Io, la mia testa, le mie parole

Automated Test Scoring

IBM pioneered the measurement of academic performance with 1937’s IBM 805 Test Scoring Machine.

This machine was able to score tests in less time than it took to manually mark the answer sheet, and was many times more accurate.

Its innovative pencil-mark sensing technology gave rise to the ubiquitous phrase, “Please completely fill in the oval.”

The innovation came into use just prior to World War II, when the government relied on the machine to process and place large numbers of applicants into jobs.