How to grade handwritten exams with AI

1. Start from your question paper

Upload the question paper and, if you have one, the answer key, as PDFs or typed files. With one click, GradeOptics outlines the questions with their points, draws a box around the space for each answer, and drafts a rubric for every question. Without a key, the AI writes the answers and marks them for you to check; a key gives marks closer to your own.

Every assignment is marked the same fair way: full marks for a correct answer in any words, partial credit for one that is partly right, and nothing for a wrong one.

2. Scan the whole stack at once

Scan every student's exam into one PDF with any scanner or copier. GradeOptics matches the pages to the printed paper, separates the students, and reads each name and ID from the cover page to match the roster. Pages it is unsure of wait for you. An exam can be any length, and a file uploaded twice is recognised and not read again.

3. Reading the handwriting

Each answer is read from its own box on the page. Mathematics is read as notation and shown typeset, and for an answer with a drawing the grader also sees the picture of the answer's box. What was read is shown beside the original scan, so you can always check it against the student's writing.

4. Suggested marks, not final ones

Every answer gets a suggested mark with the rubric items applied and a short reason. Three exams are graded first as a check; then every other student is graded at the same time, and the work carries on when you close the tab. An answer the AI cannot grade is marked for you to check by hand.

You approve by question across the class or by student, and nothing is final until you do.

5. Consistent across the class

• Grade one question for every student in a single list, so each answer is held to the same standard.
• See how the class answered: similar written answers are grouped and every multiple-choice option is counted.
• Change a rubric item and every answer it affects is graded again.
• Hide students' names while grading if your course grades anonymously.

Student work stays private

Student work and rosters are not used to train AI models, and the AI providers' commercial terms do not allow them to train on it. For US schools, GradeOptics acts as a school official under FERPA. The privacy policy has the details.