Buyer's guide
How to choose AI answer sheet checking software
Short answer: choose the tool that marks your papers closest to your teachers. Shortlist the ones that read ordinary handwritten answer sheets, mark against your own scheme with step marks, handle your students' languages, flag illegible answers instead of guessing, and need a teacher to approve every mark. Then run a blind pilot on papers you've already marked.
The checklist
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Does it read your answer sheets as they are?
Some tools need OMR sheets, printed templates or typed answers. Ask whether it accepts ordinary answer booklets as PDF scans or phone photos, including answers continued on extra sheets.
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Does it mark against your marking scheme?
A tool that marks against its own idea of the right answer will disagree with your teachers. Ask whether you can upload your scheme (value points, mark schemes, markbands) and whether it can draft one when a class test has none.
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Does it give step marks and partial credit?
Board marking rewards method. Ask for a sample where the method is right and the final answer wrong, and check whether it gives half marks only where your scheme allows them.
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Does it handle internal choice and optional questions?
"Attempt any four" and OR questions trip up simple tools. Check that students are marked only on the questions they chose.
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Does it grade diagrams, graphs and working?
Science, maths and geography answers are partly visual. Ask whether diagrams are marked or skipped, and whether crossed-out work is ignored.
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Does a teacher approve every mark?
Marks should be proposals until a teacher releases them, with the original handwriting shown beside each mark. Ask what happens with an illegible answer: it should be flagged, not guessed.
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Does it work in your students' languages?
Many tools are strongest in English. If your students write in Hindi or a regional language, test those papers specifically, and check which language the feedback comes back in.
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Is the feedback useful to a student?
A mark alone doesn't teach. Read the feedback on five papers and ask whether a student would know what to do differently.
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What does it tell you about the class?
Per-question and per-topic results are often worth more than the time saved. Ask to see a class report.
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What happens to student data?
Ask whether student work is used to train AI models, which AI providers process it, and whether your school's data is kept separate from other schools'.
How to run a fair pilot
- Choose 20–50 answer sheets that two experienced teachers have marked and agreed on. Include the worst handwriting you have.
- Give the software the same question paper and marking scheme.
- Compare marks question by question, not by total. Totals can hide errors that cancel out.
- Note every answer where the tool and the teachers differ by more than a mark, and look at why.
- Read the feedback each student would receive.
- Time the teacher's review. That's the real time cost, not the AI's processing time.
Never choose on advertised accuracy alone. Any vendor can quote a figure; only your own papers tell you how it will mark your students.
How Classi answers the checklist
| Answer sheets | Ordinary booklets as PDF scans or phone photos; no OMR or templates |
|---|---|
| Marking scheme | Your own: marking points, value points or markbands. Can draft one for a test that has none |
| Step marks | Point-by-point positive marking; half marks only where the scheme allows |
| Optional questions | Internal choice and "attempt any" sections recognised from the question paper |
| Diagrams and working | Marked as part of the answer; crossed-out work ignored |
| Teacher control | Every mark reviewed before release; illegible answers flagged for the teacher |
| Languages | English, Hindi and other languages; feedback in the language of the question |
| Boards | CBSE, ICSE, state boards, IB, Cambridge IGCSE, AS and A Level |
| Student data | Not used to train AI models; each school in its own separate database |
| Pricing | On request, with a free trial on your own papers |
Full details on the Classi at a glance page, and how the grading works in AI grading for schools.
Run the pilot with Classi
Bring a marked set of answer sheets. We'll run them through Classi on a free trial so you can compare mark by mark.