You’re sitting there with your morning coffee, staring at the grid, and you hit a wall. It happens to the best of us. You see the clue: undesirable marks in high school nyt. Your brain immediately goes to acne. Or maybe those awkward permanent record notations your guidance counselor threatened you with back in 1998. But in the world of the New York Times crossword, the answer is usually much simpler, yet somehow more frustrating when you can't pull it from the depths of your gray matter.
We're talking about FES. Or maybe DEES.
It’s funny how the NYT puzzle creators—folks like Will Shortz or Sam Ezersky—love to play with the literal and the meta. When you see "undesirable marks in high school," you aren't looking for social stigmas. You're looking for the alphabet. Specifically, the tail end of the grading scale.
Decoding the Undesirable Marks in High School NYT Style
The New York Times crossword is a beast of habit. If you play long enough, you start to realize that "undesirable marks" almost always refers to grades. Specifically, pluralized letters. It's a classic "crosswordese" trope. You've got your EES, your DEES, and the dreaded FES.
Why does this matter? Because the NYT Crossword isn't just a game; it's a cultural touchstone that has evolved significantly since it debuted in 1942. Back then, clues were more straightforward. Today? They’re devious. They want you to think about ink stains or reputation, but they’re really just looking for a three or four-letter filler that helps connect a difficult "down" clue.
Honestly, the "marks" clue is a bit of a relic. It relies on the assumption that everyone's high school experience was defined by the A-F grading system. In a world where some schools have moved to "Pass/No Credit" or narrative evaluations, these clues feel a bit like a time capsule. Yet, they persist. They persist because they are incredibly useful for constructors. Try fitting "Incomplete" into a four-letter space. You can't. But DEES? That fits like a glove.
The Anatomy of a Crossword Clue
Think about how these clues are built. A constructor is looking at a grid. They have a section where they need to bridge two long themed answers. They have a 'D,' an 'E,' and another 'E.' What do they do? They reach for the old reliable.
🔗 Read more: Marie Kondo The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: What Most People Get Wrong
- "Low marks"
- "Poor grades"
- "High school blemish"
- "Report card woes"
It’s all the same thing. It’s a linguistic trick. By using the word "marks," the creator avoids using the word "grades," which would make it too easy. They want you to pause. They want that split second of "Is it 'scars'?" before the "Aha!" moment hits. That "Aha!" is the dopamine hit that keeps the NYT Games app subscription numbers so high.
Why We Struggle With Simple Clues
There is a psychological phenomenon at play here. When we see the words "high school," our brains tend to go toward narrative memories. We think about the prom, or that one chemistry teacher who smelled like sulfur, or the "undesirable marks" left by a locker door. We don't immediately think of the plural of the fourth letter of the alphabet.
This is why seasoned solvers often beat newcomers. It isn't that they're smarter; it's that they've been conditioned. They see "marks" and their brain automatically toggles to "letters of the alphabet." They’ve been burned by EFFS too many times to fall for the literal interpretation again.
Actually, the NYT crossword has a whole vocabulary of these. "Oboe players," "Emu kin," "Altar vow." Once you learn the dialect, the puzzle changes from a test of knowledge to a test of pattern recognition.
The Evolution of the NYT Crossword Voice
Under the editorship of Will Shortz, the puzzle became more "pop-culture" heavy and conversational. It moved away from the dry, dictionary-style clues of the Margaret Farrar era. This is where the cleverness of undesirable marks in high school nyt clues really started to shine.
The goal became to misdirect.
💡 You might also like: Why Transparent Plus Size Models Are Changing How We Actually Shop
If you look at the data from sites like XWord Info, which tracks every single clue and answer in the NYT history, you see the frequency of these letter-based answers. They are the scaffolding of the crossword world. Without them, the ambitious, wide-open grids that solvers love wouldn't be possible. You need those short, vowel-heavy "marks" to make the long, sparkly "themed" answers work.
Breaking Down the Variations
Let's get specific. If you’re stuck right now, look at the letter count.
If it’s three letters, you’re likely looking at DES (though rare) or FES (also rare, usually spelled out).
If it’s four letters, DEES or EFFS are your primary suspects.
If it’s five? Maybe LOW DS.
