# How do you assign a grade to a proof?

This question is very similar to one I posed two years ago: How to assign grades to proofs: what do(es) theliterature/experts suggest?

I would like to ask the more general question of: what do you actually do? Specifically, what do you look for from your math majors in an undergraduate intro-to-proof course?

Closely related: Do you have (graduate or undergraduate) homework graders for that course? What do you tell them?

• I usually have a small class (< 20), and I have them rewrite the proofs until correct, up to a deadline. You could have a limited number of rewrites, to make it manageable. Tests tend to focus on skills, such as the proof strategies in Smith, Eggen, St. Andre or Velleman. When proofs are on exams, an answer accumulates points as long as it follows the proof strategies. Normally, the proofs are fairly simple on exams and not problems that require many pieces to be assembled in a clever way. – user1527 Apr 8 '16 at 2:37
• I haven't graded proofs, but my approach would be the same as grading computer programs: minimalistic granularity, like just 0-4 points max (i.e., letter grade A-F). If you Google "proof grading rubric" you'll find quite a few examples; some do it at this level, others do it at a 20-point level (as you suggested in the other question). – Daniel R. Collins Apr 8 '16 at 14:51

• no more than one-third credit, and in some cases zero credit when a huge misconception or mistake, central to the course or previous courses, is present (e.g. "$A$ is not closed, therefore it is an open set" or "the function $f$ is not non-decreasing, thus it is non-increasing" -- here the English wording for monotonicity shows all its badness, and the same sentence looks far more egregious in French),