What Auto-Marking Can (and Can't) Do for You
An auto graded quiz can wipe out a whole evening of marking — but only if you point it at the right kind of question. Auto-marking in ClassKite is brilliant at objective work and deliberately quiet about open writing. This is the honest scope: what it handles the instant a student submits, what it leaves to you, and how to design your checks so the machine does the boring part and you keep the judgement.
What auto-marking can do
Objective question types mark themselves the moment a student submits, against the answer key you set when you create or review the question. There's no pile to carry home and every student sees instant per-question results. It comfortably covers:
- Multiple choice and true/false.
- Fill-in-the-blank — both word answers and number answers, with numeric responses checked for you.
- Matching and jumbled-sentence questions.
- Maths written in LaTeX, so symbols and equations display properly.
- More objective formats besides — anything with a definite correct answer you can set in advance.
Because the marking is instant, the same questions work whether you run them live with the class or set them as self-paced practice. Build a set once, save it to your question bank, and reuse it term after term. If you want the numbers afterwards, class reports roll up completion, average score, accuracy and a per-student breakdown you can export to CSV.
What auto-marking can't do
Honesty matters more than a longer feature list, so here's the line clearly. Auto-marking does not touch:
- Extended or open writing, essays and long-form answers — these are never auto-marked.
- Free-text responses that don't have one fixed correct answer.
- Anything needing your professional judgement, partial credit or a written comment.
The fix isn't to wait for a machine to grade prose — it won't. The fix is design. When you want instant results, build the check from objective types: a few multiple choice, a couple of fill-in-the-blanks, a matching task. Save open writing for the lessons where you genuinely want to read it. Used this way, auto-marking is perfect for quick checks like exit tickets that mark themselves, and it's one of the most reliable ways to reduce marking time without cutting corners on the writing that counts.
Build an auto-marked check in minutes — write a few objective questions and run them with your class today.
Frequently asked questions
Does ClassKite mark essays or long writing automatically?
No. Open and extended writing is never auto-marked — only objective question types are. Design your instant checks with multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, matching and similar, and keep essays for marking by hand.
Is auto-marked practice free?
Yes. On the free Teacher Basic plan you can write questions by hand, run practice with instant auto-marking, and students join free with a class code. Class-wide reports, the live grid and CSV export sit on the paid Teacher Plus and School plans.
How does ClassKite know the correct answer?
You set the answer key when you create or review each question. The auto-marking simply checks each submission against the key you defined — including numeric answers on number fill-in-the-blanks.
Related reading: how to reduce marking time, exit tickets that mark themselves, and our reports feature page.