<p>On, say, a free response question?</p>
<p>This situation arises when you know how to answer the question but somehow didn’t remember the definitions well enough to know exactly what the question is asking for. </p>
<p>And what happened as a result?</p>
<p>I have been in a situation where the question was ambiguous. My answer had the format, “If the question is asking…, then… If the question is…, then…” I got full credit.</p>
<p>I grade papers.</p>
<p>If the question isn’t very clear and you state your assumptions then you’ll usually get full credit. If the question was clear and you go off on some tangent because you didn’t understand the question you might get partial credit.</p>
<p>My favorite strategy:</p>
<p>When doing matching/fill-in-the-blank, if I get two confused, I’ll often put the same answer down for both. 1 for 2 is better than 0 for 2! :D</p>
<p>If you have absolutely no idea then either way works out the same, but you reduce risk (to 0) by answering both the same. If you have any feeling about either whatsoever you’re better off guessing. Mathematically anyway.</p>
<p>On a recent math test, I answered a problem with two different methods, and I got totally different answers. I didn’t know where I messed up, so I just wrote “Not sure why these aren’t equal, I must have made a mistake on one”. I got 4/5 for the problem, which is much better than just picking one answer and getting a 0/5 for it! So yeah, I think it’s a good idea when you’re not sure and you want partial credit.</p>
<p>Definitely. I just took a test that asked a yes no question, and I responded with “Yes, if this”, “No if that”. Got full credit.</p>
<p>I had a question like that a couple of weeks ago… The question was pretty clear but there was something which I wasn’t sure of the meaning to (I knew it was 1 of three things, all very similar concepts). </p>
<p>I took a guess on one of them, and just assumed it was that. Though I got it wrong, and no credit.</p>