Spot the bad distractor
A wrong answer should tempt a student who made a real mistake, and only that student. For each question, tap the wrong box that wouldn't make the cut.
Question 1 of 10
7 × 8 = 56. Which wrong box is the bad one?
The rules the bank uses to pick wrong boxes
- One box is a near miss: a counting slip of one, or the next row of the times table.
- The other is a real misconception: adding for times, the digits turned round, the equals sign read as "work it out", the smaller digit taken from the bigger.
- Every wrong number must be a mistake some rule names. A number no rule names is never offered.
- Plausible only: never below zero, never above twice the answer plus 12, and close enough to the answer to tempt.
- Words: one box shares the first letter and length or is one letter off; the other is mirrored or rhymes. Spellings come from a table of real slips.
- First sounds: one box sounds like the answer, one looks like it, and never two that are both right (c and k).
- Never the answer, never twice, and the boxes are shuffled, so "the odd-looking one is wrong" never works.
Read more
More quizzes for teachers
- Analytic or single-point? A rubric quiz
- Is this rubric descriptor child-readable?
- Beat your 3rd graders: times tables at speed
- Do you know the Fry 100?
- Which quiz layout for tomorrow?
- Guess the grade of this passage
- Retrieval practice: myth or fact?
- Does your name picker feel fair?
- Where does student data go?
The best answer to every question, and why
- 7 × 8 = 56. Which wrong box is the bad one? 3. Right, that's the bad one. Nobody who knows what times means answers 3, so it tells you nothing and makes the question easier. The bank's own note: for 7 × 8 the boxes are never 3 or 100.
- 6 × 4 = 24. Which wrong box is the bad one? 240. Right. The bank caps a wrong box at twice the answer plus 12 (here 60), so a box that far off is never offered. A tenfold slip is easy to rule out at a glance.
- 13 − 5 = 8. Which wrong box is the bad one? −8. Right. The bank never offers a number below zero. A second grader working on take-away hasn't met negatives, so the box is free to cross out.
- 3 + 4 = 7. Which wrong box is the bad one? 70. Right. Far past any slip a child makes on 3 + 4, and over the bank's cap (twice the answer plus 12, or 20 at least).
- 3 + ? = 7. Which wrong box is the bad one? 100. Right. No rule names it, and the bank only offers a wrong number that some rule names as a real mistake.
- You say "was". Which wrong box is the bad one? elephant. Right. Nothing like "was" in length, letters or sound. The bank's sight word boxes share the first letter and length, or are one letter off, mirrored or rhyming.
- Spell "ship". Which wrong box is the bad one? sihp. Right. A jumble no child writes. The bank's misspellings come from a table of real slips (ck for k, ee for ea, a dropped silent e, a doubled last letter), never scrambled letters.
- Spell "cat". Which wrong box is the bad one? cta. Right. Letters out of order isn't a spelling a child writes for cat, so it's easy to rule out.
- "What does cat start with?" Which wrong box is the bad one? k. Right, and it's the sneaky one: k makes the same sound, so a child who picks it isn't wrong. The bank never puts c and k (or w and wh) on the same card.
- "Which word says the?" Which set of three boxes has no bad distractor? the, she, two. Right. This is the set the bank actually gives: "she" rhymes with "the", and "two" starts with the same letter and is just as long.
Written for Peabody Teach. Checked . Nothing you pick is saved or sent: no sign-in, no ads, and the result stays on your screen.