How marking works
MathsEdge marks your working, not just your final answer. That means you can earn marks on a question you got wrong, and it can tell you which line the problem started on.
What you get back
For each part of the question you get a mark, a verdict and feedback.
| Verdict | Means |
|---|---|
| correct | Full marks for that part. |
| partially correct | Some marks. The method was going somewhere; something in it broke. |
| incorrect | No marks — but read the feedback, it says why. |
| unattempted | Nothing was submitted for that part. |
Partial credit is real. If you set the problem up correctly and slipped in the arithmetic, you keep the method marks.
The line-by-line check
Open Line-by-line check under the feedback and you get a table of your working, one row per line, with a symbol against each:
| Symbol | Means |
|---|---|
| ✓ | This line follows from the one above it. The algebra checks out. |
| ? | This line does not follow from the one above. Often a real mistake — but not always, see below. |
| – | Not compared. The checker could not read this line well enough to compare it. |
“Not compared” is not a mistake
A dash means the automatic checker sat this line out — usually because the handwriting recognition produced something it couldn't parse as maths. It is not saying your line is wrong. It is saying it didn't check.
Your marks do not depend on this table. A human-style marker reads your working regardless, and it is the one awarding the marks. The line check is there to point at where things went wrong when it can — nothing more.
A ? is worth a look but is not automatically a mistake either. If you substitute a value, introduce a new variable, or start a fresh sub-problem partway down, that line genuinely doesn't follow from the one above — and the checker will say so. The marker knows the difference; the table doesn't.
If your handwriting is misread
A recognition slip does not cost you marks. If the only reason your answer looks wrong is that a y was read as a 4, or a bracket went missing, or an exponent was dropped, you get the mark and the feedback tells you it happened.
This is deliberate. You cannot see or fix what the recogniser sends, so charging you for its mistakes would be unfair. Write as clearly as you reasonably can and then stop worrying about it.
The model solution
After marking, Show model solution reveals full worked steps for each part. Read it even when you got full marks — it will often be shorter than what you did.
Telling us a question is wrong
Under the marking there is a comment box. If a question is ambiguous, has a mistake, or was marked unfairly, say so there. It is attached to that exact question and attempt, so it is genuinely useful — several questions have been rewritten or retired because of it.
Still stuck? Get in touch and tell us what you were doing when it went wrong.