More than just Maths – Blutick branches out into other subjects

Mathematics has one big advantage when creating an automatically-marked exam: answers to problems are either correct or incorrect. For subjects that have greater variety within a “correct” answer, marking is more tricky to automate.

Blutick recently took up the challenge to create a Modern Foreign Languages exam – in this case, Spanish.

Automatic marking for an online Spanish exam

We decided to use a marking system that had some multiple-choice questions, and others that allowed students to write their own short answers (both in English and Spanish). This works well to gauge students’ knowledge of the subject.

The Blutick marking system breaks down each question just like an examiner’s mark scheme, awarding marks for each correctly-answered area.

We tried it out with a test class of students studying Spanish, and found the Blutick auto-marking system to be over 90% accurate on the short-answer questions.

The marking was a whopping 96% accurate across the whole paper. A reliable system like this can make marking exams a much less onerous task for teachers!

Feedback from the Spanish teacher

It wasn’t just Blutick HQ who was pleased with the results; the students’ Spanish teacher, Anna, had this to say:

“The students found the exam easy to navigate… it is really useful to be able to control when they can receive their results.

 

The website design is slick and easy to navigate. The exam summary page is really clear and gives a helpful overview of what students have completed.

 

It is so easy to look at the marking detail question by question for each student as well. This feature in particular is so well designed and easy to use – much better than similar features I have used on other websites.”

We’re delighted to be able to start offering auto-marked exams in other subjects. We’d love to help Blutick students to gain confidence not just in Maths, but across their learning.