jQuery sum of input values in sections

You are doing "1"+"1" and expect it to be 2 ( int)

it is not.

a very quick (and not fully correct) solution is :

$('.section').each(function(){
  var totalPoints = 0;
  $(this).find('input').each(function(){
    totalPoints += parseInt($(this).val()); //<==== a catch  in here !! read below
  });
  alert(totalPoints);
});

catch ? why ?

answer: You should always use radix cause if you dont , a leading zero is octal !

 parseInt("010") //8 ( ff)
 parseInt("010") //10 ( chrome)


 parseInt("010",10) //10 ( ff)
 parseInt("010",10) //10 ( chrome)

well.... you get the idea. supply radix !

edit

final solution (using .each( function(index, Element) ))

$('.section').each(function(){
      var totalPoints = 0;
      $(this).find('input').each(function(i,n){
        totalPoints += parseInt($(n).val(),10); 
      });
      alert(totalPoints);
    });

Use parseFloat() or parseInt()

var totalPoints = 0;
$('.section input').each(function(){
        totalPoints = parseFloat($(this).val()) + totalPoints;
});
alert(totalPoints);

The value is stored as a string, so calling += is doing string concatenation. You want/need to treat it as a number, so it does addition. Use the parseInt() function to convert it to a number:

totalPoints += parseInt($(this).val(), 10);