Answer Format verifying - Python

Introduction:
As a teacher, grading math homework assignments can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to ensuring that students have provided their answers in the correct format. In math, precision is crucial, and the format of an answer often matters as much as the content. For instance, writing an answer like “10 meters” is correct, whereas simply writing “10” or “meters” alone would be incomplete. To streamline this process, we can utilize a simple Python script that checks each student’s answer against the expected format and flags any discrepancies.

Problem Statement:
The challenge is to ensure that all student answers are formatted correctly as “a number followed by a unit of measurement,” separated by a space (e.g., “10 meters” or “5 seconds”). Any deviation from this format should be flagged for review. Given a list of answers, our goal is to identify which ones do not adhere to this specified format, enabling us to provide timely feedback to students.

Example:
- Correct Format: “10 meters”, “5 seconds”
- Incorrect Format: “3.14”, “20 miles/hour”, “9.81 m/s²”

Approaches:
To solve this problem, we can use a naive string matching approach. The idea is to iterate over each answer and split the string by spaces. If the resulting list contains exactly two elements, we consider it correctly formatted; otherwise, it is flagged as incorrectly formatted.

Here are the steps we will follow:

1. Iterate over each answer in the list.
2. Split the answer string by spaces to separate the number and the unit.
3. Check the length of the resulting list:

• If the length is 2, the format is correct.
• Otherwise, flag it as incorrect.

Code Implementation:
Below is the Python code to implement the above logic:

# List of student answers
answers = ['10 meters', '5 seconds', '3.14', '5 feet', '2.3 kilograms', '20 miles/hour', '7', '9.81 m/s^2']

for answer in answers:            # Iterate over each answer in the list
    list_ans = answer.split()   # Split the answer string by spaces

    if len(list_ans) == 2:      # Check if the format is correct
        print(f'Correct format: {answer}')
    else:
        print(f'Incorrect format: {answer}')

Demo:
Let’s test our implementation with the given list of answers:

Conclusion:
Using a straightforward string manipulation approach in Python, we can efficiently identify answers that do not follow the prescribed format. This method allows teachers to quickly spot errors and provide constructive feedback to students. By automating this aspect of grading, teachers can focus more on evaluating the correctness of the answers and less on checking formatting issues.

This solution demonstrates how a simple script can significantly reduce manual workload and improve grading accuracy, ultimately enhancing the learning experience for students.

Happy Coding ;)