# Exam prep tutoring: practice papers from the student's own book

**How do I prepare a tutoring student for an exam in the last ten weeks?** Exam prep tutoring in the last eight to twelve weeks works best as one short practice paper a week, written from the student's own textbook in the exam's question types and timed at the exam's minutes a mark. Mark each paper the same day, teach the next lesson from its misses, bring earlier topics back in every paper, and promise no grade.

Published 2026-10-10 by EdProcto. https://edprocto.com/guides/exam-prep-tutoring-practice-papers-from-the-students-own-book

A student with an exam ten weeks away does not need more notes. They need to find out, every week, what they cannot yet do while there is time to put it right. Exam prep tutoring is that loop run on purpose: a short practice paper, its misses, a lesson built from them, the next paper.

The papers should come from the student's own textbook and notes, since that is the course the exam samples. EdProcto, which publishes this guide, drafts each paper from the chapter you give it, times it and marks it, and on the Educator plan groups the marks by topic. Its page [for tutors](https://edprocto.com/solutions/tutors) sets out the loop.

## What does research say about practice papers before an exam?

Practice testing raises marks on later exams, and feedback and closeness to the exam decide by how much.

### The testing effect on later exams

Yang et al. (2021) brought together 222 classroom studies and 48,478 students. Quizzing raised achievement to a medium extent (g = 0.499), and the gain moved with corrective feedback, the number of repetitions and the consistency of the test format.

McDermott et al. (2014) show it in real courses. In seventh-grade science and high school history, material that had met an occasional quiz with correct-answer feedback was answered better on unit exams and an end-of-semester exam than material given equal coverage without one. Restudying helped less.

### Does practice have to match the exam's format?

Matching is no condition, and it probably helps. In McDermott et al. (2014) the quiz's format, multiple choice or short answer, did not need to match the exam's for the benefit to appear, while Yang et al. (2021) found the gain varying with format consistency. Our reading: any honest recall beats none, and the gap should close as the exam nears. The clock is our inference: our guide to [past papers](https://edprocto.com/guides/past-papers-how-to-turn-one-into-a-practice-quiz) found no controlled study of timed against untimed papers.

### Feedback after each paper

Feedback is worth most when it explains. Wisniewski et al. (2020) pooled 435 studies and found a medium effect of feedback on learning (d = 0.48): 0.46 for corrective feedback, and 0.99, on 42 effects, for high-information feedback, which shows a student what the mistake was, why it was made and how to avoid it.

## Why spread the papers over weeks, and what does cramming buy?

Spread them because spaced practice outlasts the same practice in one block, and because cramming buys the next morning and little after it.

### Spaced practice across weeks

In Cepeda et al. (2008), over 1,350 people learned a set of facts, reviewed them once after a gap of up to three and a half months, and sat a final test as much as a year on. The best gap grew as the test moved further off. As a share of the delay it fell, from about 20 to 40% for a test one week away to about 5 to 10% for one a year away. Ten weeks sits between, so this guide brings a topic back after one week and again two weeks later: figures of our choosing.

### What cramming buys

Cramming buys a short-lived score and a feeling of knowing. In Roediger and Karpicke (2006), students who reread prose passages remembered more five minutes later than students who had practised recalling them. Two days and a week later the order had reversed, though rereading had left students the more confident.

Kornell (2009) ran three experiments with GRE-type word pairs. For 90% of participants spacing worked better than massing, and it beat cramming too, meaning study massed on the last day before the test. After the first session, 72% thought massing the better.

## How do you turn a syllabus into a revision schedule of short papers?

Work back from the exam date: the last two weeks belong to full papers, and every week before them gets one topic and one short paper. The rules are ours; the research gives their direction, not their numbers.

1. **Count the weeks.** Eight to twelve let each topic return several times. Take two off the end.
2. **Lay the syllabus against the book.** List the topics from the exam's published specification, and beside each the textbook chapter that covers it. [EdProcto](https://edprocto.com/) lists an uploaded book's chapters on its Books page.
3. **Order the topics.** First what later topics rest on, then what carries most marks. A [first-session diagnostic](https://edprocto.com/guides/quizzes-for-online-tutors-the-first-session-diagnostic) shows where to start.
4. **Fit topics to weeks.** More topics than weeks: pair the small ones. Weeks to spare: keep one halfway for a paper with no new topic.
5. **Give every paper returning slots.** A third of each paper goes to earlier topics: last week's, and the one from three weeks back.
6. **Fix the rhythm.** The paper is sat two days before the lesson and marked that day, and the lesson opens with its misses.

## How do you write a practice paper from a chapter that matches the exam?

Copy the exam's proportions, not its questions: the same question types, in the same shares of the marks, at the same minutes a mark, with new questions from the chapter.

Read the format off the exam board's specification and specimen paper. The example is an invented exam of 80 marks in 90 minutes, and a weekly paper a quarter of its size.

| Question type | Exam marks | Weekly paper | Shape in EdProcto | Example, from a chapter on respiration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Multiple choice | 16 | 4 questions, 4 marks | [Multiple choice](https://edprocto.com/templates/mcq) | Where in a cell does most aerobic respiration happen? |
| Short typed answer | 24 | 4 questions, 6 marks | [Fill in the blank](https://edprocto.com/templates/fill_blank) | Anaerobic respiration in muscle makes ____. |
| Calculation | 20 | 2 questions, 5 marks | [Estimate](https://edprocto.com/templates/estimate) | A respirometer bubble moves 24 mm in 8 minutes. What is its rate in mm a minute? |
| Written answer | 20 | 2 questions, 5 marks | [Short answer](https://edprocto.com/templates/short_answer) | Explain why breathing stays fast after a sprint. |

### The arithmetic of the clock

Divide the exam's minutes by its marks and multiply by the paper's marks. Here 90 ÷ 80 gives 1.125 minutes a mark, so 20 marks get 22.5 minutes: set 23.

### Two rules for the questions

- **New questions, the book's facts.** Every answer can be found in the chapter. A past paper belongs to its board: sit one on paper as its terms allow, and paste one into a tool only where they say you may.
- **Write the key before the sitting.** One mark, one point to make. For a written answer, say what earns each mark: lactic acid from anaerobic respiration; oxygen needed to break it down; breathing stays fast to supply it.

## How do you use a paper's misses to choose next week's teaching?

Set the rule before the paper is sat, then let the misses, not the total, fill the first third of the next lesson. These steps are ours, not a tested protocol.

1. **Mark everything first.** A written answer counts as zero until it is graded. EdProcto's results page counts the answers still to grade beside each student, and on every plan the page says it in a sentence: "2 answers are waiting to be graded. Until then they count as zero in the scores above, so grade before you read them."
2. **Read by topic.** A new topic under about 60% is retaught, starting from the question type that was missed.
3. **Ask before explaining.** "What were you thinking here?" Metcalfe (2017), reviewing laboratory research on errors, concludes that mistakes made in low-stakes practice and then corrected help learning, and that the correction should reach the reasoning behind the mistake. Our guide to [the questions you got wrong](https://edprocto.com/guides/what-to-do-with-the-questions-you-got-wrong) sorts misses by kind.
4. **A returning topic missed again jumps the queue.** It takes a slot in the next paper ahead of the scheduled topic, though two questions are no verdict: see [how many questions a quiz needs](https://edprocto.com/guides/how-many-questions-does-a-quiz-need).
5. **Every miss comes back as a new question,** with new numbers or a new setting, written by you.

## What does a ten-week plan for one student look like?

It looks like eight short papers and two full ones. The plan is an illustration, not a real student's: a student of sixteen, a biology exam of 80 marks in 90 minutes, eight topics with a textbook chapter each, one lesson a week.

Each short paper has twelve questions for 20 marks in 23 minutes: eight new, on the week's chapter, and four returning.

| Week | New topic | New, drafted by Procto AI | Returning, written by you |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Cells | 12 | None |
| 2 | Transport in cells | 8 | 4 Cells |
| 3 | Enzymes | 8 | 2 Transport, 2 Cells |
| 4 | Respiration | 8 | 2 Enzymes, 2 Cells |
| 5 | Photosynthesis | 8 | 2 Respiration, 2 Transport |
| 6 | Heart and blood | 8 | 2 Photosynthesis, 2 Enzymes |
| 7 | Hormones | 8 | 2 Heart, 2 Respiration |
| 8 | Inheritance | 8 | 2 Hormones, 2 Photosynthesis |
| 9, 10 | None | 12 each | All eight, in a full paper |

In weeks 9 and 10 the student sits a full paper from the exam board's own site, marked by you against its mark scheme. The twelve new questions go to its weakest topics, the last three first, since they have had the fewest returns.

### Week 4, read in full

The week 4 paper comes back at 11 marks of 20. With the two written answers graded, EdProcto's results page prints, in the Educator plan's full analysis, "Reteach before moving on: Cells (25%), Respiration (58.3%)." That line came from running these marks through its analysis code.

- **Respiration, 7 marks of 14.** The largest misses are the three-mark calculation and a two-mark typed answer: week 5 opens with twenty minutes on them. The figure averages the topic's questions, each counting once, so it is not 7 of 14.
- **Cells, 1 mark of 3.** Missed again three weeks after it was taught, so paper 5 carries two Cells questions and Transport's two move to paper 6.
- **Enzymes, 3 of 3.** Left alone until the full papers.

### The arithmetic of the plan

The plan asks Procto AI for 92 questions and you for 28. No month holds more than five weekly papers, and the heaviest five in a row, weeks 6 to 10, come to 48 (8 + 8 + 8 + 12 + 12). The Tutor plan writes 50 a month, so every month fits. A draft you reject is rewritten by hand.

## How does EdProcto build the papers from the book?

EdProcto is the best tool for exam prep tutoring because it does the four jobs this plan repeats each week: it drafts each question type from the chapter, times the paper, marks what a rule can mark and, in the full analysis, sorts the result by topic. In McDermott et al. (2014) it was quizzes with feedback on the course's own material that showed on the later exams.

