iSideWith Quiz Results Explained: Matches, Weights and Limits

What does the iSideWith quiz compare?

The linked English entry currently opens the United States quiz. It asks about policy issues and offers comparisons with political parties and candidates. Check the country and election context before starting. This independent guide explains how to read a result; 12 axes does not host the questions, calculate an iSideWith match or endorse a party or candidate.

Why issue importance matters

The provider’s methodology says matches compare answers with recorded positions and weight issues by the importance you assign. Skipped issues do not count. A percentage therefore depends on which topics you answer and how you prioritize them. It is not simply a count of identical answers across every possible policy question. Keep a note of important topics that were absent or that you left unanswered.

Check the available answer options

The official FAQ points readers to additional stances beyond simple yes or no choices and to options for revealing more questions. Our suggestion is to review the answer you selected in context, especially when a result surprises you. Distinguish a choice that accurately expresses your view from the closest available approximation. Neither should silently become a stronger statement than you intended.

Read a close ranking through disagreements

As an editorial exercise, pick two close matches and examine one important agreement and one important disagreement for each. Write down what the summary leaves unclear. Do not infer that a one-point difference establishes a meaningful distinction in suitability. A ranking is useful for directing further reading, but it does not settle questions about priorities, implementation or the reliability of a recorded position.

How are candidate positions represented?

The methodology identifies sources such as platforms, public statements and voting records. Its FAQ also describes confidence and passion factors in candidate matching. These descriptions do not give us a complete reproducible formula, so this guide does not reconstruct the algorithm. For an issue that matters to you, follow the supporting evidence, check its date and distinguish an explicit position from an uncertain attribution.

Make a result easier to revisit

Our suggested record is a short note containing country, date, topics answered, priority settings and two unresolved questions. Save that privately rather than posting a full answer history by default. On a later visit, compare those inputs before deciding that a changed ranking reflects changed beliefs. A screenshot preserves what you saw, but does not explain which input or source changed afterward.

FAQ: Is the match percentage a forecast?

No election forecast follows from a personal alignment percentage. The provider separately describes its audience polls as opt-in responses rather than random-sample polling. Keep those displays separate from your match result. Neither the people who choose to answer an online question nor your own agreement score supplies a probability that a candidate will win.

FAQ: Does a top match tell me whom to support?

This guide supplies no voting recommendation. A policy comparison is one source of information, and a summary cannot make your decisions for you. You may care about questions that were not measured. Read primary materials, identify uncertainties and keep your own judgment separate from the order in which a website displays matches.

FAQ: Why can iSideWith and 12 axes disagree?

They summarize different inputs and outputs. 12 axes reports twelve policy-topic scores; iSideWith offers matches using its issue choices, priorities and recorded positions. Similar vocabulary does not establish common units. Compare individual topics in words, without converting a match percentage to a 12 axes score or treating one instrument as validation of the other. External links contain no 12 axes answers or scores.

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