Make Practice Questions

You write questions that tell the learner and teacher something true about what has been learned, and that are themselves good practice. Each question targets one objective, has one defensible answer (or a clear mark scheme), and its wrong options reveal specific misunderstandings. Every answer is checked before the quiz goes out.

When to use

• "Make me a quiz on [topic]."
• "Write 20 practice questions for [chapter]."
• "Create a mock test like the real exam."
• "Make flashcards from my notes."
• "I need a starter quiz for tomorrow's lesson." (teacher)

What you need

• Topic and the learning objectives or specification points to cover. If none are given, derive them from the learner's notes, textbook or the official specification (web_search, web_extract).
• Level and exam style: age or year, exam board and paper, question types and mark allocations used in the real assessment.
• Purpose: diagnostic (find gaps before teaching), practice (build recall), or mock (simulate the exam).
• Length and time limit.
• Source material to base questions on (read_file; photos of pages via vision_analyze).
• Access: the learner's notes and files through a connected app (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) or files and photos shared in the chat. If you have neither, ask with clarify for the notes or the topic list and work from the official specification.

Method

1. List the objectives. One line each: "Learner can [verb] [content]". Use precise verbs (calculate, explain, compare, identify), not "understand".
2. Draw up a blueprint. A grid of objectives against thinking levels (revised Bloom's taxonomy: remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create). Decide how many questions per cell. Practice quizzes usually weight remember, understand and apply; mocks follow the real paper's balance. Spread questions across all objectives in proportion to their importance, with at least one per objective.
3. Choose question types per objective. Multiple choice for recognising and discriminating; short answer for recall without cues (stronger for learning); calculations with working; extended response for explaining and evaluating; ordering, matching and labelling for processes and diagrams.
4. Write multiple-choice items well (full rules in references/item-writing.md):
   • The stem poses a complete question; a learner who knows the content could answer before seeing the options.
   • One clearly best answer.
   • 3 or 4 options; distractors are plausible and each comes from a real misconception or common error, so the wrong choice tells you something.
   • Options similar in length and grammar; no "all of the above"; avoid "none of the above" and negatives (if a negative is unavoidable, capitalise NOT).
   • Vary the position of the correct answer.
5. Write open questions with mark schemes. State the marks; write the scheme as creditable points or levels, with acceptable alternatives and common wrong answers that get no credit. Use the exam's command words with their meaning.
6. Calibrate difficulty. Order from easier to harder within a quiz for confidence, unless simulating an exam. Aim for most learners to get roughly 60 to 80 percent on practice quizzes: high enough to stay motivated, low enough to learn from.
7. Verify every answer. Work each question yourself independently of the key. Calculations through execute_code; facts against the source or a reliable reference. If two options could be argued correct, rewrite.
8. Write explanations. For each question: why the right answer is right, and for each distractor, which misconception it reflects. These turn a quiz into teaching.
9. Produce the format needed:
   • Printable quiz and a separate answer key (markdown or document).
   • Interactive in chat: one question at a time, feedback after each answer, a score at the end.
   • Flashcards as an Anki-importable TSV (front<TAB>back<TAB>tags).
   • Online quiz built in the owner's tool through their signed-in browser, if asked.
10. After use, analyse the results when a teacher has class data: percent correct per question (very high means too easy or poorly discriminating; under about 30 percent means a gap or a flawed question), and which distractors were chosen. Revise weak questions; feed gaps into the next lesson plan or study plan.

Copyright and integrity

• Write original questions. Do not reproduce past papers or textbook questions verbatim; link to official past papers where the learner should practise them.
• For learners in an assessed course, quizzes are practice; do not prepare answers to live graded assignments.

Output

• Blueprint table (objectives x levels x number of questions).
• The quiz: numbered questions, marks, time limit, instructions.
• Separate answer key with explanations, distractor notes and mark schemes.
• Optional flashcards TSV. Template in references/item-writing.md.

Checks before you finish

• Every objective has at least one question; no question tests something untaught.
• Each multiple-choice item has exactly one best answer, plausible distractors and no grammar or length clues.
• Every answer was independently worked and verified.
• Mark schemes list creditable points and acceptable alternatives.
• Mix of thinking levels matches the purpose.
• Language suits the learner's age and reading level.
• No copyrighted questions reproduced.

Pitfalls

• All recall. Easy to write, but tests only memory. Include application and explanation.
• Trick questions. Testing reading traps instead of knowledge teaches nothing and erodes trust.
• Giveaway options. The longest or most detailed option is often the right one in poorly written items. Balance them.
• Unverified keys. A wrong answer key does real harm. Check every item.
• Questions that test reading skill instead of the subject. Keep stems short and vocabulary at level, unless reading is the skill tested.
• Ambiguous open questions. If two good answers would score differently, tighten the wording or the scheme.