20 Scrantrons

20 Scranttrons

The advantage a scranton is the ability to ask of lots of questions and then mark them very quickly. A drawback is the possibility that they can lost from the essay booklet or somehow seriously damaged. This can be corrected by having the students do a backup in the essay booklet. I used to make it mandatory but I just tell the students to do voluntarily. “You have the r right to learn from your own misfortune if the Scrantron sheet disappears.” Most students consider this extra precaution a waste of time.

I usually find that marking by a machine is more accurate than marking by hand. However, recently I used a scranton which incorrectly marked the sheet or did not print the score. I had to rescore everyone by hand to be sure because of widespread discrepancies.

Some scrantrons can now be written in black or blue ink as well as #2 pencils. Most of the scrantrons I use require a #2 pencil. I usually distribute the sheet 20 to 30 minutes into the test. I explain that students make mistake s or put stray marks or fail to erase completely. This cuts down on the number of errors.

Sometimes, a student may leave an answer blank when it is to his advantage to guess. Sometimes, when a student skips a question, he or she then subsequent y marks all the other answers wrong. Sometimes, I am at fault when misnumber the questions by omitting a number or having two duplicate numbers or screw upon the answers or having duplicate questions.

I usually have a free spirit in every class who insists upon using a pen. . Some students simply cross out an answer and simply pencil in another!
I tell students I will not handmark their scrantrons if they do so. I used to provide # 2 pencils for which I would charge 25 cents. Instead, I now let the students borrow a pencil from one another.

In some schools students have to buy the scrantron in the bookstore. I provide them for free, even replacement copies when they screw up.