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Understanding Negative Marking and Answer Keys in Bulk Import Files
How positive and negative marks, and the correct-answer format, actually get represented in a bulk-import question bank file.
Marks aren't part of the question itself
A question's positive and negative marks come from the test's marking scheme, not the question content — the same question could legitimately carry +2/-0.5 in one test and +4/-1 in another. That's why most bulk-import formats treat marks as a setting applied across the whole export rather than something extracted from the source PDF, unless the source explicitly states per-question marks that need to be preserved exactly.
How the correct answer gets represented
Depending on the target platform, the correct answer shows up in a file as an explicit answer field (a letter or option number), or as a correct/incorrect flag set directly on each option row, with no separate answer field at all. Multi-correct questions — where more than one option is right — need a format that can represent that distinction; a template built only for single-correct answers will either reject a multi-correct question or silently keep only one of the correct options.
Setting it once, not per question
Since marks apply to the whole export rather than individual questions, it's a setting you make once before generating the file — positive marks, negative marks — rather than something to check question-by-question afterward. Getting this right before export means not having to regenerate the whole file just to fix a marking scheme that was set incorrectly the first time.