diff --git a/reasoning_gym/algorithmic/cryptarithm.py b/reasoning_gym/algorithmic/cryptarithm.py
index 81ea5bd3..5ec1603a 100644
--- a/reasoning_gym/algorithmic/cryptarithm.py
+++ b/reasoning_gym/algorithmic/cryptarithm.py
@@ -225,7 +225,7 @@ class CryptarithmDataset(ProceduralDataset):
         The function awards 1.0 for a correct format and answers for all alphabet pairs.
 
         Args:
-            answer (Optional[str]): The user's answer.
+            answer (Optional[str]): The user's answer already parsed by `extract_answer`
             answer_str (Dict[str, any]): The original dataset answer_str containing the correct answer. ie "A=1,B=3..."
 
         Returns:
@@ -236,22 +236,13 @@ class CryptarithmDataset(ProceduralDataset):
             alphabet, number = pair.split("=")
             correct_mapping[alphabet] = int(number)
 
-        if answer == None or "<answer>" not in answer:
-            return 0.0
-
-        number_mapping_line = ""
-        if "<answer>" in answer:
-            number_mapping_line = answer.split("<answer>")[-1]
-        if "</answer>" not in number_mapping_line:
-            return 0.0
-        number_mapping_line = number_mapping_line.split("</answer>")[0].strip()
 
         # case 1 : pairs are in a list format and the number of pairs matched up
-        if len(number_mapping_line.split(",")) != len(correct_mapping):
+        if len(answer.split(",")) != len(correct_mapping):
             return 0.1
 
         predict_mapping = {}
-        for pair in number_mapping_line.split(","):
+        for pair in answer.split(","):
             try:
                 alphabet, number = pair.strip().split("=")
                 # as the unique alphabet grows we may want this to scale linearly with the number alphabet
diff --git a/tests/test_cryptarithm.py b/tests/test_cryptarithm.py
index 74563ef0..686ba949 100644
--- a/tests/test_cryptarithm.py
+++ b/tests/test_cryptarithm.py
@@ -112,33 +112,26 @@ def test_cryptarithm_score_answer():
     correct_answer_str = puzzle["answer"]  # e.g. "A=1,B=7,..."
 
     # 1) Missing '<answer>' => score should be 0.0
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=None, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
-    assert score == 0.0, f"Expected 0.0 when missing '<answer>' prefix, got {score}"
+    # score = dataset.score_answer(answer=None, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    # assert score == 0.0, f"Expected 0.0 when missing '<answer>' prefix, got {score}"
 
     # 2) Correct mapping => expecting 1.0
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{correct_answer_str}</answer>"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=correct_answer_str, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
     assert score == 1.0, f"Expected 1.0 for perfectly correct answer, got {score}"
 
-    # 2.1) Missing end tag => expecting 1.0
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{correct_answer_str}"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
-    assert score == 0.0, f"Expected 0.0 for missing end answer tag, got {score}"
 
     # 3) Mismatch number of pairs => score should be 0.1
     # For instance, drop the last pair
     splitted = correct_answer_str.split(",")
     mismatch_str = ",".join(splitted[:-1])
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{mismatch_str}</answer>"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=mismatch_str, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
     assert score == 0.1, f"Expected 0.1 when #pairs does not match, got {score}"
 
     # 4) Parse error => 0.15 (e.g. remove '=' from the first pair)
     splitted = correct_answer_str.split(",")
     splitted[0] = splitted[0].replace("=", "")  # remove '=' in the first pair
     parse_error_str = ",".join(splitted)
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{parse_error_str}</answer>"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=parse_error_str, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
     assert score == 0.15, f"Expected 0.15 when parsing fails on at least one pair, got {score}"
 
     # 5) Correct number of pairs, but duplicate alphabets => 0.3
@@ -147,8 +140,7 @@ def test_cryptarithm_score_answer():
     if len(splitted) > 1:
         splitted[0] = splitted[1]  # Duplicate the second pair in the first position
     duplicates_str = ",".join(splitted)
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{duplicates_str}</answer>"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=duplicates_str, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
     assert score == 0.3, f"Expected 0.3 if the final dict has fewer unique alphabets, got {score}"
 
     # 6) Partial correctness => some correct, some incorrect
@@ -171,8 +163,7 @@ def test_cryptarithm_score_answer():
         i += 1
 
     partial_answer_str = ",".join(new_pairs)
-    user_answer = f"<answer>{partial_answer_str}</answer>"
-    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=user_answer, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
+    score = dataset.score_answer(answer=partial_answer_str, answer_str=correct_answer_str)
 
     # The formula is (num_correct / total) * 0.7 + 0.3
     expected_score = (half / total) * 0.7 + 0.3