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:
|
|
| 9. |
If  , what is one possible value of a? |
|
The grid is fairly self-explanatory. If you work out an
item and the answer is 2, you write 2 in the space, then fill in
the “2” oval underneath. 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.
But 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
have made a mistake in working out the item.
- Improper
fractions must be simplified or converted to a decimal answer. Let’s say
you come 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.