But wait. Sometimes "marks" refers to something else entirely in the NYT universe.
Sometimes it's TYPOS.
Sometimes it's ERASURES.
However, if the clue specifically mentions "high school" or "report cards," 99% of the time, it's about grades. It's a trope that has survived decades of educational reform. Even as the SATs lose their grip on the college admissions process, the "D" remains the universal symbol of "could do better."
📖 Related: Weather Forecast Calumet MI: What Most People Get Wrong About Keweenaw Winters
The Rise of the "Mini" and New Solver Habits
The NYT Mini Crossword, edited by Joel Fagliano, has changed the game even further. In the Mini, you don't have space for complex misdirection. The clues have to be punchy. "Undesirable marks" in a 5x5 grid is almost certainly going to be something like D'S.
What’s interesting is how this affects our "discoverability" on Google. People aren't just searching for the answer; they're searching for the why. They feel like they're missing an inside joke. And they kind of are. The NYT crossword is a secret language, and "undesirable marks" is one of its most common idioms.
Expert Tips for Mastering the Grid
If you want to stop getting tripped up by these types of clues, you need to change your approach to the Friday and Saturday puzzles. Those are the days when the clues are the most "vague."
- Check the Pluralization: If the clue is "undesirable marks" (plural), the answer must end in an 'S' or be a plural noun. If it’s "undesirable mark," think DEE or EFF.
- Look for "Crosswordese" Indicators: Words like "perhaps," "for one," or "maybe" usually mean the clue is a specific example of a broader category. "D, for one" = GRADE.
- Vibe Check the Day: Monday puzzles are literal. Saturday puzzles are mean. If it's a Saturday and you see "undesirable marks," it might not even be about grades. It could be SCABS. Or SMEARS. But on a Tuesday? It's DEES.
- Fill the Crosses: Never obsess over one clue. If "undesirable marks" is 42-Across, go work on the "Downs" that intersect it. Usually, one or two confirmed letters will reveal the grade-based nature of the answer.
The Cultural Weight of the "Mark"
There is a certain irony in the fact that we spend our adulthoods solving puzzles to relax, only to be confronted with the terminology of our teenage anxieties. The "undesirable mark" is a ghost of our past. In the context of the NYT, it's a harmless bit of wordplay. In the context of a 17-year-old's life, it's a crisis.
This juxtaposition is part of why the NYT crossword remains the gold standard. It taps into shared experiences. We all know what it's like to look at a report card and wish a letter was a different shape. The puzzle just turns that collective trauma into a game.
Honestly, the next time you see this clue, don't overthink it. Don't go searching for "inkblots" or "tattoos" (though "tattoos" has been used for "permanent marks" before). Just think about that one semester where you checked out of Algebra II. The answer is right there, staring you in the face, hidden in the alphabet.
Actionable Steps for Crossword Success
- Study the "Letter" Answers: Spend five minutes on a database like Wordplay (the NYT's own crossword column) and search for how they clue letters. You'll see patterns emerge for AHS, EES, and OOS.
- Practice with the "Mini": If the full puzzle is too daunting, the Mini is a great way to learn the specific "shorthand" the NYT editors prefer.
- Ignore the Literal: When you see a clue that seems to have a very obvious, narrative answer, pause. Ask yourself: "Could this just be a description of a letter or a common plural?"
- Use the "Check" Feature Sparingly: If you're using the app, use the "Check Square" tool to see if that 'D' you placed is correct. It's a better learning tool than "Reveal," which just gives you the answer without the mental work.
- Track Your Puzzles: Notice which days you struggle with. If you're failing on Thursdays, it's likely the "gimmick" or "rebus" puzzles that are getting you, not the vocabulary. If you're failing on Tuesdays, it's the "crosswordese" like DEES that you need to brush up on.
The NYT crossword is a conversation between the constructor and the solver. The "undesirable marks" clue is just one of the ways they say, "Hey, remember high school?" Now you're in on the joke.
By recognizing these patterns, you’ll move from a casual solver to someone who can breeze through the early-week grids. You'll start to see the grid not as a series of questions, but as a structure built on specific, repeatable blocks of language. That’s the real secret to mastering the NYT Crossword. It’s not about knowing everything; it’s about knowing how the editors think.