Questions that allow more than one correct answer (multiple-answer questions) can be scored in different ways depending on how strict you want to be. PressPrimer Quiz offers four scoring modes so you can match your institution’s grading rubric without writing any code. This article explains each mode with worked examples.
Where to Set the Scoring Mode
There are two places to set the scoring mode:
- Site-wide default: Set under PressPrimer Quiz > Settings > General in the Scoring section. This applies to every quiz that has not set its own mode.
- Per quiz: Set in the Quiz Editor under Settings > Scoring. This overrides the site default for that quiz only.
New quizzes use the site default until you set a specific mode. Because the mode is resolved when a quiz is scored, changing the site default immediately affects all quizzes that rely on it.
The Four Modes
Right Minus Wrong (default)
Each wrong selection cancels out one correct selection. The score for the question never goes below zero. This is the default and matches the scoring used in previous versions.
Partial Credit
Each correct selection earns proportional credit. Wrong selections are ignored entirely. This is the most lenient mode and is well suited to low-stakes practice quizzes.
Partial Credit, No Wrong Answers
Each correct selection earns proportional credit, but selecting any wrong answer results in zero for the question. This rewards partial knowledge while still penalizing guessing.
All or Nothing
Full credit is awarded only when every correct answer is selected and no wrong answers are selected. Anything less scores zero. This is the strictest mode and matches the “All or Nothing” scoring used in platforms like Canvas, Qualtrics, and Moodle.
Examples
For a question worth 1 point with 3 correct answers and 3 distractors, where a student selects 2 correct answers and 1 wrong answer:
| Mode | Score |
|---|---|
| Right Minus Wrong | 0.33 |
| Partial Credit | 0.67 |
| Partial Credit, No Wrong Answers | 0.00 |
| All or Nothing | 0.00 |
For the same question where a student selects 2 correct answers and no wrong answers:
| Mode | Score |
|---|---|
| Right Minus Wrong | 0.67 |
| Partial Credit | 0.67 |
| Partial Credit, No Wrong Answers | 0.67 |
| All or Nothing | 0.00 |
What Students See
On the results page, each question in the review includes a line explaining how its points were awarded. Multiple-answer questions also show a How scoring works summary that describes the scoring mode used for that attempt, so students understand why a partially correct selection earned the score it did.
The scoring mode is recorded on each attempt when it is submitted. If you change a quiz’s scoring mode later, past attempts keep showing the explanation for the mode that was actually used to score them. Attempts completed on versions before 3.0 show point values without a mode explanation, since the mode was not recorded at the time.
Scoring explanations respect the quiz’s answer visibility settings. When a quiz is set to never show answers, students see point totals only. The explanations can also be turned off entirely with the Show scoring explanations toggle in the quiz’s Display Options.
Notes
- The scoring mode only affects multiple-answer questions. Single-answer and True/False questions are scored as correct or incorrect regardless of the mode.
- Historical attempts are not recalculated when you change a scoring mode. Past scores remain as they were originally computed.
- When the Maximum Answers per Question setting is active, only distractors are subset. Every correct answer is always shown, so the cap does not change how correct answers are scored; it only reduces the number of wrong answers a student sees.