Student-Produced Response
“Student-produced response” is The College Board’s way
of saying, “Do it yourself, Bub.” Simply put, you, the student,
must supply the correct answer without choosing from a group of
answer choices. Answering student-produced responses requires filling
in a grid like the one shown below. Therefore, we refer to these
questions as grid-ins.
An example of a grid-in might be:
|
|
| 8. |
The
average of {7, 8, 10, 12, x, y}
is 9.5. What is the average of
x + y? |
|
The grid is fairly self-explanatory. If you work out an
item and the answer is 10, you write “10” in the spaces
and then fill in the “1” oval underneath the 1 and the “0” oval
underneath the 0. There are also decimal points and fraction bars
in case your answer is not a whole number. We refer to an individual
grid-in as an item. A complete grid-in section comprised
of items is called a set.
There are three peculiar things about grid-ins:
-
There may be more than one correct answer to
each item. You’re probably stuck in the “only one correct
choice” mindset brought on by excessive multiple-choice preparation.
Don’t let this paralyze you: if you get more than one correct answer,
pick one, grid it in, and move on to the next item.
- Answers
can never be negative numbers. Although there is more than
one possible answer, there is actually a limit to what you can grid
in. There is no way to denote negative numbers on a grid-in. Why? Who
knows, and who cares, for that matter? The fact is that all grid-ins
must be positive (or zero, which is neither negative nor positive).
So if you come up with more than one correct answer, be sure to
choose one that is a positive number. If all your answers are negative,
you know you have made a mistake in working out the item.
Improper fractions must be simplified or converted
to a decimal answer. Let’s say came up with 
as
the answer to an item. If you grid the answer in as 
,
the computer that scans your answer sheet will read your
answer as 
. To avoid getting this item wrong,
convert the improper fraction into the plain old fraction 
,
or the decimal 1.5.
