Total marks, strictness and assessment type
Four settings sit under the upload panel: Total marks, Penalty / day, Strictness and Assessment type. After marking, they move to the project card beside the results. Changes save as you make them.
Total marks
The mark each student's final result is shown out of. It fills in from your rubric's total, or from the spec when the rubric does not give one. Type a number from 1 to 10,000 to set your own.
If Total marks differs from the rubric's total, each final mark is scaled: final mark divided by the rubric total, times Total marks. Exported sheets show this as Weighted Total.
Strictness
| Option | How the AI marks |
|---|---|
| Strict | The default. Full marks only when the work contains specific, concrete evidence. Vagueness, missing detail and uncited claims lose marks. Most criteria should not get full marks. |
| Balanced | Full marks need specific evidence. Vague or surface-level content earns partial marks at best. |
| Lenient | Gives the benefit of the doubt on borderline cases. Full marks still need specific evidence. |
| Flag & review | When a criterion lacks strong evidence either way, the AI gives a tentative mark and flags it for you to review. |
Assessment type
Tells the marker what kind of evidence to look for. The options are Written report / essay, Code / software project, Design artefact, Presentation / media, Data analysis, Lab / practical / scanned work and Mixed / multi-artefact.
A new marking starts on Mixed / multi-artefact, which suits submissions with several kinds of file, such as a report with code and screenshots. The marker still reads every file whichever type you choose.
Work
On a saved project, the settings also include Work: From the spec, Individual or Group. See Group submissions.
Changing settings after marking
Existing marks do not change on their own. The project card shows "Preferences changed. Re-mark to apply them to the whole group." and the button becomes Re-mark all. Re-marking uses credits. See Re-mark and retry.
Penalty / day is the exception: changing it or a student's days late recalculates marks without re-marking. See Late penalties.
Common questions
- Which strictness should I start with?
- Strict is the default because looser settings tended to give close to full marks on nearly every submission. Mark a few students, review them, and change it only if the marks are consistently too harsh.
Related articles
- Add a marking rubricUpload a rubric spreadsheet or document, paste your criteria as text, or use the criteria table from the spec. How DeepMarking reads it and sets total marks.
- Late penaltiesPenalty / day takes a percentage of the rubric total for each whole day late. Enter days late per student. Worked example and where it shows on exports.
- Re-mark and retryRetry failed submissions, re-mark selected students, or re-mark a whole class after changing settings. No re-upload needed. Each re-mark uses credits.
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