

       90/ (30 - 2) = 3.21

Rating Scale Question type limits:

The rating scale question type allows for 16 column choices or ratings. This means you may create a forced ranking question type with up to 16 ratings or column choices. There is no limit to the number of rows that you may add. If you apply the forced ranking option, however, it is important to include the same number of rows as column choices if you apply the required question option! (16 rows X 16 columns).

Common Questions: