Uploading exam papers
Photograph or upload exam papers, choose subject and year, and let Pathora auto-mark them.
TL;DR — Go to Upload, pick the child, subject, and school year, then drag-and-drop a photo or PDF. Marking starts automatically and finishes in 30–90 seconds.
Supported file types
- Photos — JPG, PNG, HEIC (iPhone). Single page or several pages, one image each.
- PDFs — multi-page PDFs are split automatically. Up to 20 pages per paper.
- Maximum file size — 25 MB per upload.
If you have a stack of photos for one paper, drop all of them in one go. We'll treat them as a single multi-page paper.
Step-by-step
- Open Upload from the dashboard sidebar.
- Confirm the child is correct (top selector).
- Pick the subject (e.g. English, Maths, Science, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek).
- Pick the school year — defaults to the child's year, but you can override for practice papers from a different level.
- Drag-and-drop your file(s), or click to open a file picker. Upload starts immediately.
- Wait 30–90 seconds. The result page opens automatically when marking finishes.
There is no separate "Upload" button. As soon as you drop a file, we start uploading. If you picked the wrong file, just drop the right one — we'll cancel the previous job.
Photographing papers (the real-world tips)
Most "bad result" tickets we see come from blurry or skewed photos. A few seconds of care saves a re-upload:
- Light it well. Daylight is best. Avoid shadows from your hand or phone.
- Lay it flat. Curled corners or a folded page lose marks. Use a clipboard if you have one.
- Get the whole page in frame. Pathora can cope with a bit of border, but cropped questions can't be marked.
- One page per photo. Two pages in one shot are usually too small to read clearly.
- Hold steady. Tap-to-focus on your phone before pressing the shutter.
Pathora auto-rotates and de-skews lightly, but it can't recover from severe blur.
What happens during marking
Behind the scenes:
- Your file is uploaded to Pathora securely (HTTPS, stored in Google Cloud Storage in the UK).
- The marking engine extracts the questions and your child's handwritten answers.
- Each answer is compared against the mark scheme for that year and subject.
- Per-question feedback, marks awarded, and overall score are computed.
- The result page opens, and the paper is added to the Results list.
Marking typically takes 30–90 seconds. Long papers (20+ questions) can take up to two minutes.
Credits & limits
Each successful upload consumes one credit. If marking fails (e.g. unreadable photo), no credit is consumed.
- Free tier — 3 credits per month, refreshed on the 1st.
- Pro tier — monthly grant scales with the number of children on your account.
- Buying additional credits is available on the Pricing page.
See Credits & subscriptions for the full breakdown.
The upload form will tell you before you drop a file. If you run out mid-month, you can either upgrade to Pro or buy a top-up pack from Pricing.
Can I upload a paper my child hasn’t answered yet?+
Yes — we’ll mark a blank or partial paper. You’ll see "no answer attempted" feedback for the unanswered questions. This is useful if you want to see the mark scheme breakdown before sitting down with your child.
My phone takes HEIC photos. Will those work?+
Yes — HEIC is supported. We convert it server-side. If you prefer JPEGs, change your iPhone setting in Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible.
Can I re-mark a paper if I think the AI got it wrong?+
Yes. Open the result and click Re-mark at the top. This consumes one extra credit but uses a fresh marking pass. If the second result still looks wrong, contact support with the result ID and we'll review at no charge.
My upload is stuck on "Marking…" — what now?+
If it’s been more than five minutes, refresh the page. The result usually completes server-side even if your browser disconnects. If it’s still stuck, check Troubleshooting.