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How do you mark answers correct/incorrect?


Marking poll  

129 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you (most often) mark answers correct?

    • With a check mark
      38
    • With a "c"
      5
    • With some other mark
      7
    • I don't put marks next to correct answers
      70
    • By indicating the points received
      2
    • Other
      5
    • I don't grade/mark up my student's work
      2
  2. 2. How do you (most often) mark answers incorrect?

    • With an "x"
      48
    • With a check mark
      11
    • With some other mark
      48
    • By indicating points received/lost
      4
    • I don't put marks next to incorrect answers
      3
    • Other
      13
    • I don't grade/mark up my student's work
      2


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How do you mark answers correct/incorrect?  I tutor a kid whose mother marks wrong answers with the same symbol that I use to mark correct answers, and it confuses me every time!

Edited by EKS
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These answers apply to math in our homeschool:

 

Depends. Sometimes, I circle the numbers. Sometimes, I write the numbers of the wrong answers at the top of the paper.

 

There was a season when I would tell the child that X amount of problems were wrong. The child had to re-work them all. Sounds cruel, but it was a very short season, and this practice discouraged laziness and rushing through math. 

 

Response #31 is what I do for correct sections and pages. 

Edited by Angie in VA
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Initially correct answers don't get marked. If it's all correct, I just write "100% A+" at the top.

Incorrect answers get an X by them, or sometimes I circle the problem number (DD likes me to change it up)

Corrected answers get a smiley face.

 

Ruth

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I put a check mark next to the correct answers.  The kids find it less discouraging if they see visually that they got answers right.  They then go back through and correct the ones that don't have a check mark.  

 

ETA: If they got an answer wrong there are times when I may put specific marks to indicate they need to reread the instructions or to see me if I feel we need to work together to figure out where the disconnect was or something else along those lines.  I never mark a big X for being wrong, though.

Edited by OneStepAtATime
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I also do the circle and then the check thing.

 

We really don't do "grades" but some things, especially math, need to be checked so that kids can get feedback about what they're understanding and not understanding. I don't put an X because the focus isn't that they got it wrong and an X says "wrong" to me. It's all about the process. A circle - at least to me - says, go back and retry this one or look at this one again.

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I circle anything that needs to be looked at again. Instead of using proofreading marks, I circle the word and let my son look closely and determine if it is an error in capitalization, spelling, or word choice. I circle the part of a math problem where the error occurred or just the number of the problem. If an answer is missing information, I make a "fill in the blank" underline (_____________) to indicate that the answer is incomplete.

 

I put stars by anything that I find excellent or praiseworthy.

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Correct answers get a 'krul' (ribbon), which is what all my teachers in NL used, like this:

 

http://gedicht.punt.nl/content/2006/04/krulletje

 

Wrong answers get an x (cross).

 

Except when we did Toe by Toe (phonics), where the authors said to use a / (slash) for a correct answer, and a . (dot) for a wrong answer. The program is largely aimed at dyslexic kids, and they said to do it because a lot of dyslexic kids have already been traumatized by crosses, but I did it just because it was less work and took up less space - kids need to get a slash three days in a row in order to count a word as mastered, and the checkboxes weren't that big, as you can see in the picture (which only shows slashes, but w/e):

 

http://www.toe-by-toe.co.uk/faqs/

 

I don't mark that many things as correct or wrong though - most often I just have my kids redo whatever is wrong, and then in the end put one krul (ribbon) in the top corner of the page, as much to mark the page done as to mark it correct.

 

ETA: oh, and in the test prep book the correct answers got circled and the wrong ones got crossed. I started out by just putting crosses through the wrong answers*, but my youngest didn't like that, so I let him put circles around the correct answers* (he thought ribbons were too hard to write).

 

*The numbers indicating the question number, not the actual answers.

Edited by luuknam
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I don't mark correct answers.  I have never seen that done.  I put a check mark next to incorrect answers.

 

 

whoa. I've never seen that done. Are in North America? 

