Omissions occur when the rater skips or does not provide a response to an item¹. In paper-and-pencil administrations, there may be unclear responses provided by the rater. Some examples include when the rater intentionally or accidentally marked more than one response, the rater did not choose a numeric response but wrote a text explanation, or the rater marked an “in-between” response (e.g., wrote in “2.5”). In such instances, it is best to treat questionable responses as omitted.

There is a maximum number of items that can be omitted for each of the Conners 4 scales. If the maximum number of allowable omissions has not been exceeded, scores are prorated. Online scoring prorates scores automatically, and prorated scores are noted in the reports. If the maximum allowable number of omitted responses has been exceeded for a given scale, the scale cannot be scored, and the scale scores are marked as “?” to indicate that they cannot be scored due to too many omitted items. Appendix A provides further information about omitted responses, including the maximum number of allowable omissions per scale. For information on how to handle omitted responses in the interpretation of results, see Step 1: Examine the Response Style section in chapter 4, Interpretation.