Printing an Assessment for a Class
This article walks through printing answer sheets for a class — the standard flow when students belong to a class roster and you want their identifying information pre-filled on the sheets. It also covers print settings, multi-version printing, reprints, and printing answer keys and student reports.
Two Ways to Print
PaperScorer offers two printing modes:
- Class Scan Sheets (pre-filled per student) — one sheet per student in a class, with their name and ID already bubbled in. Students just answer the questions. Recommended whenever you have a class roster — scans process faster and fail less often because there’s no ambiguity about which student a sheet belongs to. This article focuses on this flow.
- Individual Scan Sheet (generic) — a single blank answer sheet with no student information pre-filled. Students write/bubble their own ID. Use it when you don’t have a class roster set up yet, for last-minute absent-student makeups, or anonymous/diagnostic assessments.
NOTE: When printing for a class, each sheet is pre-filled with that student’s information (name, ID). Students don’t need to bubble in their ID. Make sure to hand the correct pre-filled sheet to the right student.
Running the Print
From the dashboard, click the Classes main-navigation option.
Find the class you want to print for. Click its action button and select Print Scan Sheets.
NOTE: The print option only works with classes that have at least one student. If your class is empty, add students first — see Adding a Student to a Class or Bulk Import Students into a Class.
A modal will open with the print options:
- Assessment (required): click Change and pick the assessment you want to print.
- Print Type (required): choose who to print sheets for:
- All Students — one sheet per student in the class. The button shows the total number of copies that will be generated.
- Specific Students — pick a subset of the class roster to print. Useful for absent-student makeups or re-prints.
Click Generate Scan Sheets. PaperScorer processes the request — this can take a few seconds to a minute depending on assessment size and student count.
When the sheets are ready, click Print Scan Sheets to open the generated PDF. Use your browser’s print dialog to send it to a printer.
Critical Print Settings
Getting print settings wrong is the most common cause of scan failures. These settings are essential:
| Setting | Required Value |
|---|---|
| Paper size | Letter (8.5″ × 11″). Don’t use A4, Legal, or other sizes. |
| Scaling | Actual Size / 100%. Do not use “Fit to Page” or “Shrink to Fit.” |
| Margins | Default or None. |
| Color | Black-and-white or color, both work fine. No color is required. |
| Print quality | Normal/Standard. Draft mode can produce faint markers that are harder to detect. |
| Two-sided | Single-sided recommended — one page per sheet of paper makes scanning easier. |
Why scaling matters: scaling shifts the QR codes and alignment markers by a few millimeters. The engine uses those markers to identify the sheet and locate answer bubbles — even small shifts can cause scan failures. If you see a print-preview warning about content being “cut off,” check your scaling first — usually the content fits perfectly at 100%.
Print Dialog Examples
Chrome / Edge / Safari
- In the print dialog, click More settings or Show Details.
- Set Paper size to Letter.
- Set Scale to Default or 100% (not “Fit to page”).
- Click Print.
Adobe Acrobat / Preview (Mac)
- In the print dialog, uncheck Scale to Fit.
- Set Size Options → Actual Size.
- Confirm paper size is US Letter.
- Click Print.
Multi-Version Assessments
If your assessment has multiple versions (see Managing Multiple Versions), the print flow lets you pick which version(s) to generate sheets for. You can print one version for the whole class, or print different versions for subsets of students (alternating rows, by group, etc.) to discourage answer-sharing.
Printing multiple versions
Some assessments need a separate answer sheet for each version. This happens when your questions are a mix of types and at least one version reorders the questions — the bubble layout no longer lines up across versions, so each version gets its own sheet. When that’s the case, the print screen adds a Versions to print checklist showing the base version plus each additional version, all checked by default. Uncheck any version you don’t want to include.
Click Generate selected versions to generate one answer-sheet set per checked version. PaperScorer randomly distributes your students across the checked versions — one student to one version — and pre-fills each student’s name on the correct version’s sheet, so you just hand each student the sheet with their name on it.
NOTE: The Individual (blank) print option is disabled for versioned sheets. Versioned answer sheets are printed for a class only.
For more on why some assessments require this, see Why do I have to print multiple versions of an answer sheet? and Managing Multiple Versions.
Reprinting for Absent Students
If a student is absent on assessment day and makes up the test later, reprint just their sheet:
- Open the class and click Print Scan Sheets.
- Choose Specific Students in the print type.
- Select only the student(s) who need a reprint.
- Generate and print.
Printing an Answer Key
You can also print an answer key for your records — this shows every question with the correct answer highlighted. Open the assessment, use the print menu, and choose the Answer Key option (the exact label may vary).
Printing Student Score Reports
After students complete an assessment, you can print individual score reports to hand back. From the assessment, look for the Print Report option. Typical layouts include one report per page, four-per-page slips, and six-per-page slips. You can choose what each report shows (correct answers, student answers, performance band, etc.) and which students to include.
Printing Tips
- Test print one sheet first. Before printing 30 sheets, print one and verify scaling by laying it over the original PDF on screen.
- Use plain white paper. Coloured or textured paper can interfere with scanning.
- Don’t photocopy from a photocopy. Each generation of copy loses detail. If you need extra sheets, reprint from the PDF.
- Keep the original PDF. You may need to reprint later — saving the PDF is faster than regenerating.
For more on what makes scans succeed or fail, see Testing Guidelines.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I reprint just one student’s sheet?
Yes — choose Specific Students and select only the student(s) you need.
The PDF didn’t generate — what happened?
Make sure the assessment has at least one question and the class has at least one student. If both are true and it still fails, contact PaperScorer support with the assessment and class names.
What if I have a student without an ID number (or with a long alphanumeric ID)?
The pre-filled flow handles this correctly — students with non-bubble-friendly identifiers (more than 10 digits, or containing letters) still get a sheet with their information pre-filled, so they don’t need to bubble anything in for their ID.
Can students who aren’t on the class roster still take the test?
Yes, but their sheets won’t be auto-matched to a student record. Either add them to the class first and reprint, or generate a generic (non-pre-filled) sheet from the assessment’s own action menu so they can bubble in their ID at test time.