universal-essay-grader

name	universal-essay-grader
description	Scores and evaluates student answers against university-specific rubrics for ANY university worldwide. Covers ALL question types, ALL mark ranges (1-100+), ALL Bloom's levels. Provides detailed feedback per evaluation criterion with improvement suggestions and model answer comparison.

Universal Essay Grader / Answer Evaluator

Overview

Evaluates student answers against the expected standard for any university exam. Provides a detailed score breakdown across multiple criteria, identifies strengths and weaknesses, and gives actionable improvement suggestions. Helps students understand exactly how examiners will assess their answers.

How This Skill Works

1. User provides: Question, student's answer, university, subject, marks allocated, question type, Bloom's level
2. System evaluates: Against expected answer framework using multiple criteria
3. System scores: Per-criterion breakdown with commentary
4. System recommends: Specific improvements with model answer comparison

1. Evaluation Criteria

For Theory / Descriptive Answers (3-20 marks)

Criterion	Weight	What We Assess
Content Accuracy	30%	Are facts, definitions, and concepts correct?
Coverage	25%	Are all required points/dimensions addressed?
Structure & Organization	15%	Logical flow, sectioning, paragraphing
Depth of Explanation	10%	Are mechanisms explained? "Why" and "How" covered?
Examples / Application	10%	Relevant examples, diagrams, or applications
Language & Clarity	5%	Technical vocabulary, sentence clarity
Concision	5%	Answer within expected length, no irrelevant content

For Numerical / Problem Answers

Criterion	Weight	What We Assess
Formula Selection	20%	Correct formula chosen
Step-by-step Method	30%	Clear logical progression
Calculation Accuracy	25%	Arithmetic and algebraic correctness
Units & Notation	10%	Correct units throughout
Final Answer	15%	Correctness of final result with proper formatting

For Essay / Long-Form Answers (20-100+ marks)

Criterion	Weight	What We Assess
Introduction & Thesis	10%	Clear opening, strong thesis statement
Argument Quality	25%	Logical reasoning, evidence support
Content Knowledge	25%	Depth and breadth of subject understanding
Critical Analysis	15%	Evaluation, comparison, multiple perspectives
Structure	10%	Coherent paragraphing, transitions
Conclusion	10%	Summary, implications, closure
Referencing	5%	Citations where applicable

2. Score Interpretation

Score %	Grade	Meaning	Action
90-100	A+ / O	Outstanding, exam-ready	Maintain, review edge cases
75-89	A / A-	Very good, minor gaps	Address specific weak criteria
60-74	B+ / B	Competent, moderate gaps	Focus on coverage and depth
45-59	C+ / C	Passing, significant gaps	Systematic revision needed
30-44	D	Below expectations	Restructure study approach
0-29	F	Fail, major deficiencies	Re-learn from fundamentals

3. Feedback Format

Each evaluation provides:

Question: [The question]
Marks: [X]
Your Score: [Y/Z] ([Y/Z*100]%)

CRITERION BREAKDOWN:
1. Content Accuracy (X%) — Score: Y/Z
   + Correctly stated: [list of correct points]
   - Missing/incorrect: [list of errors/gaps]
   Tip: [Specific improvement advice]

2. Coverage (X%) — Score: Y/Z
   + Points covered: [list]
   - Missing points: [list]
   Tip: [Specific improvement advice]

...

STRENGTHS:
- [Key strength 1]
- [Key strength 2]

WEAKNESSES:
- [Key weakness 1]
- [Key weakness 2]

IMPROVEMENT PRIORITY:
1. [Highest priority change]
2. [Next priority]
3. [Next priority]

MODEL ANSWER COMPARISON:
[Excerpt from model answer showing what a top-scoring answer includes]

4. Sample Evaluation

Question: Explain the concept of virtual memory and its benefits. [10 marks, SPPU TE Comp]

Student Answer: "Virtual memory is a memory management technique where the computer uses hard disk space as if it were RAM. It allows programs to be larger than physical memory. The benefits are that we can run more programs and the OS handles it automatically."

