| Term | Meaning |
| Subject | Paper in different semesters of a course. |
| Q | Test paper of a subject with T questions shown as Q= {q1, q2..., qT} |
| A | Answer paper of a subject with T answers represented as A= {a1, a2..., aT} |
| S | Question solution le of a subject with T solutions represented as S= {s1, s2..., sT} |
| ai | An answer ai consist of a set of j answer vectors represented as ai= {ai1, ai2..., aij} |
| si | A solution si consist of a set of k solution vectors, represented as si= {si1, si2..., sik} |
| wi1, wi2..., wik | Percentage of marks assigned to different solution vectors of solution, si= {si1, si2..., sik} |
| SIM (ai, si) | A two-dimensional matrix for each question, with ai answer vectors and si solution vectors represented as ai×si with computed pair-wise similarity, say simaij,sik for every ai j answer vector and sik solution vector. |
| similarity (aij, sik) | Pair-wise similarity, simai j,sik for every ai j answer vector & sik solution vector is represented as similarity(ai j,sik). |
| Theshold,δ | User input threshold value to find the similarity |
| n(ai) | Number of answer vectors in each ai |
| N(si) | Number of solution vectors in each si |
| wc(ai j), wc(sik) | wc(ai j) is the number of words in each answer vector, ai j and wc(sik) is the number of words in each solution vector, sik |
| cai j[w], csik[w] | cai j[w] and csik[w] are the arrays of words common in answer vector ai j and solution vector sik. |
| vai j[u], vsik[u] | vai j[u] and vsik[u] are the arrays of index numbers assigned to words in cai j[w] and csik[w] for u=1 to
wc(cai j[w]) |
instructor/
paper-setter | Carries out descriptive answer assessment. |