Awarding partial credit for correct parts of an answer

As an alternative to scoring a test question as completely correct or incorrect, you can decide that you would like the test-taker to receive partial credit for correct parts of the response – i.e. for responses which are partially, but not wholly, correct. This can be useful for questions where the answer is given in multiple parts.

In the example question below, test-takers are asked to identify what each musician did in the rock band The Beatles. Of the responses given, two were correct, but the other two were not.  

Awarding partial credit

The black bar at the bottom shows the responses chosen by the test-taker, and the scores given. MAXSCORE shows that there was a maximum of four marks in this question (one for putting each of the musician's names in the correct place), and SCORE shows that the test-taker scored two marks (out of the possible four). In other words, partial credit is awarded for the two which were correct.   

Using this scoring method, you also have the possibility of awarding more marks for some parts of the answer than others, if you consider them to be of greater importance. The marks to be given for each part of the response is configured when creating the item.