How do Student QR Codes Work

Don't worry, QR codes sound more technical than they are. Once you've used them once, the whole thing will feel completely natural. This guide explains everything you need to know.

Think of it like a label on a school exercise book

In much the same way you would identify a student's exercise book by reading their name and class on the front cover, our system uses QR codes to achieve the same effect.

Every student gets their own unique QR code page. Before you scan in a pile of student work, you place each student's QR code page on top of their response. When the system receives the scanned PDF, it reads the QR codes and automatically knows whose work is whose, all the way through the pile.

Two reasons: organisation and data protection.

Organisation: When you scan a whole class's responses as one PDF, the system needs a way to tell where one student's work ends and the next begins. QR codes act as dividers, separating and labelling each response automatically.

Data protection: Before any student work is sent off to be marked, Top Marks strips out all personal information. The work travels anonymously, identified only by a QR code, not a name. Once marking is done, the system uses that QR code to match the feedback back to the right student in your account. This is one of several processes that ensure that student data is kept safe and GDPR-compliant.

This is also why, when you open a piece of feedback, it's already labelled with the student's name, class, and year group – the QR code handles that quietly in the background for you!

QR codes are reusable. A student's QR code only records three things: their name, their class and their year group. It has no knowledge of the subject, the question, or the date. That means the same QR code page you use for an English essay can go in front of a History response later in the year.

Top tip: Print a set of QR codes and keep them somewhere accessible – you can keep feeding them through the scanner over and over again. As long as they don't get too worn or damaged, there's no need to reprint them.

How to generate QR codes

1. Go to My Students in the top menu
2. Use the filter to find the class or year group you want
3. Click the checkbox in the top corner to select your students
4. Click Generate QR codes

You'll get a PDF with one QR code page per student. Print it and you're ready to go.

Note: Your students need to be in the system before you can generate QR codes. This happens automatically once your school's Wonde integration has been set up – your IT person/team or Data Manager handles the approval during onboarding, and it usually takes about one working day.

Before scanning, arrange your papers like this:

📄 QR code page (Student 1)

📝 Their written response

📄 QR code page (Student 2)

📝 Their written response

📄 QR code page (Student 3)

📝 Their written response

...and so on.

Scan the whole pile into one PDF, upload it, and the system takes care of the rest. You can do this with a handful of students or an entire year group – the process is exactly the same.

Yes, and it's worth knowing about, though it's nothing to worry about.

Standalone Tools

When you're marking a single question type (for example, just the Shakespeare essay), you use the standalone tools with the standard reusable QR code cover pages. Place them on top of each student's response, scan, upload to the relevant tool, and you're done.

Because the QR code only identifies the student’s name, class and year group (not the question) you'll need to upload each question type separately. For example, if your students answered both a Shakespeare question and a 19th century novel question, you'd do two separate uploads: one to the Shakespeare tool and one to the 19th century novel tool.

Assignment Packs

Note: this is not relevant if you are using the Exam Decoder function for your Assignment Pack, as you will not be using QR codes. If you are building an Assignment Pack from scratch in the software, this will be relevant to you.

When you build a full exam paper in Top Marks, the system uses a different kind of QR code; one that's printed directly onto each question page when you download the pack.

These QR codes do more. As well as identifying the student, they tell the system exactly which question type is being answered, the specific context of the question type that is being answered, and which specialist AI marker to send it to.. This means you can scan in a full set of exam papers (multiple questions, entire cohort) as a single PDF, and the system automatically sorts everything and sends each response to the right place. No separating things out yourself.

These QR codes are generated fresh each time you create an assignment pack and come built into the printed question pages, so there's nothing extra to prepare.

What if a student was absent and their QR code isn't in the pile? No problem. For standalone tools, the system simply marks whoever is there – it has no expectation of what you're going to upload, so missing students won't cause any issues. For assignment packs, it will flag that those students are missing with a ‘Partially Transcribed’ status, but this won't stop the rest from being marked. If you wish to upload missing students at a later date, simply click the three vertical dots and hit ‘Reset’ before proceeding.

Do I need a different QR code for each subject? No, for Standalone Tools, one QR code works across all subjects and questions all year long. For Assignment Packs, these are generated upon creation.

Still unsure? The support chat in the bottom-right corner of the website connects you directly to a real person on the Top Marks team – not an AI bot, ironically! Don't hesitate to reach out at any point.