How to grade a multiple-choice test with your phone, step by step

In short: Make the test in Grade AI, print one sheet per student, let the students fill in one circle per question with a pen, then scan the sheets with the Grade AI phone app. Each grade is saved the moment its sheet is scanned.

What you need

• The Grade AI app on an iPhone or an Android phone. Making and printing tests also works in a web browser, but scanning needs the phone.
• A printer that prints black and white. No special paper.
• A class in the app. You get a class code when you create it, and your students join with that code.

Step by step

1. Create a class. Give it a name and, if you like, subjects. Send the class code to your students; each of them joins once, and from then on their name is on the class list.
2. Create the test. Choose the paper format first, because it decides how many questions fit: A4 up to 20, A5 up to 12, half of an A4 page up to 10. Then write the questions and four answers A to D for each, and mark the right one. If you prefer, let AI draft the questions from a topic or from your notes, and edit them.
3. Decide on versions. For one version, everyone gets the same sheet. For two, choose who writes A and who writes B, so neighbours have different sheets.
4. Print the sheets. The app makes one sheet per student with their name already printed. Print from a computer or from the phone, whichever your printer talks to.
5. Let the class write. Each student fills in one whole circle per question with a black or dark blue pen. The same instruction is printed at the top of every sheet.
6. Scan the sheets. Open the test in the phone app and hold the phone above a sheet lying on a table. Line the four corners on the screen up with the four black squares on the sheet; when they turn green, the app reads the circles and the QR code and saves the grade to that student. Then the next sheet.
7. Look at the results. Grades, the class average, and a breakdown of every question show up as soon as the sheets are scanned.

What students should do (and not do)

The scan only works as well as the marks on the sheet. Tell the class three things before they start:

• Fill in the whole circle. Not a cross, not a tick, not a dot.
• Use a pen, black or dark blue. No pencil. The sheet says so in print, and that a filled circle cannot be changed.
• One circle per question.

It also helps to keep the sheets flat and clean: no folding through the corner squares, and no doodles on the QR code.

Tips for fast scanning

These are the same tips the app shows before the first scan:

• Put the sheet on a flat table. A curved page held in your hand will not read.
• Keep only one sheet in view. Move the others aside, or the scanner mixes them up.
• Hold the phone straight above the middle of the sheet, parallel to it. At an angle the scan drags on or fails.
• Use even light. A heavy shadow across the paper makes the circles hard to read.
• Scan in any order. The QR code tells the app whose sheet it is and which version. A sheet from a different test is recognised and not saved.

On older phones reading takes a little longer. That is normal.

What you see after the scan

• Each student's grade, on the grading scale you chose. There are presets for ten countries (for example 1 to 5, 1 to 6, A to F, 0 to 20, 1 to 10), or you set your own thresholds.
• The class view: average, progress over time, the best and the weakest results.
• The question view: for every question, how many students picked A, B, C and D. A wrong answer chosen by half of the class usually points to a misunderstanding worth explaining again.
• Reteach tomorrow: a card with the question the class found hardest, plus the next hardest ones.
• Who has not written yet: students who were absent, per test and per student.

How long does it take?

The app counts 3 minutes per sheet as the time saved: checking answers, adding up points and writing down the grade by hand. That is an estimate, not a measurement, and the number under it in the app says exactly that. For a class of 30, that is about an hour and a half per test that you do not spend with a red pen.

Frequently asked questions

Can I scan in the browser?

No. Scanning needs a steady camera preview, which browsers do not give reliably. Use the phone app. The account is the same.

Do I need to scan the sheets in a particular order?

No. Every sheet carries a QR code with the student and the version, so the order does not matter.

What if a student was absent?

The test shows who has not written it yet. When the student writes it later, you scan their sheet the same way.

Can I use my own answer sheets?

No. The app reads only the sheets it prints, because it needs the corner squares and the QR code to place and identify each sheet.