jQuery Form Validation before Ajax submit

You could use the submitHandler option. Basically put the $.ajax call inside this handler, i.e. invert it with the validation setup logic.

$('#form').validate({

    ... your validation rules come here,

    submitHandler: function(form) {
        $.ajax({
            url: form.action,
            type: form.method,
            data: $(form).serialize(),
            success: function(response) {
                $('#answers').html(response);
            }            
        });
    }
});

The jQuery.validate plugin will invoke the submit handler if the validation has passed.