- name
- answer-processing
- description
- Use whenever the user uploads a hand-written or scanned answer PDF to be graded against a reference solution. Converts answer PDFs in `answers/*.pdf` to markdown in `answers/converted/*.md` using the pdf skill (OCR as needed), then performs strategy-based grading against `converted/solutions/*.md` or `quizzes/*_answers.md`. Invoked by `/grade`.
# Answer Processing
## When to load
- User uploads an answer PDF and asks to grade it
- `/grade` is invoked
- User says "I finished the quiz, here's my work"
## Core pipeline
```
answers/<quiz-name>.pdf โ user uploads hand-written scan
โ (pdf skill, OCR)
answers/converted/<quiz-name>.md
โ (this skill)
grade report โ stdout (compact) + errors/log.md (append)
```
## Step-by-step procedure
### Step 1: Locate the answer file
If `/grade` was called with an argument, use it as a hint. Otherwise find the most recently modified file in `answers/` (not `answers/converted/`).
### Step 2: Convert PDF to MD (if PDF)
**Use the `vision-ocr` skill** โ delegates to a local VLM (Qwen3-VL 8B via ollama) for clean Korean+LaTeX transcription, with pytesseract as automatic fallback.
```bash
python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/vision_ocr.py" answers/<name>.pdf answers/converted/<name>.md
```
The script handles model warmup, page-by-page inference, and tier fallback. See `.claude/skills/vision-ocr/SKILL.md`. The output header tells the grader which tier produced the text:
- `<!-- SOURCE: ..., qwen3-vl:8b @ 300dpi, N pages -->` โ high-confidence
- `<!-- TIER: tesseract fallback -->` โ degraded; treat results conservatively
### Step 3: Graceful handling of OCR noise
Hand-written math OCR will be imperfect. Expect:
- Greek letters misread as Latin ($\alpha \to a$, $\beta \to B$, $\pi \to T$ or $n$)
- Fractions rendered as flattened text ($\tfrac{dU}{dT} \to dUdT$ or similar)
- Subscripts/superscripts lost or inlined
**Do not grade on algebraic correctness of OCR output.** Instead, apply **strategy-based grading**:
### Step 4: Strategy extraction from noisy MD
Read the converted MD file. For each problem, identify:
1. **Which pattern(s) did the user invoke?** Look for:
- Named theorems / techniques the user wrote out ("Maxwell relation", "Stokes theorem", "by induction")
- Variables they held fixed (even if notation is mangled)
- Key intermediate objects (a chosen potential, a change of variable, an ansatz)
2. **Did the reasoning reach the correct end form?** Even if algebra is wrong, the user's final expression structure (Does it have a log? A sqrt? A series? Correct variables?) tells you if the approach worked.
3. **Where did they stop?** Incomplete work is common; note which step is the last recognizable one.
### Step 5: Compare against reference solution
Open the reference (`converted/solutions/<hw>.md` for HW, `quizzes/<name>_answers.md` for quizzes, `twins/<id>_<ts>_sol.md` for twins, `chain/<ts>_sol.md` for chain).
For each problem/part, produce a verdict:
```
## P<n>
- Pattern match: โ
/ โ ๏ธ / โ [user invoked <Pk>, solution uses <Pk>]
- Variable choice: โ
/ โ ๏ธ / โ [user held <x> fixed, should be <y>]
- End form: โ
/ โ ๏ธ / โ [user's final: <form>, expected: <form>]
- Completeness: <last step user reached>
- Overall: <PASS | PARTIAL | FAIL>
- Note: <one line โ what to study, which Pk to re-drill>
```
**Do not** report line-by-line algebra mistakes unless they are specifically about sign errors or notation bugs that matter on the exam (e.g., missing $-$ on $\kappa$ definition, conjugate vs. transpose confusion).
### Step 6: Log errors
**Canonical `errors/log.md` schema โ single source of truth.** Every command that appends here (`/grade`, `/blind`, future drills) MUST use exactly these keys. Downstream readers (`statusline.py`, `weakmap`, `session_start.py`) pattern-match on `pattern:` and `problem_id:` lines; any drift silently hides entries.
For each non-โ
entry, append to `errors/log.md`:
```yaml
- problem_id: <id>
pattern: <Pk>
error_type: pattern-missed | wrong-variable | wrong-end-form | algebraic | sign | definition
summary: "<1 line>"
source: answers/converted/<name>.md
date: <ISO>
```
### Step 7: Render grade summary (chat output)
Compact table, no verbose explanations:
```
| Problem | Pattern | Vars | End form | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | โ
| โ
| โ ๏ธ | PARTIAL |
| P2 | โ | โ | โ | FAIL |
| P3 | โ
| โ
| โ
| PASS |
Dominant issue: pattern-missed on P2 (used brute-force integration; should use residue theorem, P7).
Drill next: /blind <problem testing P7>, or /pattern P7 for quick review.
```
Keep this under 15 lines of output.
## Handling edge cases
### Empty or unreadable PDF
If OCR yields <100 chars total, ask the user:
"OCR ๊ฒฐ๊ณผ๊ฐ ๋๋ฌด ๋ถ์กฑํด. PDF ํ์ง์ด ๋ฎ๊ฑฐ๋ ํ๊ธฐ๊ฐ ๋๋ฌด ์์ ์๋. ์ต์
:
(a) ๋ ๋ฐ๊ฒ/ํฌ๊ฒ ์ค์บํด์ ๋ค์ ์
๋ก๋
(b) ์ง์ ๋ต์ `.md`๋ก ํ์ดํํด์ `answers/converted/<name>.md`์ ์ ์ฅ ํ ๋ค์ `/grade`"
### User uploads .md directly
Skip PDF conversion. Read `answers/<name>.md` directly. Everything else is the same.
### Multi-page with disordered content
Hand-written work often has margin notes, arrows, struck-through attempts. OCR will render them chaotically. Note in the grade: "๋ต์ ์์๊ฐ ์ ๋งค. ๋ด๊ฐ ์ดํดํ ํด์: <brief>. ๋ค๋ฅด๋ฉด ์๋ ค์ค."
### User already in context
If the user pastes their work directly into chat (not as PDF), grade it from context. Still apply strategy-based grading.
## Anti-patterns (things NOT to do)
โ Demand pixel-perfect algebra from OCR output
โ Mark something wrong because OCR mangled a Greek letter
โ Require the user to retype their solution in LaTeX
โ Produce 3-page grade reports (stay compact)
โ Reveal the reference solution before grading (user might be asking "did I get it right" as a first pass)
## Integration
- Called by `/grade`
- Uses `pdf` skill for OCR
- Reads `course-index/patterns.md` (pattern IDs) and `converted/solutions/` or equivalent
- Writes to `errors/log.md` and `answers/converted/`
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