What it marks
Mark multiple choice tests without a bubble sheet
No OMR scanner, no pre-printed answer sheet, no 2B pencils, no transcribing a class set into a spreadsheet. Students circle a letter on the paper you printed, the pile goes through the staffroom copier, and AutoMark marks it — flagging what it can't verify. A multiple choice test marker for the paper you already print, with no answer sheet or bubble sheet grader in the loop.
No bubble sheet, just the test paper
An optical mark reader needs its own answer sheet and its own hardware, filled in the way the machine expects. AutoMark works the other way around: you print the test on plain A4 and students answer on the question itself — circle the letter, tick the box, underline the word. Nothing in the classroom changes.
It works because the printed paper and the answer key are two views of the same test: AutoMark laid out the page, so it knows where option C for question 7 sits. Hence the one rule — for a marking run, hand out the paper AutoMark printed.
The selection formats
- Multiple choice — one correct option out of as many as you write.
- True or false — the two-option case, quick to print and to mark.
- Checklist — tick every option that applies.
- Select from a passage — students underline or circle words inside a text you supply, not a list beneath it.
Questions can have parts, each with its own marks. The full list of formats is on the home page.
How a circled letter gets marked
Which option the student marked is read off the scan and marked against your key, then checked back against the ink it came from. The check passes or it doesn't — no rating to interpret. A reading that passes marks straight through; one that doesn't is flagged with the crop of the actual paper beside it, and you confirm with C or override with O.
The interesting case is the changed answer. A student circles B, thinks better of it, scribbles it out and circles D. AutoMark doesn't guess: a crossed-out choice next to a live one is exactly the shape that fails verification and comes to you. You see the crop, you decide, and the mark is yours.
Selection questions tend to produce clean runs, and the queue handles that: when several students picked the same flagged option their crops fold into one card and one decision, and a clean run gets a single bulk confirm. Then a digest of what's about to be written, and only then the commit. You confirm every mark before it's recorded — never a solely automated decision.
OMR sheet or ordinary paper
Optical mark reading is good at what it does. It just does one thing.
| OMR answer sheet | AutoMark on the printed paper | |
|---|---|---|
| What students fill in | A separate bubble sheet, to the machine's tolerance | The question paper itself — circle, tick, underline |
| Equipment | A reader, or a scanner with matching software | The staffroom copier, or a phone camera at a pinch |
| Speed and cost | Very fast, cheap per sheet once the hardware is paid for | A credit a page, class set uploaded as one PDF |
| What it can mark | Bubbles, and nothing else on the page | Selections plus written answers, tables, cloze, ordering, matching, diagrams |
| A changed answer | Read as whatever the marks look like | Flagged, with the crop beside it |
| Best suited to | Large, uniform, selection-only sittings | The mixed-format test one teacher sets for one class |
If your assessment really is a hall of students answering nothing but multiple choice, an OMR sheet is a fine tool. If it's the Year 8 test you wrote on Sunday night — twelve multiple choice, a few short answers, a table — it's one more thing to hand out and reconcile.
One paper, one scan, one run
That mixing is the real argument. A multiple choice section and a short-answer section aren't two jobs; they're one test, one paper, one scan, one run. Selections mark themselves, written answers are read the same way, and a long answer can be set aside for you to mark by hand.
The general case: marking handwritten tests. Where exact spelling is tested, spelling tests are read letter by letter.
What you get afterwards
Once a run is committed, the class view shows which questions the class lost marks on and who missed each — enough to know question 6 needs revisiting. Each student carries a record across every test they've sat, and any run exports to CSV. What you get is the question, the marks lost, and who lost them.
Limits worth knowing
- The paper has to come from AutoMark. One it didn't lay out won't line up with the key; edit the test later and print fresh papers.
- A faint or trimmed scan is still a faint scan. Full page, straight in the feeder, sharp and dark enough: scan quality drives what lands in your review queue.
- Ambiguity is handed back, not resolved. Two options circled, a tick between rows: flagged, and the decision is yours.
- It won't mark essays, and won't push results into an LMS — CSV export instead.
Scans, results and backups stay in Australia, and scan images purge automatically once past their retention window while marks are kept. Reading the paper involves an overseas processing step by our OCR provider. What is sent and why: the student data page and the privacy policy.
Questions teachers ask
Do students need a special pen or pencil?
No. Anything that reads clearly on the scan — pen beats faint pencil for that reason.
Is it a bubble sheet grading app?
No sheet, so no. Bubble sheet graders and OMR scanners need a pre-printed answer form and a filled-in bubble; AutoMark reads a circled, ticked or underlined letter on the question paper itself, and flags for review anything it can't verify. If you've been searching for a test grader or an exam marking app for multiple choice, this is the same job without the form.
Can I shuffle the questions so neighbours differ?
Alternate versions — the same questions in a different order — can be generated at print time, and each paper is marked against the version it was printed from. See Your first test.
How does the right student get the marks?
By the name written on the paper, matched against your roster. Anything unmatched is handed to you rather than guessed at, and matches stay changeable until you commit (Your first marking run).
What does a class set cost to mark?
A credit a page, checked against your balance before anything is read, so a run starts or says it can't. Numbers on the pricing page, the rest in the FAQ.
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