How to turn a PDF into practice questions
Upload the PDF to Grader, pick which kinds of practice you want, and it reads the document and writes questions from what is actually in it. You then answer them and get marked, with an explanation for anything you got wrong.
Step by step
- 1Create a free account. No card is needed.
- 2Choose New material and drop the PDF in, or pick it from your files.
- 3Give it a title and choose a folder, or leave it in Unsorted.
- 4Pick the formats you want. You do not have to generate all of them.
- 5Answer the questions and read the marking. Anything wrong comes with an explanation of why.
What to know
Size and format
A PDF can be up to 20 MB. Scanned pages work as well as text ones, because the pages are read as images where they need to be, so an exported slide deck and a photographed textbook chapter both go through the same path.
Diagrams count as content
A labelled figure is not skipped. Questions can be about a diagram rather than only the words around it, which matters for anatomy, circuits, and anything else where the picture is the material.
It only knows your PDF
Questions come from the document you uploaded, not from a general question bank. That is the point, but it is also the limit: if a topic is not in the file, no amount of regenerating will produce questions on it.
Questions
Does it work with scanned or photographed pages?
Yes. Pages that are images rather than selectable text are read as images, so a scan of a textbook chapter works the same as an exported slide deck.
How big can the PDF be?
20 MB per file. If your document is larger, splitting it by chapter usually makes for better questions anyway, because each set stays focused on one topic.
Can I get flashcards instead of multiple choice?
Yes. From one PDF you can generate multiple choice, true or false, flashcards, fill-the-gap, essay prompts, a written summary, and a two-host podcast. You choose which ones.