Standardized assessment tools work differently from a quiz. There are no right or wrong answers: every option is valid, but each carries a different number of points, and the total maps to a category that means something (Minimal, Moderate, Severe). PaperSurvey scores these scales automatically. You assign a point value to each answer, the app sums an instrument total for every respondent as their sheet is scanned or their web form is submitted, and it labels that total with the severity band you defined. This article walks through the PHQ-9 depression screen, a nine item scale scored 0 to 27, and shows how the same setup applies to any scored questionnaire.
Points scoring versus right or wrong grading
PaperSurvey has two scoring modes, and you choose one per question in the Answer Key:
- Right / wrong answers is classic quiz grading. You tick the correct options and give the question a single weight in points. Covered in Grading Paper Tests Automatically.
- Points per answer is for scales. Every option gets its own point value (often 0, 1, 2, 3), there is no correct answer, and a respondent's score is the value of the option they picked. This article is about this mode.
Both modes need grading switched on for the survey, and both can live in the same survey.
The scenario: PHQ-9
The PHQ-9 asks how often, over the last two weeks, a person was bothered by nine problems. Each item is answered on the same four point frequency scale: Not at all (0), Several days (1), More than half the days (2), Nearly every day (3). The nine item scores add up to a total from 0 to 27, and that total maps to a severity band:
| Total score | Severity |
|---|---|
| 0 to 4 | Minimal |
| 5 to 9 | Mild |
| 10 to 14 | Moderate |
| 15 to 19 | Moderately severe |
| 20 to 27 | Severe |
Because all nine items share one scale, the natural way to build this is a single-choice grid: the nine items are the rows, and the four frequencies are the columns.
Step 1: Turn on grading
- Open your survey, go to Settings, and choose Grading in the side navigation.
- Switch on Activate test grading.
- Leave the Pass threshold empty. A pass or fail line is a quiz idea; a scale uses severity bands instead, which you set up next.
Step 2: Switch the Answer Key to Points per answer
Answer keys live on the Setup tab. For a grid, open the tools menu on any one of the grid's rows and choose Answer Key. At the top of the modal there is a mode toggle:
- Select Points per answer.
- The correct and incorrect sections are replaced by a Points field next to each column. Enter 0, 1, 2 and 3 for Not at all, Several days, More than half the days and Nearly every day.
The column points are shared by every row of the grid, so you set them once. It does not matter which row you open the Answer Key on; the values you enter apply to the whole grid. Points can be any whole number, including negative values if a scale needs them.
Step 3: Define the severity bands
The same Answer Key modal has a Score bands section below the points. Add one row per band:
- Min and Max are the inclusive ends of the range. A total of exactly 4 falls in a 0 to 4 band, and a total of 5 falls in a 5 to 9 band.
- Leave Max blank on the top band (or Min blank on the bottom band) for an open ended range, for example 20 and above.
- Label is the text shown for that range, such as Moderate.
- Color tints the band in charts.
For the PHQ-9 you add five bands: 0 to 4 Minimal, 5 to 9 Mild, 10 to 14 Moderate, 15 to 19 Moderately severe, 20 and above Severe. Bands may leave gaps; a total that falls in no band is simply left unlabeled. Click Save, and the modal reminds you that scores for all existing responses will be recalculated.
What every respondent gets
As each sheet is scanned and processed, or each web form submitted, the instrument total is computed as the sum of the item point values. On the Responses tab the Total Score column shows that sum. There is no pass or fail column unless you set a pass threshold; the meaning of the score comes from its band, which you see in analysis and exports.
See the results: the Scale Score widget
Open Analysis, edit the view, and add the Scale Score widget from the Quiz category. In its settings, pick the scored grid (or scored question) under Scored question or grid. The widget shows:
- A histogram of respondent totals, with each bar colored by the band it falls in.
- The mean, median, high, low and standard deviation of the totals, and the count of respondents.
- A legend listing each band, its range, and how many respondents landed in it.
This is the headline view of a screening program: at a glance you see how many people scored in the Moderate or Severe range.
Do you have to use a grid?
No, but the choice matters. A band always applies to one instrument's total, so how you build the instrument decides what gets banded. There are three cases.
A multi-item scale: use a single-choice grid (recommended). When several items share one answer scale, like the nine PHQ-9 items, build them as a single-choice grid with the items as rows and the scale as columns. The grid is what sums the rows into one total, so the band labels that combined total. This is how the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 templates are built, and it is the right structure for any standardized tool.
A single scored question: fully supported. A standalone single-choice or multiple-choice question is a one item instrument. Put points on its options and bands on the question, and it behaves exactly like a grid: its own total (the value of the option picked), its own Scale Score widget, and its own export and webhook fields. Use this for a single global rating, for example one overall severity item.
Several separate single-choice questions: each stands alone. If you build a scale as several individual single-choice questions instead of a grid, each question scores and bands on its own. Nothing combines them into one total, because only a grid groups items into an instrument. You have two choices:
- To get one banded total for the scale, turn the items into a single-choice grid (rows = items). This is the recommended structure.
- If you keep them separate, the survey-wide Total Score column still adds up every scored answer, but that is a whole-survey number rather than a per-scale band, and it also folds in any other scored questions in the form.
Why not band the whole survey? Because one form often carries more than one instrument. An intake form can include both a PHQ-9 and a GAD-7, each needing its own total (0 to 27 versus 0 to 21) and its own bands, next to unscored questions such as demographics that should not count. Banding per instrument keeps them separate and correct. Individual grid rows are likewise never banded on their own; only the instrument total is.
Two more notes:
- Reverse-scored items. If an instrument scores some items in reverse (3 down to 0 instead of 0 up to 3), keep those items in a separate grid whose columns are valued in reverse. A single grid uses one shared set of column points for all its rows.
- One scale per grid. Every row of a grid uses the same shared column points, which is exactly what a standardized scale needs.
Exports and integrations
Every scored respondent carries their band into your data, not just into the app:
- File exports. On the Responses tab, Export includes the Total Score column and, for every scored instrument with bands, a <instrument name> band column showing the label, for example Moderate. This applies to Excel, CSV, SPSS, R, SAS and Stata.
- Google Sheets. A connected sheet gets the same band column automatically, next to Total Score. If you have customized which columns your sheet shows, the band column is added alongside the score column and is also available to add or hide in the column picker.
- Webhooks and API. The entry payload includes a scale_bands array, one entry per scored instrument, each with the instrument's question id, name, summed score, and band label. A downstream system can route a Severe result straight into a follow-up workflow.
- Zapier. Each scored instrument appears as a flat band_<id> field you can map into any Zap.
A total that falls in no band exports as an empty cell.
Start from a template
The PHQ-9 and GAD-7 templates in the gallery come preconfigured: the grid already has points 0 to 3 on the columns, the official severity bands, grading switched on, and a Scale Score report in the analysis view. Duplicate one of them and you have a working scored scale in a couple of clicks, ready to print, scan, and read as severity bands.
Next steps
- Grading Paper Tests Automatically for right or wrong quiz scoring, weighted points and pass rates.
- Analyzing Likert Scale Data for response distributions across a battery of items.
- Creating an Analysis Dashboard to arrange the Scale Score widget alongside other charts.
- Exporting Survey Data for the full list of export formats.