Your Score: 7/10 (70%)

CRITERION BREAKDOWN:
1. Content Accuracy (30%) — Score: 8/10
   + "Virtual memory uses disk space as extension of RAM" — Correct
   + "Allows programs larger than physical memory" — Correct
   - Missing: demand paging, page faults, MMU role
   Tip: Mention that virtual memory maps virtual addresses to physical frames using page tables

2. Coverage (25%) — Score: 6/10
   + Benefits mentioned (run more programs)
   - Missing: memory isolation between processes, simplified programming, efficient memory sharing
   - Missing: mechanism details (page/frame, page fault, swap in/out)
   Tip: Cover at least 4 benefits and the basic mechanism

3. Structure & Organization (15%) — Score: 7/10
   + Logical flow: definition -> benefits
   - Very short, no paragraph breaks
   Tip: Use two paragraphs: Mechanism + Benefits

4. Depth (10%) — Score: 5/10
   - No explanation of HOW virtual memory works
   Tip: Add 2-3 sentences on page table mechanism

5. Examples (10%) — Score: 6/10
   - No concrete example
   Tip: Example: "A 4GB program can run on 2GB RAM by swapping pages on demand"

6. Language (5%) — Score: 8/10
   + Clear and technically appropriate

7. Concision (5%) — Score: 9/10
   + Appropriate length for 10-mark question

STRENGTHS:
- Core concept correctly identified
- Clear, straightforward language

WEAKNESSES:
- Missing mechanism details (page tables, page faults)
- Benefits too brief and incomplete

IMPROVEMENT PRIORITY:
1. Add mechanism explanation (page tables, demand paging)
2. Expand benefits to 4-5 points with brief explanation each
3. Add a concrete example

MODEL ANSWER (excerpt):
"Virtual memory is a memory management technique that creates an abstraction of a larger address space than physically available. It maps virtual addresses used by processes to physical frames through page tables managed by the MMU. When a process accesses a page not in physical memory, a page fault occurs, and the OS swaps the required page from disk into a free frame. Benefits include: (1) running programs larger than physical RAM, (2) process isolation — each process has its own virtual address space, (3) simplified memory management for programmers, (4) efficient memory utilization through sharing of common pages, and (5) support for sparse address spaces."

Error Handling

Situation	Action
No rubric provided	Construct rubric dynamically using question type, marks, Bloom's level, and subject area defaults
Answer too short	Grade what is present; flag insufficient length in feedback as a limitation
Missing criteria weights	Use default weights (Content Accuracy 30%, Coverage 25%, Structure 15%, Depth 10%, Examples 10%, Language 5%, Concision 5%)
Ambiguous scoring scale	Clarify with user or default to percentage-based scoring (0-100%) mapped to letter grades

Quality Gate — Check Before Output

• All evaluation criteria scored with clear justification
• Feedback is specific and actionable (not generic praise/criticism)
• Model answer referenced where student answer falls short
• Score range validated — total does not exceed allocated marks
• Bloom's level of question matched to evaluation depth
• Improvement priority list ordered by impact on score

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Session Config

This skill integrates with the session config system (deps/session-profile.json). Before executing, check for an existing session profile:

• If deps/session-profile.json exists, read university, subject, pattern, and exam_type fields to auto-configure the skill.
• If the file does not exist, fall back to user-provided context or prompt the user to run setup-exam-prompt (or npm run init) first.
• Session config eliminates redundant context detection — detection happens once and is reused across all skill calls.

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5. Integration with Other Skills

• universal-session-config: Reads grading preferences, university, and subject from session profile
• universal-a-plus-answer-writer: Provides the model answer standards against which answers are graded
• universal-pyq-analyzer: Identifies which question types and Bloom's levels are most frequently tested
• universal-subject-prompt-bank: Supplies subject-specific answer standards and exemplars
• universal-mcq-practice-generator: Can generate targeted MCQs based on identified weak areas
• universal-flashcard-generator: Creates flashcards for concepts where the student scored low