What counts as a right answer?

Updated 19 Feb 2024

Some answers are or are not marked as incorrect according to these rules.

  • Unbalanced parentheses — Answers that have unbalanced parentheses do not count as wrong answers. Students are asked to try again without being penalized.
  • Incorrect format—If the format is not correct but can be unambiguously corrected, Mastering corrects it and does not count it as a wrong answer.
  • Grading tolerance — Numeric answers are graded correct if they are within the assigned tolerance of the correct answer, between 2–3% by default. If later parts of the item depend on a particular value of the answer, a feedback box advises the student to keep all the digits on intermediate results and round only as the final step before submitting the answer.
  • Equivalent answers with units — Mastering accepts as correct any student answer that is equivalent to the correct answer. For example, if the correct answer is 2V and a student submits 2000mV, the student will receive full credit.
  • Order — If an answer is asked for in alphabetic or numeric order, and the student does not give it in that order, it is not counted as correct. That is, the answer acb is not equivalent to abc. This is because Mastering uses string matching on these answers. String matching is usually case-insensitive, except in items involving chemical formulae and in other cases where case is significant.

If students submit an answer containing an empty subscript or superscript box, they receive an error. Students may sometimes enter a caret (^) to indicate a superscript or an underscore (_) to indicate a subscript in the answer box. Even if they do this correctly, they receive an error if the answer contains an empty subscript or superscript box.

You may be able to see the keystrokes that a student entered by right-clicking the answer and selecting View Image Info. The Associated Text shows the code entered: 

  • A^ indicates a superscript.
  • a_ indicates a subscript.

You may also see additional characters added by Mastering for clarity, such as brackets, braces, or parentheses: [] {} ()