You grade a paper test in Examplary the same way as a digital one. Scan the answer sheets with your phone or upload a PDF, and Examplary turns the handwritten answers into text and matches each one to its question. Closed questions are then graded, and for open questions the AI suggests a grade for you to review.
Not every test happens on a screen, and this way you can use AI grading for paper tests too.
Scanning is available on the Teacher and Organization plans.
The app labels scanning Experimental. Students' handwriting isn't always read correctly, so check the converted answers before you publish results.
Before you start
- The test has to be in Examplary, with the same questions as on paper. Examplary recognizes answers by their question number, title or content.
- Print the test from Examplary, with answer boxes and the Your name field. See Printing a test in Examplary.
- Ask students to write their name clearly on the first page. There are no QR codes on the sheets: Examplary reads the name.
Scanning a paper test with your phone
This works best if you scan one student at a time, for example right after they hand in.
- Open the test, go to Grade test and click Upload results... (or Upload if there are results already). Choose Scan or import.
- On the Scan with phone tab, scan the QR code with your phone's camera.
- On your phone, take a photo of each page of one student's test with the big round button. Or pick photos with the photo icon next to it.
- Check the name at the top. Examplary reads it from the first page; tap the pencil to type it yourself.
- Tap Submit. Your phone is ready for the next student.
On your computer, each student appears under Submitted scans, going from Waiting to start… to something like Imported 4 answers. The order of the pages doesn't matter, and you can scan up to 50 pages per student.
Don't share the QR code, and only scan it with your own phone.
Uploading a PDF
If you've scanned the whole stack on the school copier, upload the PDF.
- Choose Scan or import and go to the Upload PDF tab.
- Click Select files and choose one or more PDFs. Photos (PNG or JPG) work too, up to 50 MB per file.
- Examplary looks for students in each file, by the names on the sheets, and creates a result for each one.
Keep all of a student's pages in the same file. If a student is split across two files, you'll get two results.
Checking the scanned answers
Examplary turns the handwritten answers into text and puts each one with the right question. Closed questions are graded right away, and for open questions the AI suggests a grade. You'll recognize scanned students by Uploaded scan.
Every answer has an Answer tab (the converted text) and a Scan tab (the photo). Compare the two when something looks off:
- If the text was copied wrong, use Edit answer. The original answer is kept.
- If Examplary read the wrong part of the page, click Crop scan. Draw a box around the right answer, turn on Auto-grade again and click Crop.
After that, you grade as usual. See Reviewing answers and publishing results.
Names and student accounts
- Wrong or missing name. If Examplary couldn't read the name, the student is called Unknown student. Choose Rename student in the menu next to the student.
- Viewing results online. A scanned result isn't tied to any account yet. For the student to see it online, choose Link to student account, find the student and click Link student. You can't change this afterwards.
- Scanned twice. Examplary doesn't merge anything. Delete the extra result with Remove student.
What happens to the data
Examplary is built on privacy by design. Personal data doesn't go to AI models, with one exception: when scanning, the model reads the name on the answer sheet so each answer ends up with the right student. That copy is deleted afterwards too. The name isn't sent along when answers are graded, and no model is trained on any data.
Troubleshooting
I see a blurred QR code and a View plans button. Scanning isn't included in your plan.
My phone says 'Camera permission denied'. Give your browser access to the camera in your phone's settings, or pick photos with the photo icon.
It says 'Document scanning failed'. Try again with sharper photos, or upload a smaller file.
It says 'No answers found in the scanned pages.' Examplary found no answers that match the test. Check that you're in the right test and that the pages are easy to read.