Our mission is to save university instructors 10 hours per week. We have a range of free and paid tools to achieve this. This is one of our free tools. Hopefully it will save you time and you will use some of our paid tools too.

What equipment do I need?

Any office scanner is fine. If you don't have one, a basic scanner costs $150-200. Phone photos work (though you'll need to manually review about 10% of answers vs. near-zero with a scanner).

The system uses optical mark recognition (OMR) to read bubble marks and recognize handwriting. This is the same technology banks use to process checks. For multiple choice questions, when you scan exams with a standard scanner, accuracy is essentially 100%. For handwritten answers, the system will flag ambiguous answers for you to review. You're not trusting a black box — you will verify edge cases.

How long does setup genuinely take?

Uploading your questions will take you anywhere between 5-10 minutes, depending on the volume you have. From there, creating your first exam will take you around 5 minutes. Once it's made, and has the randomization settings in place, future exams should take you 5 minutes or less. If you have existing questions in a Word doc or test bank, you can import them directly.

Can I check student workings and award partial credit?

Yes, you can select to capture and auto-grade workings for math questions. This is great for when a student has got the wrong method most of the way, but the wrong answer at the end.

Can I auto-grade short answers?

Yes. This platform allows you to auto-grade multiple choice and short answers, which we recommend to be answers with less than 500 words. It will also capture student workings. It's not designed to handle long essay questions, which we define as answers of more than 500 words.

Can I create multiple exam versions?

Yes, you can create unlimited versions of the exams at the click of a button. You can choose two (or more) different versions (as is historically common in university exams), or choose to have unique exams for each student. Each takes the same time to create and grade (nearly instant). The randomization capabilities of the platform allow you to randomize numbers within math questions, the question order, the answer order, and even which questions are included in each version.

Can I start using this mid-semester?

Yes. Because the tool is free, there's no need for an institutional or departmental license. This means you can start using it straight away. You can set it up yourself quickly, or hop on a Zoom with one of our team and they will have your first exam live within 15 minutes.

Is Paper Exam Grader a Scantron alternative?

Yes. Paper Exam Grader replaces Scantron machines entirely. There is no proprietary hardware to purchase or maintain, no special bubble sheets, and no per-scan fees. You print exams on regular paper, scan with any office scanner, and auto-grading completes in under 2 minutes. It also supports short answers and unlimited randomized versions, which Scantron does not.

Can I use Paper Exam Grader without my department's approval?

Yes. Individual instructors can sign up and start creating exams immediately. There is no IT involvement, no departmental license, and no procurement process required. If your department later wants to adopt it institution-wide, we offer FTE-based pricing with dedicated onboarding.

What LMS platforms does Paper Exam Grader integrate with?

Paper Exam Grader integrates with Canvas, Blackboard, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle. Grades sync directly to your LMS gradebook after grading. You can also export results as CSV or Excel if you prefer manual upload.

How does Paper Exam Grader prevent cheating on paper exams?

The platform generates unlimited unique exam versions by randomizing question order, answer order, and numerical values in math problems. Every student can receive a completely different paper, eliminating copying during the exam, sharing answers between sections, and reusing exams across semesters.

Free for all instructors

Create & Auto-Grade Paper Exams in 15 Minutes

The secure online Scantron alternative that saves university instructors hours of grading.

Create your first exam For departments & institutions →

Used by instructors at universities across North America

Unlimited

Unique Exam Versions

< 2

Minutes to Grade

Cost to Instructors

Accuracy Rate*

*For printed multiple-choice exams on a standard scanner. Handwritten responses may require manual review.

Drop In Your Questions, Print On Regular Paper, Scan On A Regular Scanner, Export To Your LMS

Step 01

Upload your questions once, create infinite versions of your exam

Upload your questions (Word, PDF, JPG, Connect QTI, etc.) and randomize:

question order
answer order
unique values in math problems

Press 'generate' to create a pdf of your exams.

Step 02

Print and administer the exam

Print the exams on regular paper to administer in class.
Collect the exams. Scan and upload them using any scanner (no Scantron or special equipment needed).
Our platform auto-grades the exams in under 2 minutes (total), and highlights ambiguous answers for you to review.

