SAT Scoring

If you are still grading practice SAT, ACT or SAT Subject exams by hand, then here is an excellent solution for you. Using affordable OMR technology you can speed up the grading process and give your students detailed reports of their performance.

How does this work?

1. Our SAT scoring solution consists of standard four practice SAT forms. For ACT scoring we have created two pages and form scoring of SAT subject test we offer one form. You can view and download them here. Please print the forms on a laser printer at 100% of the original size. In Adobe Reader specify a Page Scaling of NONE.  We suggest you print on 24lb or 28lb paper, which will hold up better as your students ‘sweat’ over the exam. Forms can be printed back and front.

2. Our solution requires every student to have a unique student ID. This student ID is bubbled-in on the form and is later mapped to a name in the Excel spreadsheet. The student ID can be up to five digits long. Student IDs with fewer than five digits can be placed anywhere in the student ID grid (left, right, middle) as long as the bubbled in numbers are consecutive.

3.  It is possible to give ‘partial‘ exams, i.e. you do not have to administer the complete exam in order to grade it. However, the scaled scores calculated by our scoring spreadsheet are based on complete tests. If you administer partial exams on a regular basis, you may want to modify the scales tables.

4. Once filled in and collected, your forms need to be scanned and processed.  Some of our customers make use of a departmental copier, others use a low cost document scanner. If you already have a scanner, feel free to contact us so we (with your help) can test the quality of the scans produced by your scanner. If you are looking to purchase a new scanner, we can recommend the Epson GT-S50 (25ppm) on the low end and the Kodak i2600 (50ppm) on the higher end.

Once the forms are scanned they are automatically processed by our BubbleScan2xls OMR Software, which reads the filled-in bubbles and transfers the data directly into our scoring spreadsheet. Once in the spreadsheet, various Excel macro routines automatically kick in to convert the raw data into meaningful test responses, which are displayed in the  RECORDS worksheet.

5. All scanned and processed data needs to be reviewed. As much as we would like our solution to be 100% fool proof, it is not. There are generally two types of errors. The first type is an error detected by the BubbleScan2xls OMR Software and can be caused by a poorly printed (out of alignment) form, a poorly scanned form (specified the wrong page size, scanned image is too skewed (crooked), scanned upside-down, torn or bent corners, …). When the software reports such an error the Excel spreadsheet will not attempt to even show partial data, as there is no guarantee that that partial data is correct. Instead the spreadsheet displays such records as “error”. If you’ve scanned an entire batch upside down, we suggest you delete the errors from the spreadsheet and rescan. If the form is just a one-off, and that is usually the case, then your recourse is to manually enter the data directly into the spreadsheet. Since all forms are uniquely identified through student ID and page number you can often find the hard copy of the form and enter the data by hand. As an alternative you can click on the displayed link and bring up the image of the erroneous page using your default Windows picture viewer.

The second kind of error is one introduced by the attendees. A thin line through the bubble will in all likelihood not be detected by the OMR software, nor will a circle around the bubble or a check mark next to the bubble.  Our spreadsheet does NOT flag fields without an answer (i.e. blanks). It will however flag double-marks, which can be caused by poor erasures or by the student marking more than one answer for a question.

The review process is highly recommended and is a rather straight forward process. You click the ‘Check Data Integrity’ button to start the process. Our macro code then crawls through the records highlighting fields and records with potential problems. By double-clicking the image link in the first two columns you can then view the image of the erroneous page using your default Windows picture viewer.

6. Once reviewed you are ready to generate score reports. Prior to processing your practice test you will have configured the spreadsheet with a new answer key, optionally assigned a difficulty level to each question and also optionally assigned each question to a custom question category. Customizing such an answer key will take some time and once created, the key can be saved so it can easily be retrieved the next time you administer the same test. Also in the spreadsheet will be a simple lookup table that maps the student ID to a student name.

When you have scanned in your forms into your previously customized spreadsheet, have reviewed the data, and set the flags to either PRINT or EXPORT (or both) the student reports,  all you need to do is click the button labeled ‘Generate Student Reports’. You will be asked if  you want to generate a report for a select student ID or for all the records. The scoring spreadsheet will then either print or export or print and export a detailed score report for each student. Exported student reports are saved in the same directory as the spreadsheet and will be named with the student ID, test name, and date. This makes it easy to attach a student report to an email to send to your student.

We gladly customize our scoring spreadsheets in case you need a different report or need to create an upload for an existing scoring or reporting system.

Give us a call to discuss your situation and set up a trial. Our objective is to provide you with a solution that works for you. We would love to hear from you, today.