For students
How will my work be graded?
Your grade is an important signal, with real implications for your degree. You are right to want to know exactly how it is reached. If your course uses Treemarks, here is the plain version, and the rights you can hold us to.
What to expect
What you can count on.
A person is accountable for your grade
Your course staff reviews and approves the results before any grades post. The grade is a person’s responsibility, not a machine’s verdict.
You get actionable feedback, quickly
A specific note on your work, tied to the rubric, that points to any missed concepts and the approach that would have made it right.
Graded on merit, not handwriting
Human graders struggle with varying handwriting. The system transcribes the content and grades the methodology, not fluency or penmanship.
If a regrade is granted, everyone gets credit
If one student is granted a regrade, the correction applies to every student who made the same choice.
The boundary
What we don’t grade with AI.
Treemarks only grades work where the method can be checked against the physics or the math, where there is a defined correct approach and partial credit follows your reasoning.
Subjective work, such as an essay that argues a position, must be graded by people. An argument is written for a reader, and whether it lands is a judgment only a human audience can make. Learn more in our position →
Graded with AI, with a person approving: problem sets, exams, derivations, spreadsheets, the quantitative work.
Left to people: argue-a-position essays, open-ended writing, anything where the only judge is a reader.
A fair question
If I can’t use AI, why can my grader?
When a course asks you not to use AI on your work, it is so you go through the process yourself. Working through it is the thing you are meant to learn.
When AI helps grade, it applies the same rubric to every student, and provides the feedback you need to improve.
You can see exactly the reason behind each point, and if you disagree, you can challenge it.
Want the full rules?
Everything here is part of the standard we hold ourselves to, published and meant to be checked. Questions about your own course? Ask your instructor.