Burn the Pile
Made by a teacher, for teachers · K–12, CEGEP and college
Burn the Pile does the first pass. You make the call.
Photograph or scan the papers, even handwritten, and add your answer key: every question gets a suggested mark and its explanation, and errors are highlighted on the paper. You review, adjust and export.
No account · No credit card · No student work stored · Privacy-first
I teach high-school history in Quebec. I built Burn the Pile to do the first pass of my own stacks of tests, without sending my students’ work just anywhere. I still read every paper: the tool does the first pass, I keep the judgment.
Three steps, a few minutes
No training, nothing to install. It runs in your browser, on a computer or a tablet.
1. Your answer key
Paste your instructions or upload your answer key (PDF, photo). Points per question, accepted answers, criteria: Burn the Pile follows your rubric, or builds a detailed one for you.
2. Student work
Drop the scanned PDF of the whole class, photos or Word documents. Burn the Pile finds where each paper starts, and you can adjust.
3. You approve
A grade and justification for each question, feedback for the student. Adjust a point in one click and download the results for Excel or your markbook.
Check the writing too, right on the paper
A dedicated tab finds the errors on every page, highlights them by category and explains the rule. Perfect for papers you hand back to students.
- Six categories to choose from: spelling, agreement, verb forms, punctuation, sentence structure, word choice
- Optional writing score (e.g., −0.5 per error)
- Annotated paper to print or save as PDF for the student
- Works on handwriting as well as typed text
Built so you can trust it
An AI that is silently wrong doesn’t save you time. Burn the Pile shows you where to look.
Every point is justified
“Wrote: 1942, expected: 1955.” You see why each point was taken off, and you change it if you disagree.
In-depth grading
Each paper can be marked twice, independently, by two different AI models, with a reliability score. Questions where the two passes disagree are highlighted.
Nothing is stored
Papers are processed, then forgotten: no student work or grades are stored on our servers. You download your results, that’s it.
Pay per page, no subscription
A class of 30 students with 3-page tests: about $5 in quick mode, $10 in in-depth mode (double marking). Language checks count 1 page per page. The answer key is never charged. Purchased pages never expire.
- ~5.8¢ per page
- ~5 classes in quick mode, 2–3 in-depth
Prices in Canadian dollars. Start with 30 free pages. A school or board? Contact us for group pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI replace my judgment?
No. It suggests a mark and a justification; you remain the marker. Everything can be edited before export, and papers that need a second look are flagged.
Does it work with handwriting?
Yes, with clear scans or photos. If a passage is hard to read, the paper is flagged for review. If the photo is illegible, we never guess a mark: the paper is marked “Illegible” and is not charged.
Can I hide student names?
Yes. Tick “Hide the student’s name before sending”: the top of each paper’s first page is hidden in your browser before sending. A name written elsewhere is not hidden: a student code is safest. You still see the full paper and enter the names yourself.
Which file formats?
Scanned PDFs (one or several papers per file), phone photos (including iPhone photos), Word documents (.docx) and text files. Papers in a single scan are split by student automatically.
Which subjects?
Any subject where an answer key or rubric can judge the answers: history, science, math (answers and work shown), English, languages, short written answers. The more precise your answer key, the more precise the grading.
What is a “page”?
One page of student work (one scanned side or one photo). In quick mode and for language checks, a page counts as 1; in in-depth mode (double grading and reliability), as 2. The answer key is not counted. Failed gradings are not charged.
What happens to my students’ work?
It is sent encrypted to our AI provider for grading, then forgotten. We store no student work, grades or student names. See our privacy policy.
Do I need an account?
No. You get an access key that holds your page balance. Write it down to use it on another device or to top up.
An idea for Burn the Pile?
Suggest a feature or tell us what’s missing for your subject. I read every suggestion.
Your next pile of papers, in a few minutes
30 free pages, no credit card.
Try it now