The instrument
What marks your essay
Not a chatbot with a prompt. A versioned marking engine that we change deliberately, test against a frozen benchmark, and publish the history of — so a score means the same thing this week as it did last week, and you can see for yourself when it does not.
Marking since 29 May 2026 · current release 1.0
Every essay, every plan
Two judges read your essay independently and never see each other's mark. Their scores are reconciled into one calibrated result, and when they disagree by more than a couple of points a third judge is called in to settle it.
The deep mark
Three senior judges from three different providers mark separately, each reading through a different specialist lens, and a chief examiner reconciles them into one verdict — with a paragraph-by-paragraph breakdown and a worked rewrite.
Release history
Every release is dated and says what it changed for you. We only move the number when the marking itself moves — a version that ticks for its own sake is noise.
- Examiner Engine 1.0First named releasemarking now2026-08-16
- BothTwo judges now mark every essay, on every plan — not just paid ones.
- BothA mark that loses a judge to an outage is re-marked automatically, instead of standing as a single opinion.
- StandardSharper reading of Task B reflective writing, and stricter task-response checking.
- UltraThe senior panel's third judge was upgraded — closer reading of argument structure on the deep mark.
- UltraA short-handed panel is now stated on the verdict itself rather than only in the score.
The first NAMED release — not the first marking. Essays marked before this are not back-dated into a numbering that did not exist at the time; they simply say “Examiner Engine”, with no version. What came before is below.
Before 1.0
Two-judge marking has run since 29 May 2026. These months predate the version numbering and are deliberately left unnumbered — the dates and the changes are real, and inventing versions to fill the gap would not be.
- 2026-08-14Standard
Both judges upgraded again, at the highest reasoning effort their generation allows.
- 2026-08-02Ultra
The senior panel is recomposed around maximum-intelligence judges from three different providers.
- 2026-07-23Both
The reasoning seats behind question review and figure checking upgraded with them.
- 2026-07-22Standard
Both judges upgraded to a faster generation — same marking, less waiting.
- 2026-05-29Both
Two independent judges start marking every Section II essay, and their scores are reconciled into one.
See it mark your own essay
One Section II essay, marked free by both judges in about a minute — a scaled score, the rubric breakdown, and line-by-line annotations. No card.
Mark my essay freeScores are calibrated estimates from our own rubric, built from ACER's two published assessment criteria. ACER publishes no Section II marking rubric and does not endorse this product; only ACER issues an official mark.