Depending on what the portfolio is for and what area of study the portfolio falls under, there will be specific criteria for it. Prior to starting and submitting the portfolio, the student is told what criteria the portfolio must fulfill, if the portfolio is for academic purposes. If the portfolio is for professional purposes, the portfolio must be relevant to the industry in question. Criteria questions can include the portfolio's relevance to the industry or academic area, industry direction of the portfolio and the depth of the portfolio in the industry or academic area in question.
If the portfolio is an academic portfolio, there may have been a time restriction on the construction of it. If it is a professional portfolio that shows a person's abilities within a certain industry, the portfolio could expand over several years. Time frame questions will assess how the student or worker has utilized time, learned and expanded their abilities over time, be able to structure their time and how the quality has been affected due to the time frame given. For example, if a freelance writer has an extensive portfolio, but has shown little progress over several years of writing, assessment questions will ask how or why this is so.
Each student, artist or writer will experience obstacles when putting together a portfolio. The obstacles or hardships that will be assessed will not include word choices or colors of paints chosen for a painting. Rather, the assessment will be made in a larger context, including questions regarding adapting to evolving industries, clients' needs and demands, adjusting to technological advancements or ambiguous meanings in fine arts, for example. Depending on the industry, the questions will vary, but be ready to defend your actions and decisions made in your portfolio. For example, be ready to explain you have not included an article on apps for the Apple products, even though your entire portfolio is based on the technological market.
A smaller portfolio with fewer works may be more powerful than a large portfolio with many vague works. In all types of portfolio assessments, quality greatly overpowers quantity. When you are putting together your portfolio prior to the assessment, choose works that reflect a wide selection of quality works rather than a large section that shows your quantity and flexibility. You can show flexibility in few strong works as well. Questions can include justifying why you have chosen specific works, explaining their meanings to the overall portfolio and discussing how each work shows a different side or angle to your talents and abilities.