A software based method of automatically recording and scoring tests is practiced on a system including a computer, a digital pen and a sheet of digitized paper, the method first establishing a number of virtual fields on the digitized paper, each which may contain either one allowable mark, or a multiplicity of allowable marks, marking of the paper using the digital pen, and for each such mark determining the field in which the mark is made, if the field may contain only one allowable mark, then recording that mark, and if the field may contain more than one allowable mark, then using character recognition means to identify the mark, and then calculating a test result based on the marks made, the characters corresponding to each, and a scoring protocol.