Why was my answer rejected?
Updated
Few things sting more in Krillion than a rare answer that gets marked wrong. Most rejections come from a handful of avoidable causes.
1. The answer is outside the prompt’s boundary
Read the prompt as a contract. “Name a country in South America” is not the same as “Name a country or territory in South America”. French Guiana is part of France, so it only counts under the second wording. “A film directed by Steven Spielberg” rules out films he produced. Under time pressure we answer the category we expected, not the one on screen.
Fix: spend the first second of every prompt on the key words: country, city, film, character, team, past or present, starts with.
2. Spelling that is too far off
Answer-checkers usually tolerate a small slip but not a different word. The shorter the answer, the less room there is: one wrong letter in a four-letter word may turn it into something else.
Fix: when you are unsure of a spelling, choose the version you would see in an English-language newspaper. In our practice game we accept one typo in answers of five or more letters and two in answers of nine or more.
3. Extra words and punctuation
Typing “I think it’s Ulaanbaatar” or “Mongolia – Ulaanbaatar” makes matching harder. Leading words like “the” and “a” are usually ignored, but full sentences aren’t.
Fix: type the answer and only the answer.
4. Local or alternative names
Many places, people and things have more than one name: Myanmar and Burma, Côte d’Ivoire and Ivory Coast, Calamansi and Calamondin. Good answer lists include common aliases, but not every spelling of every name.
Fix: use the most widely used English name. Save the local spelling for when you are sure it is the standard form.
5. Being too specific or too vague
“Name a cheese” accepts Gouda, but maybe not “aged smoked Gouda”, which is a style rather than a different cheese. On the other side, “Blue cheese” may be judged too generic when the prompt wants a named cheese.
Fix: aim for the level of the category: a named member of the group, not a description of one.
6. The answer isn’t on the list yet
No answer list is perfect, and very obscure correct answers are the most likely to be missing. That is the risk side of going deep, and why we recommend keeping a safe backup ready; see safe vs. rare answers.
A quick checklist before you hit enter
- Does it fit every word of the prompt?
- Is it the common English name?
- Is it just the answer, nothing else?
- Am I sure it is correct, or only hoping?