 

Every teacher here either doesn't put anything by a correct answer or puts a tick/check mark by correct and an X by incorrect. 

 

In dd's college classes, markers often write down the number of points earned on each question in addition to or instead of the tick marks. 

 

These symbols: http://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/091/065/original/correct-and-incorrect-signs-vectors-free.jpg

 

 

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For writing, we've always used proof-editing marks -- I usually put an arrow in the margin next to the line where there is something that needs to be fixed.

 

For math or other things that have simple right/wrong answers or need a simple correction: circle for problems that need to be re-done (i.e., are incorrect), and a quick, 5-pointed star by correct answers, and also by corrected circled answers. Yes, I draw a star next to every single correct problem. Stars are like smiley faces for me -- very encouraging.  :) To leave right answers blank and only mark wrong answers feels like I'm ignoring their good work. ;) For indicating incorrect answers "X" seems harsh, final, and unforgiving to me -- that's why I use a circle -- it feels like it invites you to try again. That's all the strong feeler in me (heavily INFJ) -- I doubt my DSs cared a hoot.  :laugh:

 

Also, I always felt a "Ă¢Ë†Å¡" was too easy to misunderstand as a mistake or incorrect answer, as somewhere during the years,  "Ă¢Ë†Å¡" changed from meaning "wrong" to "right" -- "Ă¢Ë†Å¡" (not "X") was used to show mistakes and incorrect answers many many years ago when I was in public school.

Edited by Lori D.
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When I read the title, I thought this would be straightforward for me to answer...not so much, LOL! I said "other" for both.

 

I don't mark most correct questions (though if it's a "test," I will indicate number wrong and points or percentage correct. In elementary school, I also had a stamp set with things like "A+" or encouraging remarks).

 

However, I try to find something that was correct or well-done to acknowledge on every test or paper. It might be a note in the column, a plus mark or an underline by something that impressed me, a smiley face, etc...

 

If it's a test or worksheet, I circle the number of something that is incorrect, but if it's partially right, I'll write "yes" next to what was correct and "no" next to the part that was incorrect. Sometimes I also write more in a margin, and/or indicate partial points next to the question.

 

If it's a paper and I'm checking a draft for mechanical errors, I simply put an X next to the line for each error. For example, if one line had a spelling error and a punctuation error, I would put "xx" next to that line.

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I use a hodgepodge of symbols. 

 

For maths and similar yes or no things, I usually leave blank for correct, though I sometimes put a tick or smiley if they get a whole set right. For incorrect, it depends on what is wrong... I use Xs, circles, arrows [usually if only one place value is wrong or something like that], lines [i usually draw a large line next to a number if they don't label it], question marks when I can't read it, or just write next to the problem what needs to be looked at.  

 

For writing, beyond proofreader marks, I underline anything I cannot read or is misspelled, brackets around anything that I don't think makes sense, stars over really well-written things...and margin comments. 

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I chose "I don't mark up my child's work." I'm sure this will change at some point when my kids are older, but for now I mostly have the baby in the Ergo when I'm trying to look over their work, so if we come to a wrong answer I'll just ask about their process/choice and they can fix it themselves if needed. I only write in their books if I'm trying to demonstrate something.

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whoa. I've never seen that done. Are in North America? 

 

Every teacher here either doesn't put anything by a correct answer or puts a tick/check mark by correct and an X by incorrect. 

 

In dd's college classes, markers often write down the number of points earned on each question in addition to or instead of the tick marks. 

 

These symbols: http://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/091/065/original/correct-and-incorrect-signs-vectors-free.jpg

 

 

 

Not the person you asked, but I am in North America (midwest US to be specific). 

 

I have never, either as a student or public/private school teacher, seen correct answers be marked. The exception would be an answer that goes above and beyond/is excellent. That may get a smiley face or something.

 

Wrong answers are marked with a check mark or slash ime.

 

FWIW, I don't mark answers yet in our HS, as we haven't done anything written. I will probably circle answers that need to be redone and cross that out when fixed. 

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whoa. I've never seen that done. Are in North America? 

