How to spot a flawed question
The clearest sign is in the results. Look at how many students missed each question. When a question was missed by most of the class, including students who did well on the rest of the test, the problem is usually the question, not the students.
Other warning signs: many students chose the same wrong answer (often a sign that the wording pointed them there), strong students wrote an answer you hadn't considered but can defend, or the question depended on a lesson that was cut short. A quick look at the most-missed questions before you enter grades takes five minutes and saves a lot of later disputes.
Your three options
Say the problem is question 14 on a 20-question test. Here are the choices and what each does to two students: Ana, who answered question 14 correctly and got 16/20 overall, and Ben, who missed question 14 and also got 16/20 overall.
Option 1: Give everyone credit for the question
Every student is marked correct on question 14. The test stays out of 20.
- Ana: 16/20 = 80% (unchanged, she already had it).
- Ben: 17/20 = 85%.
Students who missed the question gain a full question's worth of points. Students who got it right gain nothing. This is simple and generous, and it's the most common choice when the question had two defensible answers.
Option 2: Drop the question for everyone
Remove question 14 entirely and grade out of 19.
- Ana: 15/19 = 78.95% (she loses the point she earned, and her percentage drops).
- Ben: 16/19 = 84.21%.
This treats the question as if it never existed, which is the most accurate measure of what students knew on the remaining 19 questions. The catch is visible in Ana's score: students who answered correctly can go down. Some teachers avoid this by using Option 3.
Option 3: Accept more than one answer
If the question had two defensible answers, mark both as correct. Students who chose either answer get the point, and students who chose a clearly wrong answer don't.
- Ana: 16/20 = 80% (unchanged).
- Ben: 17/20 = 85% if he chose the second defensible answer; still 16/20 if he chose a wrong one.
When a question genuinely had two right answers, this is usually the fairest fix: it rewards students who reasoned correctly either way and still separates students who didn't know the material.
Which option to choose
| Situation | Usually best |
|---|---|
| Two answers can be defended | Accept both answers |
| Question covered material you didn't teach | Give everyone credit |
| Question was confusing for everyone (typo, missing information) | Give everyone credit, or drop it if you can explain the drop to students who answered it correctly |
| Many questions are affected | Consider a curve or a retake of that section |
Whichever you choose, apply it to every student and every class section that took the test. Fixing the question only for students who complain creates a far bigger fairness problem than the original mistake.
When it affects several classes
If you teach the same test to several sections, make the decision once and apply it everywhere. If other teachers gave the same common assessment, agree on a fix together. Students compare notes, and different fixes for the same question in different classrooms will be noticed.
Preventing it next time
A few habits catch most flawed questions before the test is printed: have a colleague take the test cold, read every multiple-choice question asking "could a strong student argue for a different answer?", and keep notes on the questions that caused trouble so they are fixed before the test is used again. Keeping the most-missed questions from each test is also useful for reteaching.
Quick answers
Is it better to drop a question or give everyone credit?
Giving everyone credit never lowers a score and is simpler to explain. Dropping a question measures the remaining questions more accurately, but students who answered it correctly can see their percentage go down.
How much does one dropped question change a grade?
On a 20-question test, a student who missed the dropped question goes from 16/20 (80%) to 16/19 (84.21%). A student who got it right goes from 16/20 to 15/19 (78.95%).
This guide explains common practice and the math behind it. Grading rules differ between schools, so always check your school or district policy. Spotted an error? Let us know and we'll fix it.