高SFT分数可能误导模型后训练效果,需用新指标替代。
Quagmires in SFT-RL Post-Training: When High SFT Scores Mislead and What to Use Instead
- 用泛化损失和Pass@large k预测RL表现,优于直接看SFT分数。
- 在7个数学基准上测试超1000模型,发现高SFT分未必带来更好RL结果。
- 适合优化后训练策略的研究者与工程团队参考,提升调优效率。
在推理型大语言模型的后训练中,当前主流做法分为监督微调(SFT)和基于可验证奖励的强化学习(RLVR,简称“RL”)两个独立阶段。本文质疑高SFT分数是否真能预示后续RL性能提升,提供了大量反例证明其不可靠。研究发现,高SFT分数可能偏向于简单或同质数据,无法稳定预测后续RL增益或规模化训练效果。某些情况下,对经过改进的SFT模型进行RL训练,反而比直接在基线模型上做RL表现更差。通过对比分析,我们发现保持外样本推理题的泛化损失以及Pass@large k表现是更可靠的预测指标。实验涵盖从Llama3、Mistral-Nemo到Qwen3等多个模型,参数规模达12B,使用GRPO算法完成数百个模型的SFT与RLVR训练,在7个数学基准上重复最多256次,累计投入超100万GPU小时。相比仅依赖预RL性能预测,基于泛化损失和Pass@large k的方法显著提升预测精度,相关系数R²和斯皮尔曼秩相关系数最高提升0.5(翻倍)。此外,实验还发现:相同预算下,仅用短文本训练一回合,常不如用半量长文本训练两回合;虽然前者可能获得更高SFT分数,但最终RL表现反而更差。评估工具将开源。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
In post-training for reasoning Large Language Models (LLMs), the current state of practice trains LLMs in two independent stages: Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) and Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR, shortened as ``RL'' below). In this work, we challenge whether high SFT scores translate to improved performance after RL. We provide extensive counter-examples where this is not true. We find high SFT scores can be biased toward simpler or more homogeneous data and are not reliably predictive of subsequent RL gains or scaled-up post-training effectiveness. In some cases, RL training on models with improved SFT performance could lead to substantially worse outcome compared to RL on the base model without SFT. We study alternative metrics and identify generalization loss on held-out reasoning examples and Pass@large k performance to provide strong proxies for the RL outcome. We trained hundreds of models up to 12B-parameter with SFT and RLVR via GRPO and ran extensive evaluations on 7 math benchmarks with up to 256 repetitions, spending $>$1M GPU hours. Experiments include models from Llama3, Mistral-Nemo, Qwen3 and multiple state-of-the-art SFT/RL datasets. Compared to directly predicting from pre-RL performance, prediction based on generalization loss and Pass@large k achieves substantial higher precision, improving $R^2$ coefficient and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient by up to 0.5 (2x). This provides strong utility for broad use cases. For example, in most experiments, we find SFT training on unique examples for a one epoch underperforms training on half examples for two epochs, either after SFT or SFT-then-RL; With the same SFT budget, training only on short examples may lead to better SFT performance, though, it often leads to worse outcome after RL compared to training on examples with varying lengths. Evaluation tool will be open-sourced.
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