Step 03

Review, export and share results

Analyse results and auto-generate slides and questions to revisit challenging concepts in class.
Update your gradebook instantly via our integration, or export to Excel and upload.
Share individualized feedback with struggling students.

“This tool is a game changer! It eliminates Scantrons, reduces grading errors, and significantly improves assessment integrity.”

Dr. James Young

University of Oklahoma

Say Goodbye to Updating Exams

Create your first exam

Upload and enhance your existing questions in minutes

Drop your questions in bulk in any format (Word, Canvas export, Connect export, or even a photo) to build your test bank. Choose how to enhance them below.

Randomize your numbers

Multiple choice questions. Automatically generate the correct answer and 3 plausible distractors, with realistic number boundaries and increments.
Short answer questions. Automatically generate the correct answer formula, with plausible variable boundaries and increments.

Expand your question types

Adjust the difficulty and broaden your methods of evaluation by diversifying the question types used.
Convert question types. Intelligently convert questions between multiple choice, short answer, true/false and matching.

Evaluate your questions

Detect leaks. Search the web to check if questions have been publicly shared.
Assess difficulty. Evaluate and label the difficulty of the questions.
Check coverage. Compare your test bank against your teaching materials to ensure every concept you've taught is tested, and flag any gaps.

See What Your Students Would Receive

A real example: 23 uniquely randomized versions of the same exam, ready to print. No sign-up required.

Download Free Example Exam

Example bubble answer sheet showing student ID, QR code, and 20 multiple choice questions

Every Student Gets a Different Version

No need to update exams, or create multiple versions by hand.

Prevent casual copying within an exam

Randomize the order of the questions for each student.
Shuffle the answer options for each student.
Randomize the numbers in math questions, so each exam has different numbers.

Prevent sharing answers between sections

Randomize the numbers in math questions, so each exam has different numbers.
Randomize the questions drawn from a bank. Section A gets the same questions, Section B gets a different set.

Prevent copying across semesters

Randomize the numbers in math questions, so each exam has different numbers.
Randomize the questions drawn from a bank for each section. Fall students get one set of questions, Spring students get a different set.

The Comparison

Different tools for different needs. Select the one you're considering.

Select a tool to compare

Choose Scantron if...

Your department already owns Scantron hardware
You're happy with your current setup and it's not worth learning a new system

Choose Blended Teaching if...

Auto-generated unique versions of your exams
Easy upload of your existing questions and exams
Insights on class performance
Personalized feedback for students
A free solution for students and instructors
To auto-grade short answers as well as multiple choice


Overview
Description	Create & Grade Paper Exams	Bubble Sheet Grading Machines
Focus	Business Schools	Any subject
Funding source	Universities	Private Equity
Cost to instructors	Free	Paid by department
Quiz Design
Question types	Multiple choiceShort answers	Multiple choice
Question upload formats	JPGPDFWordManualQTI	ManualPDF
Question generator	Yes	No
Number of quiz versions	Unlimited (auto-generated)	4 (manually written)
Platform randomization abilities	Numbers in questionsQuestion selectionAnswer optionsQuestion order	No
Exams & Grading
Paper	Regular paper	Special paper (purchased separately from Scantron)
Answer format	Bubble sheets (Multiple choice)Written answer blocks	Bubble sheets (Multiple choice)
Partial credit for workings	Yes	No
Short answers	YesInstructor sets rubric	No
Essays	No	No
Results & Feedback
Exam analytics	Detailed statistics	Basic printed report
Individual student analysis	Correct / IncorrectAuto-identify challenging concepts	No
Feedback for students	Yes	No
Supporting teaching materials	Yes	No
Grade export	LMS integrationExcel download	Excel download

Download full comparison PDF

Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Switching to Paper Exams to Stop Cheating?

Get the academic integrity of paper exams without drowning in manual grading. Import your existing questions, print randomized versions, and auto-grade everything.

Create your first exam Watch quick demo

Still not sure? Email us at help@blended-teaching.com — we'll answer any questions, no sales pitch required.