Monday, 8.15, and a pile of answer sheets
Every Monday a new group arrives. Some came through agents, some booked directly, a few turned up on Friday and were told to come back. They sit the placement test in the biggest classroom while the director of studies and whoever is free mark the grammar and vocabulary section with an answer key and a red pen. Someone else does two-minute speaking checks in the corridor.
By 9.30 the scores are on a sheet of paper, the director of studies is matching them against the level bands and the class list for the week, and existing students are already waiting in rooms that might change. New students stand in reception holding a slip of paper until someone tells them where to go. The first lesson of their course starts late, and it is the one they judge the school on.
Why the bottleneck is always the same morning
The problem is not that teachers are slow at marking. It is that every step happens in the same narrow window and each step waits for the one before it.
- The test is only sat on arrival, so nothing can be prepared in advance.
- The written section is marked by hand even though most of it has one right answer.
- Speaking checks need a teacher, and teachers are also needed in class.
- Scores go onto paper and then into a spreadsheet or the student system, so they are written twice.
- Class lists for the week were set on Friday and now need changing around the new students.
Agents often send a level on the booking form, but it is the student's own guess or a level from another school, so nobody trusts it and everyone gets tested anyway.
The cost of a slow first morning
The direct cost is teacher and management time on the busiest morning of the week. The indirect cost is harder to see. New students miss part of their first lesson. Continuing students sit in a class that is about to be reshuffled. Mistakes made in a hurry, like a student put two levels too low, show up on Tuesday as a complaint, a move and another change to the register.
Agents hear about a chaotic first day from their students, and they compare schools.
How we build the placement flow
What we build moves as much of the test as possible out of Monday morning, and makes the remaining decisions quick.
- An online placement test is sent to each student once their booking is confirmed, with a link in the welcome email, so many students take it at home before they travel.
- Students who have not done it take the same test on a tablet or PC in reception on arrival.
- Multiple choice and gap-fill items are marked automatically against your answer keys and mapped to your own level bands.
- A short writing task can be scored by a teacher from a queue, and if you want it we add an AI suggested band using a model such as OpenAI or Anthropic Claude, clearly marked as a suggestion, never the final level.
- Speaking checks are listed as a queue with the written score already shown, so the teacher only has to confirm or adjust.
- The director of studies sees one screen: each new student, their scores, the suggested level, and the classes at that level with spaces left this week.
- Confirming a class writes it to your student management system or the shared class list, and the student gets a message telling them their room.
| Part of the test | Who or what marks it | When |
|---|---|---|
| Grammar and vocabulary | Automatic, from your answer key | Before arrival or on the day |
| Reading | Automatic | Before arrival or on the day |
| Short writing task | Teacher, with an optional AI suggestion | Queue, any time before Monday |
| Speaking check | Teacher in person or on a video call | Arrival morning or pre-arrival call |
| Final level and class | Director of studies | One screen, before first lesson |
The test content and level bands stay yours. If you already use a published test, we connect to its results rather than replace it.
A calmer arrival morning
On Friday afternoon the director of studies can already see most of Monday's new students with a provisional level. Class lists for next week are drafted with them in, and the only people still to place on Monday are the late bookings and anyone whose speaking check changes the picture.
New students sit a short check instead of the full paper, get their class and room by message, and are in a lesson not long after the others. Their scores are kept against their record, so a teacher who thinks a student is in the wrong level on Wednesday can see the original test before recommending a move.
Does this sound like your school?
- Placement tests are marked by hand on the morning they are sat.
- New students wait in reception while levels are decided.
- Agent booking forms carry a level nobody relies on.
- Scores are copied from paper into a spreadsheet or your student system.
- Students are regularly moved level in their first few days.