Design of OMR Answer Sheet

The OMR Answer Sheet is the most commonly used OMR sheet. This is required by educational institutes for conducting entrance or scholarship exams, institutes that conduct practice tests for entrance examinations, government and private institutes for recruitment tests and any organization that has to conduct multiple-choice based (MCQ) tests. While every institute prefers different OMR sheet designs, there are some elements that are common for all sheets. Let us take a look at them.

Question blocks

The question blocks are the most important elements or components of the OMR answer sheets. Each OMR sheet can have different forms of blocks. The multiple choice questions usually have four to five blocks for every question. Apart from this, the question blocks include matrix and integer type blocks too. While the matrix blocks include a panel of four rows and four or five columns, the integer MCQ Block looks similar to the roll no. block.

Roll no. block

The roll no. is the unique identification number of a student or candidate and hence an important component of the OMR sheets. The OMR bubbles for the roll no. are present in the matrix form with 10 rows and no. of columns depending on the length of the roll number. The roll number is sometimes also pre-printed on the OMR sheet in the form of barcode if the identity of the candidate has to be kept confidential. This barcode can be read by the OMR answer sheet checker software.

Test paper code: Most crucial recruitment and entrance exams have more than one set of question papers. In such cases, the OMR answer sheet consists of the set code or test paper code for recognition by the OMR software. However, the test identification code may not be included in the answer sheets if there is only one paper set for the examination.

Personal information of the candidate: Some OMR answer sheets include several fields to gather the personal information of the candidate. This includes name, gender, date of birth, father's name, mobile number, etc. This is usually found on the answer sheets of scholarship exams, data collection services, etc. In case the candidate makes a mistake in filling the OMR bubbles for roll no., he/she can be identified with the help of these information fields.

Instructions: Every OMR answer sheet has a section that provides instructions for filling the OMR sheets. However, the content of this section would be different for every examination and accordingly its design, location and size would differ. This section may also include boxes for signature of the invigilator, student and the supervisor. Some institutes also provide space for the stamp of the institute.

Although these are the common components of a typical OMR answer sheet, the design and look of the OMR Sheet can be changed as per your requirements.