Scantron

The answer form used by the Scantron system can accommodate up to 250 multiple choice or true/false questions. There is no minimum number of questions required.

For each question, the answer form accommodates up to five alternative answers: A, B, C, D and E. We recommend using four options for multiple-choice format. True/false questions by definition will use only two alternatives, A and B, one designated true and the other false.

You may assign multiple correct answers for each question; however, the student may only choose one answer.  If a student chooses more than one answer, even if all are correct, the question will be graded as incorrect.

If you are concerned about cheating, you might consider using more than one version of an examination. All versions contain the same questions but the correct answers for each question are presented in a different order on each version. Copying from the next student is almost guaranteed to give the wrong answer.

You must provide an answer key for each version. So long as the students’ answer sheets correctly identify which version of the examination they’re using, the Scantron will select the appropriate answer key for scoring. It is not necessary to sort the students’ answer sheets into separate bundles for scoring.

Important: If students do not fill in the exam version number on a multi-version exam, or fill it incorrectly, this may affect their mark and you need to examine all such cases carefully.

For each version of the examination, you must prepare an answer key. Remember, different versions of the exam does not mean different questions; it means the correct answers to the same questions in a different order. Different answer keys reflect the different orders. The information fields will be the same for each answer key, except for the grade field.

Please follow the instructions below on how to fill out each field:

• LAST NAME: Fill in (shade) the instructor’s last name.
• FIRST NAME: Instead of the instructor’s’ first name, fill in the word “KEY”.
• COURSE NO. & S: This field identifies the course code and section with no blank spaces. For example, 3800A.
• DATE OF EXAM: Indicates the date of the examination.
• STUDENT NUMBER: Leave blank.
• EXAM VERSION NO.: Use this field to indicate which alternate version of the examination this particular key corresponds. The keys should be numbered starting from 1, up to a maximum of 16.

The Scantron machine scans exams one at a time, recording which boxes have been shaded on an exam form. If the machine is unable to scan an exam, it will reject the student’s exam for later examination by TLS staff and instructors.

The machine cannot read:

• Forms that are damaged, bent or have folded corners. This obscures the bar code/timing lines and will cause the exam to be rejected.
• Forms that have pencil marks over the bar code black lines on the left-hand side of the exam. Each exam sheet contains small black bars along the left side of the page. These bars are used to line up the form and locate the questions. Drawings and/or writings on these bars cause an exam to be rejected. TLS staff will try to erase marks and rescan the exam.

• Exam version error. A student does not fill in the exam version number on multi-version exam, or fills it incorrectly. Check the “Problem_Keys.txt” file for students who did not fill in the exam version and hand mark these exams.
• A pen was used to complete the exam form rather than a pencil. Ink cannot be erased. When a student makes an error, they will often cross off the answer and fill in another box. Questions with two shaded boxes will be marked incorrect even if the student crosses off the original answer. These exams should be hand marked.
• Circled or very lightly filled in boxes. Students always must shade the appropriate boxes. Check marks, circled boxes or other marks will not be read by the machine. Very lightly shaded boxes will not be scanned, too. In all cases, the student will usually receive an abnormally low mark. Requires hand marking.
• A column of the form was jumped. A student may skip a column on the exam sheet due to exam stress or unfamiliarity with the Scantron exam form. This problem is usually discovered when the affected student asks to see their exam. Requires hand marking.
• Severe incomplete erasing. If a student changes an answer and does not completely erase their mistake, it can lead to them receiving no mark for the question. The Scantron machine can only read one answer per question. Requires hand marking.

Contains the raw data as it was read from the Scantron answer sheets. The answer key(s) will appear at the top row(s) of the file. Blank spaces indicate fields that did not have any boxes shaded in on the Scantron answer sheet and a “?” indicates fields where multiple boxes were shaded in. Each field is separated (delimited) by commas.

File is comma delimited to allow easy importing to Brightspace Grades and other spreadsheet applications. Double-clicking this file will automatically open it in Excel. This file contains the following information:

• Student ID: Student number
• Last Name: Last name
• First Name: First name
• #C: Number of questions the student answered correctly
• %C: Percentage of questions the student answered correctly out of 100 per cent
• WC: Weighted number of questions answered correctly (only applicable if the value of each question was changed)
• W%C: Weighted percent of questions answered correctly (only applicable if exam total weight was changed)
• LG: Carleton’s letter grade equivalent

Get detailed instructions on how to upload grades to Brigthspace here.

Contains the same information as the ‘Brightspace Upload.csv’ file. This file CANNOT be uploaded to Brightspace.

Students appearing in the ‘problem ids.csv’ file have omitted or incorrectly indicated their student number. A student could also be appearing in this file if they are not currently registered in this course or this particular section of this course. Marks for students included in this file CANNOT be uploaded to Brightspace. Instructors must upload these grades manually. Please note: This file is only created if a problem ID occurs. The absence of this file indicates no problem ID’s.

This file is only applicable for exams with multiple versions(or keys) being marked at once. Students appearing in this file have omitted or incorrectly indicated an exam version and their scantron was unable to be processed. Instructors must mark these Scantron sheets by hand or resubmit the Scantron sheets with the exam version indicated. Please note: This file is only created if a problem key occurs. The absence of this file indicates no problem keys.

Contains the same information as the ‘Brightspace Upload.csv’ file plus key/version information, Carleton Gradepoint equivalent and letter grade information.

Contains a list of each student and information about every incorrect answer. This file includes the following:

• #Correct: Number of questions the student answered correctly
• #Incorrect: Number of questions the student answered incorrectly
• #Multi: Number of questions in which the student provided more than one answer
• MultiIndex: The question # in which the student provided more than one answer
• #Blank: Number of questions the student left blank
• BlankIndex: The question # in which the student left blank
• IncorrectItem > CorrectAnswer: Each of the incorrect answers listed as: the question number, student answer>correct answer

Created for each version of the exam. This file contains the item analysis of the exam. Information pertaining to bonus questions, eliminated questions, exam total weight, question weight, mean, mode and variance can be found here. Find out more about item analysis.

Only created if the Scantron sheets being submitted are for an anonymous survey. It contains only the answers from the Scantron sheets, with each letter value converted to a corresponding number (A=1, B=2, etc.). When scanning surveys, only this file will be created.