Check and circle marks in test papers


While watching anime, especially ones that focus on slice-of-life or high
school, I often come across a test paper containing a character's score.
However, it is interesting to note that the correct answers are **circled**
while the wrong ones are **ticked** (checked?). As far as I know, ticks are
for correct answers and circles are for incorrect answers (unless I've been
living in a shell, which would be embarrassing).

![Four Girls and an Idol](https://i.stack.imgur.com/sY3yZ.png)

The image is from The World God Only Knows OVA: Four Girls and an Idol, where
Keima Katsuragi intentionally placed an incorrect answer for question #1. As
you can see, it is checked while the rest are circled. Does this mirror how
Japan marks the test papers of students? If so, why?




Yes, this does mirror how Japan marks the test papers of students. Let's see
an example each of a marked test paper in anime and in real life Japan:

![Yui Hirasawa's abysmal math test score](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyfAe.png)

![Sample of a graded arithmetic drill](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3b9LXm.jpg)

[Circles and crosses](http://jisho.org/word/%E3%80%87%C3%97) indicate right
and wrong answers, but you'll often see check marks used in place of crosses
to save time and effort. Check marks are sometimes called _reten_ for bearing
resemblance to the katakana _re_ , but should not be confused with the return
marker _[reten](http://jisho.org/word/%E3%83%AC%E7%82%B9)_ that
[annotate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun) Classical Chinese. Check
marks call forth the attention of students to incorrect answers, which they
should **_check_** again.

The check mark as an error mark also sees usage in countries like Korea and
Sweden, but as you can gather from the discussions on
[Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1f3ron/why_is_o_yes_an_x_no_in_japanese_playstation/)
and
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Check_mark#Ticks_in_various_cultures_.2F_Yes_vs._No),
there really is no _universal_ standard for marking right and wrong answers
even within a country. The graders may choose whatever the mark they want. My
teachers in school thought that ticking off wrong answers wastes too much ink,
so they just cheaply impressed a dot by the wrong answers.

Occasionally, you might also encounter the [flower
circle](http://jisho.org/word/%E8%8A%B1%E4%B8%B8), [double
circle](http://jisho.org/word/%E4%BA%8C%E9%87%8D%E4%B8%B8) and
[triangle](http://jisho.org/word/%E2%96%B3) marks, which denote, respectively,
perfect, good and average (poor) work done by the students.

![Hanamaru](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WanqHm.jpg)




Yes, this does mirror how Japan marks the test papers of students. Let's see
an example each of a marked test paper in anime and in real life Japan:

![Yui Hirasawa's abysmal math test score](https://i.stack.imgur.com/UyfAe.png)

![Sample of a graded arithmetic drill](https://i.stack.imgur.com/3b9LXm.jpg)

[Circles and crosses](http://jisho.org/word/%E3%80%87%C3%97) indicate right
and wrong answers, but you'll often see check marks used in place of crosses
to save time and effort. Check marks are sometimes called _reten_ for bearing
resemblance to the katakana _re_ , but should not be confused with the return
marker _[reten](http://jisho.org/word/%E3%83%AC%E7%82%B9)_ that
[annotate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanbun) Classical Chinese. Check
marks call forth the attention of students to incorrect answers, which they
should **_check_** again.

The check mark as an error mark also sees usage in countries like Korea and
Sweden, but as you can gather from the discussions on
[Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1f3ron/why_is_o_yes_an_x_no_in_japanese_playstation/)
and
[Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Check_mark#Ticks_in_various_cultures_.2F_Yes_vs._No),
there really is no _universal_ standard for marking right and wrong answers
even within a country. The graders may choose whatever the mark they want. My
teachers in school thought that ticking off wrong answers wastes too much ink,
so they just cheaply impressed a dot by the wrong answers.

Occasionally, you might also encounter the [flower
circle](http://jisho.org/word/%E8%8A%B1%E4%B8%B8), [double
circle](http://jisho.org/word/%E4%BA%8C%E9%87%8D%E4%B8%B8) and
[triangle](http://jisho.org/word/%E2%96%B3) marks, which denote, respectively,
perfect, good and average (poor) work done by the students.

![Hanamaru](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WanqHm.jpg)