 

Every teacher here either doesn't put anything by a correct answer or puts a tick/check mark by correct and an X by incorrect. 

 

In dd's college classes, markers often write down the number of points earned on each question in addition to or instead of the tick marks. 

 

These symbols: http://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/091/065/original/correct-and-incorrect-signs-vectors-free.jpg

 

 

 

I live in the pacific northwest and have all my life.  I never had a teacher mark correct answers with anything, only incorrect ones.  Teachers would put smiley faces, stars, or stickers at the top of the paper if we got a good score.

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I live in the pacific northwest and have all my life.  I never had a teacher mark correct answers with anything, only incorrect ones.  Teachers would put smiley faces, stars, or stickers at the top of the paper if we got a good score.

 

and they put the 'tick' mark beside wrong answers??? 

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I don't see correct answers marked always. And I agree it's not strictly necessary. I like to do it for my kids - they nearly always have a lot more correct than incorrect and it helps them see that (especially good for my anxious kid). I don't always mark them though. Sometimes I'll just circle the wrong answer or two.

 

But putting a check next to incorrect answers? That just seems massively confusing. I've never seen that in all my years as a teacher or student.

Edited by Farrar
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I used to have a job marking for a high school English teacher.  I'd do all the fill in blanks, spelling, short answers & the first run through of long answer essays (those she would go through again & assign a final score). 

We always marked like the purple pen on this:  http://immeasurableriches.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/1/3/48138217/2958108_orig.jpg

That's how my work was marked when I was in hs too....

(I'm in Canada)
 



fixed link. I hope. http://immeasurableriches.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/1/3/48138217/2958108_orig.jpg

Edited by hornblower
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I circle the problem numbers of incorrect answers, and then put a check through the circle when it's been fixed.

 

I sometimes put a check mark through the problem numbers of ones that have been answered correctly, depending on the kid. My 6-year-old prefers to have 8 checks and 2 circles on his page rather than just the 2 circles, because he feels like I'm ignoring all of the ones he got right if I don't give him check marks. My older boys prefer that I just circle the incorrect problems so that I don't clutter up their pages.

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Circle incorrect answers. Check mark after they're corrected. No mark for correct answers, sticker on top of page when all/most answers are correct, even if they weren't all correct to start with (because DD needs reinforcement more for regrouping and retrying difficult things than in getting them all correct in the first place. And because she still likes stickers, and so do I).

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I don't see correct answers marked always. And I agree it's not strictly necessary. I like to do it for my kids - they nearly always have a lot more correct than incorrect and it helps them see that (especially good for my anxious kid). I don't always mark them though. Sometimes I'll just circle the wrong answer or two.

 

But putting a check next to incorrect answers? That just seems massively confusing. I've never seen that in all my years as a teacher or student.

Bolding is mine.

 

Who would it confuse? And why if that's the way it's done? Until this thread, I had never heard of using the check mark/tick for correct answers. If someone were to do that here (midwest US), that would confuse people.

 

Around here, check mark = wrong answer. 

 

Nothing marked = correct answer.

 

Now that I've said that, I will survey the class of kids I volunteer teach when class starts this fall to make sure things haven't changed.

 

 

 

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These answers apply to math in our homeschool:

 

Depends. Sometimes, I circle the numbers. Sometimes, I write the numbers of the wrong answers at the top of the paper.

 

There was a season when I would tell the child that X amount of problems were wrong. The child had to re-work them all. Sounds cruel, but it was a very short season, and this practice discouraged laziness and rushing through math. 

 

 

I forgot that when an entire section or page is correct, I make a huge check on it. 

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Bolding is mine.

 

Who would it confuse? And why if that's the way it's done? Until this thread, I had never heard of using the check mark/tick for correct answers. If someone were to do that here (midwest US), that would confuse people.

 

Around here, check mark = wrong answer. 

 

Nothing marked = correct answer.

 

Now that I've said that, I will survey the class of kids I volunteer teach when class starts this fall to make sure things haven't changed.

