Mark/Score attempts
Learn how to assign markers to attempts and view the marking modal as an admin
If you're and admin or exam creator and haven't already please see our guide below on how to set up marking for an exam and the different configurations and roles and options.
MarkingQuestion types such as free text, file upload or audio/video recording questions require manual marking before the scores can be finalised. When creating these question types you have the option to have a custom credit value and add a rubric / mark scheme to them to guide markers on where to award marks. Once an attempt has been submitted depending on the results configuration, the results may not be released automatically to users as there are questions that require marking. This doc will walk you through the steps to finding and marking attempts
Adding custom marks and a rubric to questions
Marking roles
Marking / scoring on Synap is split into 3 distinct roles, if double marking is not enabled on an exam then there will only be the Moderating and Finalising makers. Please note in order to mark as an admin you will need to self assign and become the Moderating marker for an attempt.
Provisional marker
Markers responsible for assessing attempts initially. Their marks and other inputs are not final and require validation by Moderating Markers or the system. If their marks align within an agreement threshold, they may be accepted automatically. If they cannot mark a response they can escalate it when escalation marking is enabled.
Moderating marker
Markers who review Initial Markers' assessments and determine the final marks for an attempt. They can adjust or confirm initial assessments before an attempt is finalised. If Provisional markers are not being used (standard plans / no double marking) then the Moderating marker acts as the Initial marker as well. They can be configured to escalate responses when escalation marking is enabled
Advanced Roles : Escalation, Bakcreader, Auditing markers
Escalation markers handle cases where provisional or moderating markers are unable to assess an attempt due to specific customisable reasons. They can either:
Accept the escalation and finalise the marks themselves.
Reject the escalation, returning it to the normal marking workflow.
Backreader is the highest level of moderation. They can override marks set in the moderation step or the system, making them the final authority on an attempt’s scores.
Auditing markers conduct internal reviews after marks have been finalised. They cannot modify marks but can provide feedback, commentary, or quality assurance insights.
Finalising marker
The finalising marker is responsible for finalising the marks on an attempt, making it ready for release. This role can be assigned to an admin, educator, or manager and is configurable via global or specific permissions for an exam. The finalising marker ensures that all marks are thoroughly reviewed and validated before release.
Marker management
The attempt management table on exams gives an overview of all attempts and the marking information and status. Attempts in any state can be assigned markers, but only attempts with a marking status 'Unmarked' can start to be marked. Use the manage columns and filtering features to assist with your marking process.
Admins can view the marking page via the view button.
There are several marking states an attempt can be in:
Unmarked
Attempt has been submitted, is ready for marking. In double marking this state means it can be marked by the provisionals.
In progress
Attempt has had some marks inputted, but has not been set as completed
Completed
Attempt has been marked, and a marker has manually set this attempt's marks to completed - changes to marks can still be made if Marks is in this state
Finalised
Marks on this attempt have now been finalised by a marker, no further changes can be made - the student is not yet aware of their marks
Released
A marker has released the marks for the attempt to the student & they have been notified
Attempts must be marked individually but you can bulk complete, finalise and release results using the select all checkbox in the top left of the user table.
Assigning markers
Select the attempt/s to assign markers to, use the assign markers button to open the marker management modal.
The assign markers modal lets you see who's currently assigned by role as well as an overview of all markers, and add or remove markers from the attempt/s.
Markers inbox
For users who are only of user type 'Marker' they will have access to the Marker inbox, which is a dedicated page to view the attempts assigned to them which are ready for marking. Markers can search for attempts by id or exam name, and by default the inbox is ordered by attempt submission, showing the longest waiting first. This page can be enabled for admins, managers and educators via the portal page settings
Candidate and question marking
Note: Question marking is still grouped by the attempt assigned to markers, and they will still need to submit a full set of marks for all questions in all attempts assigned to them.
From the Markers inbox, markers have the choice to toggle between marking by candidate attempt or question.
Candidate marking
All questions the candidate had for a particular exam attempt. Markers will be able to see every question including those that are auto marked by the system for candidate attempts assigned to them
Question marking
Marking by specific questions across candidate attempts that are assigned to the marker. The entire attempt still needs to be assigned to a marker, but they can mark the same question across multiple attempts together. Is only available for question types that have not been skipped and require marking (Free text, Audio recording, File upload)
Question based marking
Toggling to Question marking shows markers the questions in attempts they've been assigned
From here markers can filter by question type, and see how many responses they'll be marking within the marking modal
When marking by questions once all the questions have been marked, markers will need to go back to candidate marking to submit their marks once all questions within an attempt have been marked.
Marking page
When marking an attempt you'll be navigated to the marking modal, you'll see questions eligible for marking noted with a blue dot. From here markers can award credits, and leave feedback comments for users to view in the question feedback. Columns can be expanded or collapsed using the chevrons to help with navigation.
From the marking page, all responses that require marking will show as blue with an unmarked status which will update marking once inputs have been started then marked once completed. Once all of the blue status's are gone all the required questions for marking are completed.
Points - Are what is awarded for a correct / partially correct response. If negative marking is being used then points are what are deducted for an incorrect answer
Credits - The maximum points up for grabs for answering a question correctly
The feedback box contains a rich text editor, so you can leave links, photos, tables, lists and even videos as feedback for candidates.
Mark schemes / Rubrics
Using a mark scheme splits out specific areas where credits are awarded, create different areas where credits are awarded. Markers cannot input higher values than the maximum credit allocation. See our mark scheme docs for more on creation.
Information for marking
Configure questions to have a box for information for markers, which supports rich text formatting if you want to link out to an external mark scheme or modal answer
Feedback to candidate
Feedback to candidate will be shown to the candidate when the results are released if the questions breakdown page is enabled.
candidates will be able to see comments left about their answers, it will show under 'Markers comments'
Internal notes
Leave notes / comments for fellow markers, Student users won't be able to see these, they are available in the marking modal only
Releasing results
Any attempts with marks completed can be set to finalised and then released with the action buttons above the table. To release one or more results select all the attempts with a where the marks are finalised. Once selected use the exam controls and Release results button. This can be done individually or in bulk
Result page visibility
There are addition result page visibility options, to support releasing results for a ceratin amount of time for users. Select the individual or bulk attempts with released results and use the action button to edit the result visibility.
A modal will display to select the visibility settings for the selected attempt, these settings can be changed afterwards to support temporary results release.
Result pages visible to candidates: Users will be able to view the results pages that have been configured for their exam attempt.
Score visible to candidates: Users will be able to see their score for the exam across tables on their insights and other areas score is displayed. Note this does not apply to the score metric box on the results page.
What students see
Students get a detailed view of each question from their exam attempts question page. Where a mark scheme has been used or comments left, they can see exactly what marks (points) they achieved. Students will not see inputs left by provisional markers they'll only see what the moderating marker has left.
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