AI-assigned total scores on a handwritten chemistry exam align strongly with TA-assigned totals (R2 = 0.91), while per-problem agreement is lower (R2 = 0.61–0.85)¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · designr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-20 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person · recheck by 2029: tool and model accuracy changes quickly
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? The aggregate AI-assigned total score achieved an R2 of 0.91 against TA-assigned totals, exceeding per-problem agreement because random item-level scoring errors partially cancel in the sum. → Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer 2026
q2 i? For the individual six problems, AI-derived scores correlated with human scores at R2 values ranging from 0.61 to 0.85, which the authors judge too low for grading without additional measures. → Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer 2026 (2)
Evidence¶
Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer 2026¶
Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer. (2026). Assisting the grading of a handwritten general chemistry exam with artificial intelligence. Discover Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-026-01606-4
q2 · i? · design · r2
Descriptive linear-fit comparison of AI-assigned versus TA-assigned total scores for 296 consenting students in the ETH Zurich general chemistry final exam. The article reports that "the aggregate total score shown in the top-left panel of Fig. 11 achieved an R2 of 0.91", attributing the gain over per-problem fits to partial cancellation of unsystematic item-level misgrading.
"the aggregate total score shown in the top-left panel of Fig. 11 achieved an R2 of 0.91"
Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer 2026 (2)¶
Jan Cvengros and Gerd Kortemeyer. (2026). Assisting the grading of a handwritten general chemistry exam with artificial intelligence. Discover Artificial Intelligence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-026-01606-4
q2 · i? · design · r2
Per-problem scatterplots and linear regressions of AI-assigned versus TA-assigned points (Fig. 10), one data point per student. The article reports R2 "ranging from 0.61 to 0.85" and states this per-problem reliability "is low and not suitable for grading without additional measures".
"for the individual six problems, the AI-derived scores correlated with human scores at coefficients of determination ( R2) ranging from 0.61 to 0.85"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- LLM grading performance relative to human graders is mixed: comparable in 12 reviewed cases, worse in 11, with the strongest alignment on short, straightforward tasks — the general claim this finding bears on, with the studies behind it
- AI grading of the exam is highly stable across five independent runs at the total-score level (ICC(A,1) = 0.967), with lower but still strong cell-level stability (ICC(A,1) = 0.836) — related
- AI total scores correlate strongly with official human scores on handwritten physics assessments (r = 0.91–0.97 in Round I; 0.93–0.96 in Round II) — related
- Round II raised exact question-part agreement from about 63% to about 70% and cut parts differing by more than one point from about 13% to 7%, while exact partial-credit scoring remained hardest — related
- LLM-based rubric scores agreed with expert ratings at the total-score level and on cognitive-process dimensions, but agreement was low for more subjective dimensions — related
- A page-by-page, rubric-guided multimodal LLM workflow graded an authentic handwritten exam in about three hours at roughly $100 in token costs, versus about $3,500 in TA time — related
- The revised Round II grading workflow reduced AI over-awarding and total-score MAD, most clearly for OE1 (7.1% to 4.8%) and QM (9.4% to 3.8%) — related
- AI grading errors concentrate in graphical tasks and include both false positives on incorrect equations and false negatives from misread sketches and labels — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
ai-total-scores-align-with-ta-grades-chemistry-exam |
title |
AI-assigned total scores on a handwritten chemistry exam align strongly with TA-assigned totals (R2 = 0.91), while per-problem agreement is lower (R2 = 0.61–0.85) |
description |
AI-assigned total scores on a handwritten chemistry exam align strongly with TA-assigned totals (R2 = 0.91), while per-problem agreement is lower (R2 = 0.61–0.85) |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2026 |
source_checked |
2026-10-20 |
recheck_by |
2029 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-10 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
2 — jan-cvengros-and-gerd-kortemeyer-2026, jan-cvengros-and-gerd-kortemeyer-2026-2 |
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