off the mark vs on target

off the mark

prep
  • Making a start (generally in comparison to others). 

  • Inaccurate; not correct or appropriate. 

on target

prep
  • Towards the goal. 

  • With accuracy. 

  • Accurate, or accurately predicted. 

How often have the words off the mark and on target occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )