For teachers
For teachers: setting a syllabus-aligned practice test from past-paper questions
A practice test built from past-paper questions can show you something a textbook exercise cannot: how your class handles the questions the exam actually asks, on exactly the syllabus points you have taught. Getting that right takes more than lifting questions from a paper. This guide covers fixing the test’s purpose, choosing and checking questions against the syllabus, timing it, marking consistently, and turning results by question into reteaching.
Decide what the test is for
Settle the purpose before you choose a single question, because it changes everything else. A diagnostic at the start of a unit should be short and cover the prerequisites. An end-of-unit check should cover the unit’s syllabus points evenly. A mock should copy the real paper’s mix, length and conditions. Write down the syllabus points the test is meant to cover, using their numbers from the syllabus document, and keep that list beside you as you build. Every question should earn its place against one of them.
Choose questions that match the syllabus, not just the topic
Past-paper questions are reliable in style but not always in content. Check each one against the current syllabus: older papers include content that has since been removed, and topics added recently have fewer questions to draw on. Read every part of a multi-part question, not only the first. A question that opens on a point you have taught can finish on one you have not, and one untaught part costs students marks that say nothing about the unit.
- Match question types to the paper your students will sit: multiple choice for a multiple-choice paper, structured for a structured one.
- Spread the marks across your syllabus points roughly in line with their weight in the course.
- Mix years, and avoid papers your students may already have done in class or at home.
- Include some short, routine marks that every student who has learned the point can earn, beside longer questions that need secure understanding.
- Do every question yourself, timed, before you set it.
Time it and fix the conditions
Take the timing from the real paper: its time divided by its total marks gives minutes per mark, and your test should run at the same rate. Tell students in advance what is allowed, such as a calculator, a data or formula booklet, or nothing at all, and keep to it, or one test’s results will not compare with the next. For multiple-choice tests, shuffling the question order makes copying harder, and it is worth deciding beforehand whether students see their answers straight away or only once everyone has finished.
For anything but a mock, shorter is usually better. A test of twenty to thirty minutes on a handful of syllabus points can be sat in one lesson, marked within the week and acted on while the unit is still fresh. A long test that takes a fortnight to mark returns its results after the class has moved on. Keep full-length sittings for mocks, where stamina is part of what you are testing.
Mark consistently, then read the results by question
Mark against the published scheme. If several colleagues are marking, agree in advance how to treat answers the scheme does not anticipate, then check a sample of each other’s scripts. Record marks for each question part, not only a total: a total tells you who is behind, while a table by question tells you what to teach.
Read that table both ways. A question most of the class got wrong points to the teaching or to a shared misconception, so reteach that point to everyone and check it with a new question rather than the same one. A question only a few got wrong points to individuals, who need targeted follow-up. Return marked scripts with time to correct them, ask students to note why each mark was lost, and retest the same points with different questions a week or two later.
Setting it with Momentum
For multiple-choice papers, Momentum lets you set a test from chapters, from questions you hand-pick, or from a real paper, with a time limit, a due date, shuffled order and your choice of what students see afterwards. You share it by a link, and students need a free account. Classes have join links, and results come per student and per question, with a CSV export.
For written papers, the exam builder assembles questions from the chapters you choose, or ones you hand-pick, and saves the paper and its scheme as PDFs, with your school name and logo on the cover and the topics hidden if you want it to read as a real exam. It does not rate difficulty, and a built written paper cannot be sent to a class inside Momentum, so you print it or share the PDF yourself. The schools page has more.