What is a good score for a resume?

Above 50 is a reasonable target. Resumes tend to score higher than general prose because bullets are short and full of short technical words counted as one syllable.

Why did adding technical terms lower my score?

Longer words with more syllables pull the score down, and many technical terms are long. That is a known limitation of a formula built for general writing.

Is this the same score word processors show?

Most word processors that report a Flesch score use this exact formula, so the number should be close, though sentence-splitting rules can differ slightly.

Resume readability score

The Flesch Reading Ease formula, published by Rudolf Flesch in 1948, scores text from 0 to 100 using sentence length and syllables per word. Higher means easier to read at speed, which is exactly how a resume gets read.

It was built for prose, not bullet points, so treat the number as a direction rather than a verdict. Short, plain sentences score well on this formula and also happen to be what skimmable bullets look like.

Flesch Reading Ease

Paste your resume to get a score.

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How this is worked out

The formula is 206.835 minus 1.015 times average sentence length minus 84.6 times average syllables per word.
Sentences are split on full stops, question marks and exclamation marks; a resume bullet with no full stop is read as one sentence.
Syllables are counted by grouping consecutive vowels, the same shortcut most plain-text readability tools use, so unusual words can be off by one syllable.

What this does not cover

This formula was built for prose paragraphs. A list of bullet fragments will score differently than the same words written as full sentences.
It measures sentence and word length, not clarity, jargon, or whether the content is true. A short sentence can still be vague.
Nothing pasted here is stored or sent anywhere - the score is computed in your browser.

Questions people ask

What is a good score for a resume?: Above 50 is a reasonable target. Resumes tend to score higher than general prose because bullets are short and full of short technical words counted as one syllable.
Why did adding technical terms lower my score?: Longer words with more syllables pull the score down, and many technical terms are long. That is a known limitation of a formula built for general writing.
Is this the same score word processors show?: Most word processors that report a Flesch score use this exact formula, so the number should be close, though sentence-splitting rules can differ slightly.

Where these figures come from

Rates and rules on this page were last checked against the source on 31 August 2026. Tax law changes; check the source before you rely on a number for a decision.

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