Once a homework upload has been assembled, Testy marks it against the worked answers for that lesson, submits the marking and writes feedback. Open it with Review feedback from the Classroom page or the Homework page, or from the link in the parent email. The worked answers are only reachable this way, so the work has to be handed in first.
How the marking works
Testy first checks that the photographed pages are that lesson's homework, using the term and week printed at the top of every booklet page. It then reads the pages and compares each answer with the worked answers, exactly the answer sheet shown on the page. It usually takes one to two minutes. A circled, ticked or boxed letter is read as the answer, a crossed out one is ignored, and a question with no answer is recorded as got stuck. A question Testy cannot read, or one on a page that was not photographed, is recorded as got stuck too, and flagged for the student to decide.
The two tabs
The page has two tabs. Feedback is Testy's marking and feedback, and opens first once the work is handed in. Solution & Submission holds the worked answers, the uploaded pages and the homework booklet, with page controls and zoom.
Working through the feedback
The feedback is a set of cards the student works through one at a time, and the XP is earned at the end. The first card is Check Testy's marking: the question grid, filled in by Testy, with the questions it could not check outlined for the student to mark themselves. Any mark can be changed by tapping the question number. Changing a mark never changes the XP; it only shows the teacher where to help, and the teacher sees both Testy's read and the student's change.
Then come the cards: a score and a short message from Testy, What went well, Focus on next (the topics where marks were lost, with a tip for each), reminders about avoidable slips, short theory reminders for the topics tested, and a walk through of up to three questions the student found hardest, where each answer is shown on tap. If the homework had a writing task, there is writing feedback too: strengths, corrections quoting the student's own words with a fix for each, next steps and two or three short exercises. Maths in the explanations is set out properly, with fractions and powers as they appear in the booklet.
The last card's button earns the XP, at the rate fixed when the work was uploaded, so finishing a little later does not reduce it. After that the page is a record: every card stays open, the grid is locked, and the homework counts as complete once any tests set for that lesson are done too. Progress is saved, so the cards can be finished on another day or another device.
Notes for your teacher
On the Feedback tab is Notes for your teacher. Use it to say what was tricky or to ask about a question. The teacher reads it beside the marked work.
The parent email
When the marking finishes, the parent receives an email with a plain summary: the score, what went well, what needs work and two or three practical action steps for the week, and a note that there are exercises on the feedback page to go over the mistakes. It also says that the class teacher has been sent the same summary. The email's Open feedback button signs the student in on whatever device it is opened on and lands on the feedback. In a family with more than one child on Test Academy, the link switches the device to that child's account. The link stops working after a month or when the password is changed. A staff account is never signed in by the link; it lands on the sign-in page and continues to the feedback afterwards.
When the photos are a different week's homework
If the pages belong to another week, term or course (for example the Week 4 booklet uploaded against the Week 5 lesson), Testy marks nothing and the page says This does not look like the right week's homework. The Classroom card and the Homework page show the same note. Nothing can be re-uploaded from the page: ask a parent to contact us and we will sort it out. No XP is earned and no parent email is sent for a mix-up.
When Testy cannot mark
If a lesson has no worked answers attached, or the pages could not be marked, the page says so and the student marks the work themselves against the answers on the Solution & Submission tab, with the Finish & earn XP button as before.