Why an answer is flagged for review
When you open a marked submission, most answers just show their mark. A few carry a small amber Review flag — Marking.ai’s way of saying “take a second look at this one before you trust the mark.” This article explains what that flag means, the reasons behind it, and — just as important — why a blank answer never gets one.
Where you see it
The flag shows up in two places, and they mean the same thing:
- On the submission review page, an answer that needs a second look carries an amber Review chip next to its question number. Hover, tap, or focus the chip and a tooltip tells you why it’s flagged.
- In the left question rail, the same answers carry a small amber dot beside the mark. It’s the same signal in a tighter space — the full wording lives on the chip when you open the question.
What the reasons mean
The tooltip names one of a small number of reasons. The two you’ll see are:
- Couldn’t mark this — the marker didn’t return a result for the question. The mark defaults to 0 and it’s flagged so you can check the answer yourself rather than trust a zero the AI didn’t really assess.
- Mark was out of range — the mark came back outside what the question allows (for example, above its maximum) and was clamped to the nearest valid value. The flag tells you the original number needed correcting, so you can confirm the clamped mark is fair.
In every case the flag is a prompt to look, not an error you have to clear — review the answer, edit the mark or feedback if you disagree, and move on.
An amber flag is not a spinner
If a question in the rail shows a spinner instead of an amber dot — with a matching grey Re-marking chip on the answer — that means the question is being re-marked right now. That’s a wait, not a look: the mark will update on its own when it finishes. Amber = look now; spinner = wait.
Why a blank answer isn’t flagged
This is the big change, and it’s deliberate. A genuinely blank answer is not flagged for review. It scores 0, shows No answer recorded, and carries no chip.
Students leave questions blank all the time, so flagging every blank would put an amber warning on roughly one answer in ten and bury the flags that actually matter. A blank isn’t something the marker got uncertain about — it’s just an unanswered question — so it’s scored plainly and left unflagged. If you’re wondering why a blank answer has no Review chip, that’s the reason, not a bug.
We also changed the feedback on empty answers: Marking.ai no longer tells a student “you left this blank.” It can’t always tell a blank page apart from one it simply couldn’t read, and that sentence is read by the child — so the feedback now sticks to what would actually help them answer the question next time.
What Marking.ai does not flag (yet)
It’s worth being clear about the limits, so you know when to trust the absence of a flag:
- Unreadable handwriting and work a student wrote under a different question are not surfaced with a chip or a dot today. An answer we couldn’t read looks exactly like a blank one on the review screen.
- So if a mark looks wrong on an answer with no chip — especially a 0 on a question you’re sure the student attempted — the thing to do is open the original PDF and check the page yourself. The absence of a flag doesn’t guarantee the page was empty.
Who can see the Review flag
The Review chip and dot are teacher-only. They never appear on a shared results link or a student-facing view — “we couldn’t mark this” describes our processing, not the child’s work, and isn’t something a student should see.
Need help?
Open the Account menu and choose Chat to a human, ask Marko, or email connect@marking.ai.
FAQs
Why does a blank answer have no Review chip?
Because blanks are normal and expected — a student simply didn’t answer. Flagging every blank would drown the flags that matter, so a blank scores 0, shows No answer recorded, and is left unflagged.
An answer looks unmarked but has no flag — what should I check?
Open the original submission PDF for that question. Marking.ai doesn’t yet flag handwriting it couldn’t read, so an unreadable answer can look the same as a blank one. Seeing the page is the reliable way to tell.
Do students see these flags?
No. The Review chip and dot are only ever visible to you, never on shared results or student views.
How do I make a flag go away?
There’s nothing you have to “clear.” The flag is there to draw your eye — once you’ve checked the answer and edited the mark or feedback if needed, you can leave it. It’s a prompt, not a task blocking your marking.