Penalties are a feature designed to prevent guessing on multiple choice and bi-modal skills.

On multiple-choice or bi-model questions, incorrect guesses will result in a penalty.

Penalties only incurred when the student has demonstrated initial mastery of the skill and begins to guess.

Incorrect answers in the first few attempts will not be counted as guesses as the student is still developing understanding. 

If a student has a penalty, to earn a point on that skill/problem type, the student will have to answer an additional problem correctly on their first try.

If they continue to guess, they may incur additional penalties. For each penalty, they will need to answer an additional problem correctly on their first try before they are able to earn a point.

We refer to earning additional penalties as "going into debt."

They can see how many penalties they have for the selected problem in the gray bar that appears above the current problem.

In the example below the student must answer an additional problem of that type, correctly on their first try before it will be eligible for a point. 

Penalties are reset at the end of each calendar day (11:59 pm). Unfixed errors remain until corrected.

Example:
On Wednesday, Student 1 earned two penalties on a skill. The square has a red outline, and the gray bar states the student has 2 penalties.
On Thursday, Student 1 logs into GMM. The square that previously had 2 penalties will only have a red outline (unfixed error) and the gray bar stating First Try Incorrect. The penalties will be reset to zero.

Student 1 will need to correct the unfixed error, but the student will not start the day with a penalty.