Adding a marking guide
Your marking guide is the most important thing you give Marking.ai. It’s what every student’s work gets marked against — so the clearer it is, the better your marks will be.
This article covers what a marking guide is, where to upload one, and what makes a good guide.
What is a marking guide?
A marking guide is the document you’d use to mark a piece of work by hand. It might be called:
- A mark scheme
- An answer key
- A rubric
- Marking criteria
- A solutions document
Any of these work. The format doesn’t matter as much as the content — Marking.ai can read teacher-written guides, exam-board mark schemes, model answers, and rubric tables.
Where you upload your marking guide
You upload your marking guide when you create an assessment — it’s the second file you add on the Assessment step of the Start marking window.
If you’ve already created your assessment and need to add a guide later (or swap one out), see Replacing your marking guide.
Supported formats
Marking.ai accepts marking guides as:
- PDFs (most reliable — use these when you can)
- Common image formats like JPG and PNG
Word documents and other formats aren’t currently supported — if your guide is in Word, export it as a PDF first.
What makes a good marking guide
A few things really move the needle on mark quality:
- Be specific. A guide that says “Award marks for naming the three reactants” is far better than “Award up to 3 marks.”
- Cover all the marks. For each mark available, say what a student needs to do to earn it. If you’d accept multiple correct answers, list them.
- Show your structure. If your guide uses tables, bullet points, or numbered marking points, those help Marking.ai mark consistently. Keep the structure clear.
- Include common errors or partial credit rules if you have them — “award 1 mark if they identified the right reactant but missed the reaction type.”
- Use the same question numbering as your assessment paper. If question 4 is split into 4a, 4b, and 4c, your guide should match.
What if my guide isn’t perfect?
That’s fine. Most marking guides aren’t perfect — they’re working documents written for human markers who fill in the gaps. Marking.ai works with what you have. If you spot something off after marking starts, you can edit individual questions without re-uploading the whole guide.
What if I don’t have a marking guide at all?
You can still create an assessment without one, but the marks Marking.ai produces won’t be as accurate. We strongly recommend providing at least a rough rubric — even a few sentences per question — to anchor the marking.
Need help?
Not sure if your guide is ready to upload? Send us a sample at connect@marking.ai and we’ll take a look.
FAQs
Does it matter if my guide is from an exam board or written by me?
Not really. Marking.ai can work with either. Exam-board mark schemes are usually well-structured; teacher-written guides are often more specific to the class — both are useful.
Can I use the same guide across multiple assessments?
Yes, but you’d need to upload it again for each assessment. Each assessment has its own marking guide attached.
What if my marking guide has handwriting?
Marking.ai can read most handwritten guides, but typed guides give the best results. If you’ve got time, transcribing a handwritten guide is usually worth it.
Can I download the guide after I’ve uploaded it?
Yes. Open the assessment and use the ⋯ More actions menu — if a guide PDF is attached, you’ll see a Download PDF option.