Scales++: Compute Efficient Evaluation Subset Selection with Cognitive Scales Embeddings

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Main Authors: Bean, Andrew M., Seedat, Nabeel, Chen, Shengzhuang, Schwarz, Jonathan Richard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bean, Andrew M.
Seedat, Nabeel
Chen, Shengzhuang
Schwarz, Jonathan Richard
author_facet Bean, Andrew M.
Seedat, Nabeel
Chen, Shengzhuang
Schwarz, Jonathan Richard
contents The prohibitive cost of evaluating large language models (LLMs) on comprehensive benchmarks necessitates the creation of small yet representative data subsets (i.e., tiny benchmarks) that enable efficient assessment while retaining predictive fidelity. Current methods for this task operate under a model-centric paradigm, selecting benchmarking items based on the collective performance of existing models. Such approaches are limited by large upfront costs, an inability to immediately handle new benchmarks ("cold-start"), and the fragile assumption that future models will share the failure patterns of their predecessors. In this work, we propose a new item-centric approach to benchmark subset selection, arguing that selection should be based on the intrinsic properties of the task items themselves, rather than on model-specific failure patterns. We instantiate this item-centric efficient benchmarking approach via a novel method, Scales++, where data selection is based on the cognitive demands of the benchmark samples. Empirically, we show Scales++ reduces the upfront selection cost by over 18x while achieving competitive predictive fidelity. On the Open LLM Leaderboard, using just a 0.25% data subset, we predict full benchmark scores with a 3.2% mean absolute error, and on Humanity's Last Exam we predict full scores with 2.9% mean absolute error using a 2.0% sample. We demonstrate that this item-centric approach enables more efficient model evaluation without significant fidelity degradation, while also providing better cold-start performance and more interpretable benchmarking.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_26384
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scales++: Compute Efficient Evaluation Subset Selection with Cognitive Scales Embeddings
Bean, Andrew M.
Seedat, Nabeel
Chen, Shengzhuang
Schwarz, Jonathan Richard
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
The prohibitive cost of evaluating large language models (LLMs) on comprehensive benchmarks necessitates the creation of small yet representative data subsets (i.e., tiny benchmarks) that enable efficient assessment while retaining predictive fidelity. Current methods for this task operate under a model-centric paradigm, selecting benchmarking items based on the collective performance of existing models. Such approaches are limited by large upfront costs, an inability to immediately handle new benchmarks ("cold-start"), and the fragile assumption that future models will share the failure patterns of their predecessors. In this work, we propose a new item-centric approach to benchmark subset selection, arguing that selection should be based on the intrinsic properties of the task items themselves, rather than on model-specific failure patterns. We instantiate this item-centric efficient benchmarking approach via a novel method, Scales++, where data selection is based on the cognitive demands of the benchmark samples. Empirically, we show Scales++ reduces the upfront selection cost by over 18x while achieving competitive predictive fidelity. On the Open LLM Leaderboard, using just a 0.25% data subset, we predict full benchmark scores with a 3.2% mean absolute error, and on Humanity's Last Exam we predict full scores with 2.9% mean absolute error using a 2.0% sample. We demonstrate that this item-centric approach enables more efficient model evaluation without significant fidelity degradation, while also providing better cold-start performance and more interpretable benchmarking.
title Scales++: Compute Efficient Evaluation Subset Selection with Cognitive Scales Embeddings
topic Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.26384