Question-by-question analysis
The Questions tab shows how your class did on each individual question, side by side. It’s where you spot the questions that worked, the ones that didn’t, and the ones that surprised you.
Getting there
Open an assessment and click the Questions tab. Unlike the Overview and Misconceptions tabs, the Questions tab appears as soon as questions are extracted — before you’ve marked anything.
- Before marking — you see a simple preview: each question number and the marks available, so you can sanity-check what’s about to be marked. Questions flagged as low-confidence during extraction are marked “Low confidence — review”.
- After marking — the preview becomes the full analytics table below.
The analytics are part of assessment insights, available on any active plan or free trial. On a top-up-only balance they’re locked — see What’s included on your plan.
The columns
Once you’ve marked submissions, each row is one question, with:
- Question — the question number
- Avg mark — the average mark awarded, out of the marks available
- Avg % — that average as a percentage
- Pass rate — the share of responses that passed on this question (uses your assessment pass threshold)
- Full marks — how many responses scored full marks, out of the number of responses
- Differentiation — a 0–1 index of how well the question separates higher- and lower-scoring students. Roughly: 0.3 or above is good, 0.15–0.3 is acceptable, below 0.15 is poor (the question may be too easy, too hard, or ambiguous). Hover the help icon in the app for the same guidance.
- Responses — how many students answered
Sorting
Click a column header to sort. Every column is sortable except Differentiation — so you can rank by average mark, average %, pass rate, full marks, question number, or response count. Useful when you want to spend time on the lowest-scoring questions first.
The rows themselves aren’t clickable — this is an at-a-glance comparison view. To dig into what students actually got wrong, use the Misconceptions tab or open individual submissions.
Using the tab
A few patterns to look for:
- High average % across the board — maybe useful as warm-ups, but consider raising the challenge.
- Low average % across the board — the question may need re-teaching, or the mark scheme may be unforgiving. Worth reviewing.
- Low differentiation — the question isn’t separating stronger and weaker students; it may be too easy, too hard, or unclear.
- Low pass rate on a specific question — a targeted re-teach candidate.
Cross-referencing
For the why behind a tough question — what specifically students got wrong — jump to the Misconceptions report.
Need help?
Open the Account menu and choose Chat to a human, ask Marko, or email connect@marking.ai.
FAQs
What’s the difference between “differentiation” and “difficulty”?
Difficulty is really just the average mark or percentage — how hard the question was. Differentiation is different: it measures whether the question separated stronger and weaker students. A question everyone gets 3/5 on is low-differentiation even if it’s middling difficulty.
Can I use this to improve questions before next term?
Yes — it’s one of the best things to do with this tab. Spotting which questions worked and which didn’t makes the next paper better.
Why is the Questions tab showing before I’ve marked anything?
That’s expected. Before marking it shows a preview (question numbers and marks available) so you can check the extraction; the analytics fill in once you’ve marked submissions.