 

 

 

 

so would you find these signs confusing? http://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/000/091/065/original/correct-and-incorrect-signs-vectors-free.jpg

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I don't generally mark correct answers. For incorrect answers, I circle the question number very lightly in pencil, or I draw an arrow very lightly in pencil to point at a specific part that needs fixing (or I just address the error verbally). When it's corrected, the child gets to erase the pencil mark. Both my girls strongly prefer removing the "this is wrong" mark rather than doing something like putting a check through it.

 

When I was a classroom teacher for teenagers, I didn't mark most correct answers, but I did put a check mark next to correct answers for questions requiring longer responses--sort of a way to say "yes, I did look at your answer, and you're receiving credit for it." I circled incorrect answers then, too, but in pen. ;)

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I've never heard of using a check mark for incorrect answers!

 

When I was a kid, short quizzes would have the correct answers marked with a check, especially if they were graded (as spelling tests usually were) in the time-honored tradition of "pass it to your neighbor and I'll read the correct answers aloud". (Time saving!)

 

And when I was in kindy and pre-k, our report cards were graded in every area only with a check (on target), a check plus (advanced), or a check minus (still struggling) - probably they thought getting an x in kindergarten was silly.

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Who would it confuse? And why if that's the way it's done? Until this thread, I had never heard of using the check mark/tick for correct answers. If someone were to do that here (midwest US), that would confuse people.

 

Around here, check mark = wrong answer.

 

Checkmarks are usually used in lists to check off that something is done, complete, etc, aka a good thing. So, it would be confusing to me if a checkmark were used for a wrong answer.

 

ETA: I may have also on occasion used slashes for incorrect answer, but there's a world of a difference between a checkmark and a slash.

Edited by luuknam
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I am another who has always left correct answers unmarked and put check marks next to incorrect ones (life-long Pennsylvanian). That is how my teachers in school always did it. We also used check marks to indicate "complete/finished" and minus signs to indicate "incomplete" but the context was always obvious.

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Bolding is mine.

 

Who would it confuse? And why if that's the way it's done? Until this thread, I had never heard of using the check mark/tick for correct answers. If someone were to do that here (midwest US), that would confuse people.

 

Around here, check mark = wrong answer. 

 

Nothing marked = correct answer.

 

Now that I've said that, I will survey the class of kids I volunteer teach when class starts this fall to make sure things haven't changed.

 

 

 

 

I'm sure I'd figure it out pretty quickly but to me a check mark is the universal symbol for either finished/complete or correct. Thus it's completely counterintuitive to use it for incorrect or incomplete answers. It's like putting a smile emoji on sad news or putting a poison symbol on your breakfast cereal. It's just not what you expect.

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Yes, at first I'd wonder why they used two different symbols for incorrect answers. Then I'd look at the questions and answers and figure out which symbol meant correct and which meant incorrect.

 

I'm sure I'd figure it out pretty quickly but to me a check mark is the universal symbol for either finished/complete or correct. Thus it's completely counterintuitive to use it for incorrect or incomplete answers. It's like putting a smile emoji on sad news or putting a poison symbol on your breakfast cereal. It's just not what you expect.

It's counterintuitive to you!  :lol: 

 

I don't understand that. Why couldn't something be finished and incorrect (as it indicates here where I live)? 

 

As for using it on lists, I grew up just crossing things off. I love lists and crossing things off. Putting a check mark next to things completed would just be wrong!

 

And using a check mark for correct answers would be like marking cereal poison!

 

And, thanks to all the pp who have confirmed that I am not completely in my own little world about this.

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Never heard of a tick/check mark for a correct answer. That is just freaky! :)

 

I circle incorrect answers. I put a box around questions that are sort of correct, but need to be discussed. (Like maybe I could tell the child mis-read the problem, or perhaps they didn't simply a fraction.)

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Math - I check the correct ones because sometimes I'm interrupted when checking work.  Wrong answers I circle.  Language Arts/Writing - I generally write editing notes but there really isn't a need to make check marks because there aren't usually specific questions.  Spelling - I check mark correct answers and circle wrong spelled words.

