Writing Maths Questions With LaTeX (Without the Headache)

If you teach maths or science, you already know the pain: a fraction that collapses into a slash, an exponent that lands on the baseline, a question that reads fine to you but nonsense to your class. Writing clean math questions with LaTeX fixes that, and in ClassKite you can do it without wrestling a clunky editor. This guide walks through writing equations that render properly in both the question and the answer, auto-marking number responses, attaching a diagram, and then running the set as live or self-paced practice. Start by building a set you can reuse in your question bank.

Type the maths by hand with LaTeX

ClassKite lets you write questions by hand and enter maths as LaTeX, so equations render cleanly in the question text and in the answer. There's no graphical equation editor or handwriting conversion — you type the LaTeX source directly, which is faster once you know a handful of patterns. A few you'll use constantly:

Fractions: \frac{3}{4} renders as a stacked fraction.
Powers: x^2 and 2^{10} for exponents.
Roots: \sqrt{16} and \sqrt[3]{27}.
Subscripts and symbols: v_0, \theta, \pi.

Writing maths questions by hand with LaTeX is available on the free Teacher Basic plan, so you can try this without paying. Mix in multiple choice, true/false, matching, jumbled-sentence and fill-in-the-blank question types depending on what you're assessing.

Use number fill-in-the-blank for auto-marking

For anything with a numeric answer — solve for x, evaluate the expression, compute the gradient — use a fill-in-the-blank number answer. Objective question types, including number fill-in-the-blank, auto-mark the moment a student submits, so you're not marking calculations by hand. Set the question with LaTeX (for example, "Evaluate \frac{12}{4} + 2^2") and the expected number, and the marking happens for you.

Write the question text and any maths in LaTeX.
Choose fill-in-the-blank and enter the number answer.
Where a diagram helps — a triangle, a circuit, a graph — attach an image to the question.

If you're on Teacher Plus or the School Plan, you can also draft questions with the AI question generator and review each one, or bulk-import a spreadsheet — handy when you're building a large bank quickly.

Run it live or self-paced

Once your set is ready, run it as live practice with the whole class or set it self-paced for individual work. Students join free in the browser with a class code — no accounts or app installs. Objective answers mark automatically as they come in, and the assessment tools give you completion, average score and accuracy without a gradebook to maintain.

Start writing maths questions in ClassKite — type your first LaTeX question and run a quick practice today.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a paid plan to write maths questions?

No. Writing questions by hand, including maths entered as LaTeX, is available on the free Teacher Basic plan. The AI-draft and bulk spreadsheet import shortcuts are on Teacher Plus and the School Plan.

Is there a graphical equation editor or handwriting-to-LaTeX?

No — you type LaTeX source directly. It renders cleanly in both the question and the answer, but there's no point-and-click editor or handwriting conversion.

Will number answers mark themselves?

Yes. Objective question types, including fill-in-the-blank number answers, auto-mark on submit, so numeric questions are scored for you.