It's one of the most common questions teachers ask about exit tickets: do they go in the gradebook?
Short answer: grade for completion, not correctness. Here's why, and how to do it fast.
Why grading for correctness backfires
An exit ticket exists to tell you the truth about what students understood. If a wrong answer costs points, students will:
copy from a neighbor,
write vague answers that can't be wrong, or
skip the question they're unsure about.
Every one of those hides the exact information you were trying to collect.
Why not grading at all also backfires
If exit tickets never count, some students stop taking them seriously. A blank slip or "idk" tells you nothing.
The middle path: completion credit
Full credit for a genuine attempt, right or wrong.
No credit for blank or off-topic.
Record it once a week, not daily. A weekly participation score covers it.
Students learn that honest effort counts and honest mistakes are safe. That's when exit tickets start giving you real information.
The five-minute sort
After class, don't mark each slip. Sort them into three piles:
Got it
Almost
Not yet
That's the only "grading" that matters. Tomorrow, fix the most common "almost" mistake in the first two minutes, and pull the "not yet" students into a small group.
More detail: Should You Grade Exit Tickets? and What to Do With Exit Ticket Answers the Next Day.
For more on formative assessment that doesn't bury you in grading, see the free Formative Assessment Strategies PDF on Elevate the Norm.