How to make your own practice test from your notes

Rereading your notes tells you what looks familiar. A practice test tells you what you can actually answer. You don't need a question bank to make one. Your notes already hold most of it, and writing the questions is half the studying.

Why a practice test beats another read-through

Learning research has shown for a long time that pulling an answer out of memory strengthens it far more than reading it again. A practice test is that process in its most direct form.

It also tells you the truth. After rereading, everything feels known. After a test, you have a list of exactly what you can't answer yet, and that list is the most useful thing you can study from.

And there's a bonus most people miss: writing the questions is studying too. To ask a good question about a topic, you have to decide what matters in it.

Write the questions while you study

Don't leave it for the night before. As you finish each section of your notes, write two or three questions about it. Put the answers on a separate page with a note of where they come from, so you can check yourself later without hunting.

Mix three kinds of questions

• Recall: "Name the…", "When did…". Quick to check, but exams rarely stop there.
• Explain: "Why did…", "How does…". These test whether you understand the connections.
• Apply: "Here's a new case. What would happen if…". These test whether you can use the idea, which is what harder exam questions usually want.

Aim for fewer recall questions and more of the other two. Avoid yes-or-no questions, and avoid copying a sentence from your notes with one word blanked out. You'll recognize the sentence, and recognizing isn't the same as knowing.

Take it like the real thing

Wait at least a day after writing the questions, so you're not answering from short-term memory. Then close your notes, set a timer and write full answers. No peeking, not even to "just check one word". The moment you look, it stops being a test.

Grade it strictly

Check each answer against your notes and mark it right, partly right or wrong. Treat "partly right" as wrong when you decide what to restudy. Then restudy only the questions you missed, and test yourself on them again a few days later. The ones you got right can wait.

A worked example

Sara is preparing for a history exam on the outbreak of the First World War. From one section of her notes she writes three questions:

1. Recall: What happened in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914?
2. Explain: Why did a conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia turn into a war between the great powers?
3. Apply: If Russia had not mobilized in July 1914, how might Germany's next steps have changed?

The next day she answers them closed-book. Question 1 is easy: the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. For question 2 she writes about the alliances, but leaves out Russia's support for Serbia, which is the link that drew the other powers in. Partly right, so it goes on her restudy list. Question 3 she can't answer at all, which tells her she memorized the sequence of events without understanding why each one led to the next.

Three questions, ten minutes, and she knows exactly where to spend the next hour.

Swap tests with a study partner

Write a test on the same chapter as a friend, then swap. You'll get questions you'd never have thought to ask yourself. And when your friend gets one of your questions wrong, look at the question before you look at their answer. Often it was unclear, and working out why usually shows you a fuzzy spot in your own understanding. Ten questions each is plenty.

Sharing without the hassle

The awkward part of swapping is the logistics: photos of handwritten pages, messages back and forth, nobody quite sure what the right answer was. That's the reason ClearRead added shared quizzes. You turn what you've read into a quiz, flashcards or lesson notes and send it as a link. The other person doesn't need an account to open it, and they can send their result back to you, so you can see which questions tripped them up.

Start with tonight's notes

Take whatever you studied today and write ten questions: two recall, four explain, four apply. Answer them tomorrow without looking. Whatever you miss is your study plan for the day after.