Delivering on-screen marking at national scale
How AQA combines scale, speed and integrity in high-stakes assessment delivery
Every summer, millions of learners depend on AQA for accurate results delivered on time. Behind those results is one of the UK’s largest on-screen marking operations, where scale, speed and integrity have to work together.
Before on-screen marking, scripts and mark schemes were posted to examiners. The process was costly, less reliable and made it harder to identify marking issues quickly. Since its introduction in 2019, e-Marker has helped AQA move to a secure online marking environment, giving teams the flexibility, oversight and quality-assurance tools needed to deliver at national scale.
What is e-Marker?
A secure on-screen marking platform used by examiners to grade student exam papers digitally. It allows teachers and assessors to view scanned student work, add digital annotations, and input scores remotely through an encrypted computer interface.
“Education systems face an immense operational challenge: marking millions of high-stakes exams for university admission, often within short timeframes. Efficiency matters, but never at the expense of quality. Marking must be consistently reliable, secure, and free from risk of malpractice, because even small failures can deny students the grades they deserve. For young people, these outcomes shape access to higher education and, ultimately, their life chances. We believe scale, speed and integrity must go hand in hand to maintain trust in national assessment systems.”
Shaun Crowley, Director of International Business Development
“Education systems face an immense operational challenge: marking millions of high-stakes exams for university admission, often within short timeframes. Efficiency matters, but never at the expense of quality. Marking must be consistently reliable, secure, and free from risk of malpractice, because even small failures can deny students the grades they deserve. For young people, these outcomes shape access to higher education and, ultimately, their life chances. We believe scale, speed and integrity must go hand in hand to maintain trust in national assessment systems.”
Shaun Crowley, Director of International Business Development
Delivering scale without losing trust
Large-scale assessment delivery depends on clear processes, consistent standards and reliable oversight from start to finish. For AQA, this means coordinating thousands of examiners across multiple subjects and components while protecting confidence in every marking decision.
A national operation in numbers
In one summer assessment series, AQA delivered: