What Do Early Answers Reveal? Readout Protocols and Post-Answer Revision

Does a correct continuation from an early reasoning prefix mean the model was ready to stop? We compare free continuation (no extra request) with continuation prompted to give a final answer, scoring both first and last answers. Across Qwen3 and GPT-OSS on MATH-500 and GPQA-Diamond, recovery depends on the request and which answer is scored. On 100 MATH problems, Qwen3-8B with thinking enabled at a 10% prefix achieves 69.3% free last-answer accuracy; requested outputs rise from 31.8% at the first answer to 73.8% at the last. Among improvements, the median delay from the first answer to the first later correct box is 1,258 tokens. Allowing 16,384 reference tokens on 50 reused questions preserves a 52-point first-to-last gain, but no clear last-answer advantage for either procedure. Closing the reasoning channel reduces later gains in several settings, but not clearly for Qwen at 50%. At 50%, equal continuation budgets retain a Qwen prefix benefit with thinking, but not a clear benefit without it. An online case study saves tokens in the main generation while increasing time and total generation. Recovery, prefix benefit, and stopping efficiency therefore require separate evidence: score first and last answers, compare question-only recovery, and count the full cost before interpreting recovery as readiness to stop.