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The example that Hornblower linked above made me hurt.

 

Growing up (Missouri and Colorado -- graduated high school in the early 90s) -- every mark on your page meant something was WRONG. Never a mark for a right answer -- so all those 'correct' ticks would horrify me. The less teacher ink on the page, the better your work was. ;)

 

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As you've probably guessed, the thing that trips me up is using a checkmark to indicate a wrong answer.

 

I actually have seen it before.  Way back in the early grades in elementary school (in the early 70s in CA), my teachers used a "c" for correct answers and a checkmark for incorrect ones.  But somewhere around 4th grade the check changed to being for correct answers, and seeing it used the other way makes my brain seize up.

 

Thanks all!

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As for using it on lists, I grew up just crossing things off. I love lists and crossing things off. Putting a check mark next to things completed would just be wrong!

 

 

You mean like this:

http://www.tips2stayhealthy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/to-do-list-complete.jpg

 

When I searched "completed list" on Google Images, all the images (of lists and not the word "completed" all fancy or something like that) on my front page featured checkmarks.

 

I mean, I also cross things off. There's a nice pleasure in that. But a little tick in a box next to it is more common as a symbol of completed. I mean, you see it on apps and so forth as well.

Edited by Farrar
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Why couldn't something be finished and incorrect (as it indicates here where I live)?

 

If something is incorrect, it's not finished, imo. At the very least, it needs to be looked at more, and possibly redone.

 

ETA: checkmarks are the new cupcakes, I guess.

 

ETA2: cupcakes with checkmarks:

 

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/c5/94/45/c5944587150f7672e3de078822d8ba1e.jpg

Edited by luuknam
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You mean like this:

http://www.tips2stayhealthy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/to-do-list-complete.jpg

 

When I searched "completed list" on Google Images, all the images (of lists and not the word "completed" all fancy or something like that) on my front page featured checkmarks.

 

I mean, I also cross things off. There's a nice pleasure in that. But a little tick in a box next to it is more common as a symbol of completed. I mean, you see it on apps and so forth as well.

Ha, I can't stand a check mark in a box. It must be an X (you know, so it's symmetrical.). I know I am weird about that.

 

But maybe you (or someone else) could explain the need to mark both correct and incorrect answers. That's more work. It's much faster to only mark things incorrect (because hopefully, most things are correct).

 

 

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But maybe you (or someone else) could explain the need to mark both correct and incorrect answers. That's more work. It's much faster to only mark things incorrect (because hopefully, most things are correct).

 

Three people (including me) have already given explanations for that in this thread, but let's recap:

 

Some kids get upset if you only mark the wrong answers (I mentioned my 5yo was/is that way, and someone mentioned her 6yo being that way).

 

Some people get distracted while grading, so marking correct answers helps them keep track of what they've graded and what they haven't graded.

Edited by luuknam
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Ha, I can't stand a check mark in a box. It must be an X (you know, so it's symmetrical.). I know I am weird about that.

 

But maybe you (or someone else) could explain the need to mark both correct and incorrect answers. That's more work. It's much faster to only mark things incorrect (because hopefully, most things are correct).

 

 

 

I don't always mark the correct ones. But sometimes I do. When I was a teacher aide as a kid (this was a special job you could get as an elective when I was in middle school) I know I had to do it to show that I'd looked at each answer. It was a way to not lose my place, you know? And I still find that's true. Sometimes for my kids, I'm not always checking things in order but skipping around in a workbook to go over things with them or something along those lines. I'll check the sections off as I look at them to show myself that I did it.

 

But more importantly, one of my kids *needs* to see that he got things right or he freaks out. I mean, one wrong answer and he might freak out anyway, but it really helps him to see the sea of happy check marks on a page. Otherwise the thing your eye sees if the one or two wrong marks (whatever they may be) and hyperfocuses on that. Bad for anxious kids. So it's a "focus on the good" sort of thing.

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