1. A computer implemented method of classifying handwritten words associated with an answer to a question using a distance based binary classifier, the method comprising: importing a known answer to a question; importing an image of a handwritten response to the question, the handwritten response to be classified as either a correct answer to the question or an incorrect answer to the question; constructing a reference dictionary set of words that is a function of the known answer, the referred dictionary set of words including handwritten characters associated with a source of the handwritten response to the question; comparing each word of the reference dictionary to the imported image of the handwritten response to be classified using a modified tangent distance (TD) process, wherein the modified TD process includes altering each individual character of a word that is a member of the reference dictionary independently, the alterations minimizing a distance between each word in the reference dictionary and the handwritten response, and the minimal distance being recorded for each word in the reference dictionary; and classifying the image of handwritten response as correct or incorrect based on the minimal distances recorded for each word in the dictionary.