Prepare tests
Little of this can be handed to software today.
Software can assemble the case and recommend an answer, and that is genuinely useful. The decision stays with a person because someone has to be accountable for it. Treating the recommendation as the decision is how automation projects fail.
| How automatable | Barely automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Judgment, authorisation and strategy |
| Jobs that do it | 48 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Generalist agents, Models and routing |
| O*NET activity | Judging the Qualities of Objects, Services, or People (4.A.2.a.1) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 48 occupations that perform it.
- Design or use assessments to monitor student learning outcomes.
- Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
- Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate children's progress.
- Prepare, administer, and grade tests and assignments to evaluate students' progress.
- Prepare, administer, or grade assignments to evaluate students' progress.
- Prepare, administer, or grade tests or assignments to evaluate students' progress.
- Prepare and administer written, oral, and performance tests and issue grades in accordance with performance.
- Prepare or proctor examinations.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for judgment, authorisation and strategy, and what it costs.
There is nothing here worth buying beyond a good assistant. Software assembles the case and recommends an answer, which any $20 assistant already does; the decision is yours, and no product on this page changes that.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Generalist agents
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
Step-by-step workflows that name this activity, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Others for judgment, authorisation and strategy
Who does this work
48 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English as a Second Language Instructors
- Agricultural Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary
- Anthropology and Archeology Teachers, Postsecondary
- Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary
- Area, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies Teachers, Postsecondary
- Art, Drama, and Music Teachers, Postsecondary
- Atmospheric, Earth, Marine, and Space Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary
- Biological Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Business Teachers, Postsecondary
- Career/Technical Education Teachers, Middle School
- Career/Technical Education Teachers, Secondary School
- Chemistry Teachers, Postsecondary
- Communications Teachers, Postsecondary
- Computer Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Teachers, Postsecondary
- Economics Teachers, Postsecondary
- Education Administrators, Postsecondary
- Education Teachers, Postsecondary
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
- Engineering Teachers, Postsecondary
- English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
- Environmental Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Family and Consumer Sciences Teachers, Postsecondary
- Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
- Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Geography Teachers, Postsecondary
- Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary
- History Teachers, Postsecondary
- Kindergarten Teachers, Except Special Education
- Law Teachers, Postsecondary
- Library Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Mathematical Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Middle School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
- Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary
- Philosophy and Religion Teachers, Postsecondary
- Physics Teachers, Postsecondary
- Political Science Teachers, Postsecondary
- Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary
- Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary
- Secondary School Teachers, Except Special and Career/Technical Education
- Self-Enrichment Teachers
- Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary
- Sociology Teachers, Postsecondary
- Special Education Teachers, Elementary School
- Special Education Teachers, Kindergarten
- Special Education Teachers, Middle School
- Special Education Teachers, Secondary School
- Teaching Assistants, Postsecondary
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Assess student capabilities, needs, or performance”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Evaluate student work | 55 |
| Administer tests to assess educational needs or progress | 53 |
| Assess educational needs of students | 10 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.