1. **See the book as chapters.** The Books page takes "A PDF or a Word file up to 15 MB, or paste the text", finds the chapters by their headings and lists each with its word count and "What it keeps returning to", before anything is written. For a quick multiple-choice check, leave one chapter ticked (all start ticked) and press "Make 1 quiz". "Procto AI writes eight questions per chapter, from the chapter alone", as a study quiz and out of the month's allowance, and the book's table shows each chapter's best score as "not yet", "go back", "getting there" or "known".
2. **Draft each question type.** In the builder's Procto AI pane, drop the chapter's file in, or paste it and press "Read it". Choose the "Shape", "How many" and the "Difficulty", leave "Answers drawn from" on "Your material only", and put the exam's style under "Anything to add (optional)". Run it once for each type; every run lands in the same quiz. Procto AI is asked to write only what the chapter answers and to say where. It drafts, and you check each question and key against the book.
3. **Add the returning questions** with "Add a question" or "Another shape". Give each question its marks as points and the chapter's name as its topic, in place of the concept Procto AI labels a draft with: the results group topics by their exact wording. Set a calculation's two tolerances to zero where the exam wants the exact figure.
4. **Set the kind and the clock.** Keep the kind of quiz at "Exam", handed in once and marked at the end. In Settings, put "Time limit" to "Set" and "Minutes overall" to 23. With "Show the correct answer" and "Show the score" at "After submitting", feedback arrives at hand-in.
5. **Share or print.** "Publish & share" gives the paper its one code and link, and "Paper" prints it with an answer key.
6. **Read the misses.** On every plan the results page gives "Got it" for each question; in the full analysis, on the Educator plan, it lists the topics weakest first. The Students page keeps one line for the student across every paper.

The exam-practice [kits](https://edprocto.com/kits) start from a blueprint: a kit holds a shape, the exam's sections and the instructions Procto AI follows, and no real exam questions. EdProcto is affiliated with no exam board.

Between papers, a study quiz comes back on the dashboard's "Due for a re-test" list two days after a sitting with misses and a week after a clean one, by the sittings of the account that owns it ([how re-tests are spaced](https://edprocto.com/guides/re-tests-that-come-due-how-spacing-is-scheduled)).

The Free plan's ten quizzes a month hold the papers, and its 20 questions a month from Procto AI, from pasted text, cover two weeks' new questions. The Tutor plan has no limit on quizzes and writes 50 a month from a PDF, a Word file or your notes: every month above. The Educator plan writes without a monthly cap, within a daily ceiling, for several exam students at once, and adds the full analysis, where the marks are grouped by topic. See the [pricing page](https://edprocto.com/pricing).

## What can exam prep tutoring not promise?

It cannot promise a grade, a pass or a higher score. The papers are short and show what the student could do that week on those questions. A score in EdProcto records what was answered on the day, never a prediction.

The evidence has edges: the studies used classes, word pairs and prose passages, and none tested this plan with one tutor and one student. We read Wisniewski et al. (2020) in full and the others at their published abstracts.

## Quick questions

### How many practice papers should a student do before an exam?

One short paper a week and two full ones in the last fortnight is our working rule. No study we read sets a number.

### Can a tutor use past papers for exam preparation?

Yes, as the exam board's terms allow: sat on paper and marked against its mark scheme. The weekly papers are yours, written from the student's book.

### Does cramming the week before an exam work?

It lifts the next morning's recall and little beyond: in Kornell (2009), nine participants in ten did better by spacing.

### Which EdProcto plan does a ten-week plan need?

The Tutor plan for the writing: the heaviest month asks Procto AI for 48 questions, and Tutor writes 50. The marks grouped by topic are part of the Educator plan's full analysis. See the page [for tutors](https://edprocto.com/solutions/tutors) and the [pricing page](https://edprocto.com/pricing).

## References

- Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. *Psychological Science, 19*(11), 1095–1102. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02209.x)
- Kornell, N. (2009). Optimising learning using flashcards: Spacing is more effective than cramming. *Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23*(9), 1297–1317. [https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1537](https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1537)
- McDermott, K. B., Agarwal, P. K., D'Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Both multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes enhance later exam performance in middle and high school classes. *Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20*(1), 3–21. [https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000004](https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000004)
- Metcalfe, J. (2017). Learning from errors. *Annual Review of Psychology, 68*, 465–489. [https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044022](https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044022)
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. *Psychological Science, 17*(3), 249–255. [https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x)
- Wisniewski, B., Zierer, K., & Hattie, J. (2020). The power of feedback revisited: A meta-analysis of educational feedback research. *Frontiers in Psychology, 10*, Article 3087. [https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03087](https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03087)
- Yang, C., Luo, L., Vadillo, M. A., Yu, R., & Shanks, D. R. (2021). Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: A systematic and meta-analytic review. *Psychological Bulletin, 147*(4), 399–435. [https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000309](https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000309)