Marks on multiple choice answer sheet

[chg-2003]

Hi - am hoping someone might be able to help - when multiple choice answer sheets are marked by computer, does the computer read simply the area with the answer line between the brackets (hopefully the right brackets ) or will it be confused by other notes/marks on the answer sheets....

I am home-tutoring, with help from Bond, IPS, and many many excellent posts on this forum. DD is doing well at VR and NVR and we will eventually work on speed. However, she has decided today that her most effective way of working on some question types is to lightly cross out the obviously wrong answers on the answer sheet - the word/diagram/letter, not the bracketed answer space. She will then go back and erase her 'light markings' when she has chosen and marked the correct answer. This will obviously have time implications as we go on - should it be discouraged immediately, or will leaving the 'light markings' in place not affect the computer's analysis of the answers? It seems to work well for her, so would be handy if it could be used.

Hope this makes sense - want to nip any bad habits in the bud, before its too late

Thanks in advance.

[Amber]

Do you know, I think I would stop her doing this. In the heat and stress of an exam, those 'light' marks could become a bit 'heavy'; or she might run out of time and leave them there, or in the wrong place or something. I think the computer probably scans for one line in a row - my DS2 used to mark the correct answer very lightly and we tried to tell him not to do this, but I don't think he ever nailed it. Point is, he passed, so the computer obviously managed to read it.
Here in Gloucestershire there is, for some reason I have not fathomed, a ban on marking the question paper. Each area is different and perhaps this kind of thing is OK where you are. But I think if you can, it would be safest to look for alternatives, especially as she only decided recently it was the thing she wanted to do, rather than an engrained practice.

[Belinda]

Nip it in the bud now.

[bravado]

I'd definitely discourage it asap.

I always emphasised to DD2 that she should always avoid leaving any unnecessary marks on the answer sheet, no matter how faint. I know very little about optical readers and 11+ answer sheets - coupled with that and the fact that I'm not a gambler, I felt safer that there was one less "what if?" worry to torture myself over.

I feel pretty sure that Patricia has some tips and strategies in the Bucks section, for quickly dealing with vocab you're not sure of, for synonyms, antonyms and compound words etc. As time is of the essence, we also taught DD2 to avoid erasing/rubbing out her answers on the questions sheet, unless she'd run out of "working-out" space As Amber has said, some consortia don't allow you to write on, or mark the question sheet in any way - so I'd recommend checking out whether you can, for your area

[dyslexichelpneeded]

See this thread. For certainty, phone admissions.
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 572#p77572" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, I've phoned admissions, who have talked to the 11+ team. After much discussion at the other end, it would appear that if the child makes a small mark by the question number on the answer sheet, it shouldn't interfere with the marking of the paper. Any paper that shows any anomalies (marks that don't make sense to the software), are ejected by the machine for hand marking.

[mystery]

Thank you for asking that question. I was wondering it myself. I was very puzzled to see the layout when I opened by GL assessment practice papers for verbal reasoning. For me multiple choice questions should have all the possible answers on the question paper and one can scribble on them to one's heart's content, and then the answer sheet should just have 4 boxes labelled a, b, c, d, e in which to make a mark. This other method is silly but we're stuck with it.

[Daogroupie]

Please do not do this. Faint marks could really muck things up. Just write the letters on the Q paper and cross them out there. DG

[chg-2003]

Thank you all so much for your replies - I think there's a clear-cut decision here, and DD has been told not to mart the answer sheet, except with answers! There's plenty of time to build up speed without extra annotation, and I don't think my nerves would survive a 'what if' and remark-by-hand scenario

Many thanks for your responses

[Daogroupie]

Gosh! Does your area offer remarks? We get given the result and have to live with it so you never know what went wrong. DG