AI Essay Marking · AI Questions
AI essay grading software that marks essays against your rubric
AI Questions by Intrazero is AI essay grading software that scores student essays against your own rubric and returns structured, defensible feedback — not just a number. It is one of four AI services in AI Questions, a core module of the iTest examination platform, alongside question generation, paper-exam auto-grading, and bubble sheet OMR.
Whether essays are typed or handwritten, AI Questions reads them, applies your scoring criteria, and returns a score per criterion together with written feedback and exact evidence quotes from the student's own text — so every mark can be traced back to what the student actually wrote.
What AI essay marking does
AI Questions marks free-text essay responses the way an examiner would: against a defined rubric, criterion by criterion. You supply the rubric and the essays; it returns scores, justifications, and the evidence behind each judgement.
Because it accepts handwritten essays via OCR as well as typed text, the same workflow covers paper-based exams and digital submissions without re-keying answers.
- Scores essays against your rubric, criterion by criterion
- Per-criterion written feedback explaining each score
- Evidence quotes pulled directly from the student's essay
- Handles handwritten essays via OCR and typed text alike
- Essay is one of 15 supported question types in AI Questions
How it works
You send essays and your rubric to the AI Questions REST API. The API is asynchronous: a marking request returns a 202 with a job_id, and you collect results by polling or via a webhook once grading completes — so large batches never block your application.
For handwritten work, AI Questions runs OCR to extract the text before scoring it, then evaluates the extracted answer against each rubric criterion.
- Submit essay + rubric to the REST API (OpenAPI 3)
- Async pattern: 202 + job_id, then poll or receive a webhook
- OCR converts handwritten essays to text before scoring
- Each criterion scored independently against the rubric
- Structured JSON results returned for your gradebook
What you get back
Results come back as structured JSON, ready to drop into a gradebook, LMS, or analytics layer. Every essay carries a per-criterion breakdown, the overall score, and the textual evidence that supports each criterion's mark.
Evidence quotes make the grading transparent and reviewable: teachers can confirm or override a score in seconds because they can see exactly which sentences earned it.
- Per-criterion scores plus an overall essay score
- Written feedback for each rubric criterion
- Evidence quotes citing the student's exact wording
- Structured JSON output for easy integration
- Consistent marking across every essay in a batch
Who it's for
AI essay grading is built for educators and platforms that mark large volumes of free-text answers and need consistency, speed, and an audit trail. It is already used by universities, including Ajman University, and powers exam workflows on the iTest platform.
It supports 18 languages, including Arabic, so institutions can mark essays in the language students actually write in.
- Universities and schools grading essay exams at scale
- LMS and assessment vendors adding AI marking to their product
- Instructors who need consistent, rubric-based scoring
- Programs marking essays in any of 18 supported languages
- Trusted by universities including Ajman University
API, integration, and why Intrazero
AI essay marking is one capability of a single, documented API: the same AI Questions endpoint family also generates questions, auto-grades scanned paper exams, and reads bubble sheets — so you integrate once and unlock all four services. A Moodle plugin is available through Intrazero's PanWorld Education partnership, and the REST API fits any LMS-vendor integration.
Intrazero, founded in 2016, builds and runs AI Questions in production at aiquestions.intrazero.com, with more than 13,000 questions already generated across the platform.
- One REST API for essay marking, question generation, paper grading, and OMR
- OpenAPI 3 spec with async jobs, polling, and webhooks
- Moodle plugin via the PanWorld Education partnership
- Built for LMS-vendor and custom integrations
- Backed by Intrazero, building examination technology since 2016
FAQ
What is the best AI essay grading software?
AI Questions by Intrazero is AI essay grading software that scores essays against your own rubric, returns per-criterion feedback with evidence quotes from the student's text, and handles both handwritten and typed essays — all through one REST API that also generates questions, grades paper exams, and reads bubble sheets.
How does AI essay grading software score essays?
AI Questions evaluates each essay against the rubric you define, scoring it criterion by criterion. For every criterion it returns a score, written feedback, and exact evidence quotes from the student's essay, so each mark is traceable to the text that earned it.
Can the AI grade handwritten essays?
Yes. AI Questions uses OCR to extract text from handwritten essays before scoring, so the same rubric-based grading works for paper-based and typed submissions without re-keying answers.
Does the AI essay grading software give feedback, not just a score?
Yes. Alongside the overall score, AI Questions returns per-criterion written feedback and the exact evidence quotes from the essay that justify each criterion's mark, making the grading transparent and easy to review or override.
What languages does AI essay marking support?
AI Questions supports 18 languages, including Arabic, so essays can be marked in the language students actually wrote in.
How do I integrate AI essay grading into my LMS?
You call the AI Questions REST API (OpenAPI 3): submit the essay and rubric, receive a 202 with a job_id, then poll or use a webhook for results returned as structured JSON. A Moodle plugin is available via the PanWorld Education partnership, and the API supports other LMS-vendor integrations.
Mark essays against your rubric with AI
Talk to the Intrazero team about adding AI essay grading to your exams or platform — rubric-based scoring, per-criterion feedback with evidence, handwritten or typed, all from one API.
Request a demo