It's actually culture-specific; some cultures have it as bad, some have it as good. In any case, it's a bad choice. From [1]:

> Symbolism can be culture-specific. The check mark means correct or OK in many countries. In some countries, however, such as Japan, it can be used to mean that something is incorrect. Japanese localizers may need to convert check marks to circles (their symbol for 'correct') as part of the localization process.

[1] http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/i18n.html

Yea, when I taught English in Japan I had a distraught parent come to me because she thought her child had got almost every question wrong because I used a tick (Checkmark)

Although to be fair, the tick (checkmark) that westerners use is not really the same as what Japanese to use to mark things as incorrect since they more closely resemble V than a tick.

Oh, that meant "failed"? That explains why my extended wait on the page was unfruitful.