Did this student write “sung” or “sang”?

I am going to be in the minority but if you analyze the handwriting you’ll realize it’s most likely a “u”. When this person writes “a”, it starts as a “u” then goes into a circle (which means the left side is doubled) and then finishes with a right hook. The student’s “u”, on the other hand, is pretty straightforward (no repeated lines) — and it’s believable they just accidentally connected the top parts of the sides. Look at “y” in the last sentence — same thing there — linked at the top.

It definitely looks like an a. But it’s shaped so much like the student's other u's, and the student's other a's are so rounded, that if the student says it’s a u I would believe them. Honestly, it could go either way.

Lots of people saying it's "a", but if you look at the other "a"s there, their vertical strokes all reach a little higher than the curved part. But the "u" in "computer" doesn't do that. I gotta go with a sloppy "u".

I mean, that is an "a". They may have meant it as a u, but its pretty clearly written as an a.

Eh, give ‘em the point and move on lol. Just make sure to let them know it’s important to have those letters be distinct in their handwriting.

If the writing isn't clear enough to tell, then it's a wrong answer.

If it's illegible, it's on them. I'd mark it wrong because there is ambiguity at all

I look at that and immediately identify it as an a. But then I look at the rest of this person’s handwriting. All their a’s close horizontally at the top, while their u’s all look quite similar to this, so this could well be a u that was written too tightly. I would’ve marked it the same way. And I might’ve been wrong. Oh well. One point on one test won’t make a big difference in the grand scheme of things.

At school I always remembered better if I lost points for being wrong. Triply so if the points were lost unjustly. I’d deduct the point, to help the student remember.

If I can't read it, it's wrong

He mightve been unsure about the answer so he purposefully made it unclear

Sang. If they say it isn't, tell them they need to be more careful next time.

it looks like “sung” to me. It matches the “u” in “computer” on the next line. Their other “a”s are very clear.

All the a's have noticeable loops. I think it's probably a u, but the best course is to just ask. Then they know to make it more distinct in the future.

Maybe it's both and they made it intentionally ambiguous to double their chances of being right! :3 ...not that I would know anything about that... That being said, it looks more lika an U than an A. Their A loops all the way around and connects at the bottom.

Looks like an "a" to me, but it could be argued either way. However, using the past tense when the past participle is required is a common error (and becoming ever more common, I'm sorry to say). The instructor may have been looking for that particular error, and it's easy to see what you're looking for.

Every teacher I ever had told me my handwriting was bad. One teacher, instead of just saying it was bad, also said specifically that she could not tell my lowercase a from lowercase u (when I got sloppy about closing them). She said she'd happily mark every word wrong on (Spanish) spelling even if it failed me if I didn't fix the letter a. So I changed how I wrote that one letter and she didn't mark me down for that issue. If it's a recurrent problem, take the opportunity to be specific. Telling a student their handwriting is bad isn't helpful or actionable. Saying "these two letters are too similar, change this one" is both.

Comparing it to their other U’s and A’s it looks a lot more like how they wrote their U’s than A’s so I’d give them the point but also tell them to work on distinction

If you compare the way they write u and a in other words, it's more likely u (shape + prominent "tail" of the a going up). On the other hand, it's not your job to analyze handwriting. It clearly looks like an a.

Bro hand write is same as mine

Looks like sang to me. Even when considering their handwriting - comparing it to the word beautiful in the same sentence, it looks a lot more like the a than the u.

Looks like an "a" compared to "u" in other words.

It's a U. It definitely looks like an A, but if you study the student's handwriting you can see that every a they write begins at the top right, circles around to the same point, then goes down to form the back. Whereas every u they write begins at the top left, goes down around and back up, then onwards. You can see in the letter in question, though their points meet or nearly do, they started on the left, went down around and back up, and then continued, like every other U they wrote.

It looks like “sang” to me, but handwritten “a” and “u” are often ambiguous, and it is a bit different from their other examples of “a.” 🤷🏻‍♂️

It looks like they wrote "sang" and the teacher corrected it by writing a giant 'U' in red pen over it. "I sang a beautiful song yesterday." "Yesterday, a beautiful song was sung" I don't remember the names of these different conjugations, but when you pair the past tense with a version of "to be", you use "sung." When it's just the normal past tense, you use "sang."

Student 100% wrote "sang"

it's definitely "a".

I originally thought it was an a, but I realized that the other a's have more of a pronounced stem/tail.