Upload and Marking Statuses: What They Mean and What to Do

The short version: almost none of these need you to start again from scratch, and none of them will lose work you've already had marked.

Navigate to

• Statuses you’ll see while work is processing

• Messages you might see when uploading

• Messages you might see during marking

Where to check on marking progress

Go to Tools → My Ongoing Marking to see anything that is still transcribing or marking. Once a piece of work is finished it moves out of here and into My Feedback.

Assignment packs are the exception. They don't appear in My Ongoing Marking at all; track those from the Assignment Packs area itself.

Top tip: feedback is released student by student, not batch by batch. If you're waiting on a large upload, it's worth checking My Feedback as well as a good chunk of it may already be there.

Statuses you'll see while work is processing

Transcribing

The system is converting handwriting into text. This is the longest part of the process and it scales with how much you've uploaded. As a rough guide, allow a few minutes per script under normal conditions.

Things genuinely do slow down at busy times of year; if half the country is running mocks in the same fortnight, transcription queues get longer. That's expected, and nothing is at risk.

You don't need to keep the page open. Everything runs in the cloud, so you can close your browser or shut your laptop entirely and come back later.

Partially Transcribed

Some of the scripts you expected are missing. The most common and completely harmless reason is that a student was absent, so their QR code was never in the pile.

If that's the case, you don't need to do anything as the rest will mark as normal. If you want to add the missing students later, click the three vertical dots next to the pack and choose Reset before uploading their work.

Incomplete or Incompletely Transcribed

Some pieces didn't make it through the first pass while the rest completed fine. Go to My Ongoing Marking and retry the ones that failed. Everything that succeeded is already sitting in My Feedback waiting for you.

Error splitting

The system had trouble separating the uploaded file into individual student responses. This one is on our side rather than anything you've done. Get in touch via the live chat and let us know which assignment pack or tool it was and roughly how large the upload was, and we'll sort it out.

Messages you might see when uploading

"Duplicate student codes found"

The same QR code has appeared more than once in the batch. There are three usual culprits:

• a script went through the scanner twice
• two classes' QR code pages got mixed together
• a student changed year group and an older code is still in circulation

Have a look through for the repeat, take it out and re-scan a clean set. If you genuinely can't spot it, send us the file on live chat and we'll find it for you. Much quicker than hunting through 200 pages yourself.

"No QR codes found in the uploaded file"

The system couldn't read any QR codes in what you uploaded. Check that the QR code pages were actually included in the pile and that they scanned cleanly; a page that's gone through at an angle, or a code that's been folded across the middle, may not read.

If you're confident the codes were there and readable, let us know, particularly if this is a process that has worked for you before.

"Invalid QR code" or a message about codes needing to start with ST

QR code formats have changed as the platform has developed, so a very old printed set may no longer validate. If you've been working from a stack of codes printed some time ago, it's worth generating and printing a fresh set from My Students.

A message about an unrecognised or "non-student" QR code

Something in the batch isn't a student QR code the system recognises. Unfortunately it can't yet tell you which page, which we know is frustrating; it's on our list to improve.

In the meantime, check for anything obviously out of place: a sheet from a different cohort, a damaged or heavily creased code, a page from another subject that's crept in. If nothing stands out, re-scanning in smaller batches will narrow down where the problem sits, or send us the file and we'll take a look.

"OCR produced no readable content"

The transcription engine couldn't get anything usable out of a particular file. This usually points to scan quality, such as a very light scan, an unusual page layout, or a file that's been compressed heavily somewhere along the way.

Re-scanning that one script at a standard A4 setting often does the trick. If the same error comes back, send us the file rather than re-uploading repeatedly, as there's likely something specific about it that we need to look at.

Pages marked with a red X

Those particular pages weren't received or recognised. First check they were actually included in the PDF you uploaded, as it's surprisingly easy for a few sheets to be left in the scanner tray.

If you're confident everything was in there, get in touch. Do mention it if you're working towards a deadline, as that changes how we prioritise it.

Messages you might see during marking

"An internal server error occurred"

This is a problem in our marking pipeline, not something you've done and not something you can fix from your end. Try a retry in case it was a one-off. If it happens again, tell us on live chat which tool or assignment pack you were using, whether it's the whole batch or specific scripts, and whether retrying reproduces it.

Errors mentioning a model, a provider, or permissions

Any message that reads like it belongs in a server log rather than a classroom is ours to deal with. Copy the exact wording and send it over; the specific phrasing is usually what tells us where to look. Reassuringly, these tend to be quick fixes once we know about them.

"Too short to mark"

The response fell below the minimum length the system will attempt to mark. There's no manual override for this at the moment.

The important thing to know is that one essay being flagged this way won't hold up anything else. The rest of the batch will mark and appear in My Feedback exactly as normal. If the length looks perfectly reasonable to you, send us that specific case so we can check the threshold is behaving.

"Has not answered the question" when they clearly have

Every tool checks that a student has actually responded to the question that was set, which is what stops a Romeo and Juliet essay being marked against a Macbeth mark scheme. Occasionally that check is over-cautious and catches a response it shouldn't.

Try a retry first. If it comes back the same, send us the case and we can usually re-run it so the student still receives written feedback, even where a formal mark isn't produced. That re-run shouldn't cost you a credit if you’re piloting, since no mark came out the first time.

Marks that don't add up

If a question worth 60 marks is coming back capped at 50, that's a mismatch in how the tool has been configured rather than anything to do with your upload.

Let us know the tool, exam board and paper and we'll get it corrected.

The honest answer is that these can look identical from your side, so here's the rule of thumb: if there's been no visible movement for several hours on a batch that should take minutes per script, treat it as stuck and tell us.

We'd much rather hear from you and find it was just a busy afternoon than have you wait politely through a genuine problem.

What to send us when you report something

You'll get an answer much faster if you can include:

• the tool, exam board and paper
• whether it was a standalone tool or an assignment pack
• how many scripts are affected: one, a few, or the whole batch
• the exact wording of any error message, or a screenshot
• whether you have a deadline, and when it is

Top tip: if the problem is with a specific piece of feedback rather than a whole upload, use Report an issue option on that feedback tile in the My Feedback section. It sends us the underlying script along with your message, which saves a lot of back and forth.

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.