We use WeSolve+ for examples; it is free to start in your browser and on iOS.
Three steps to turn a PDF into a quiz
1) Upload: add the PDF, lecture slide or photo of your notes for the topic you want to study. 2) Generate: let the AI read the content and create multiple choice and true/false questions plus smart review cards in 10 to 20 seconds, each question with an explanation. 3) Solve and review: answer the questions, learn from the explanations, review the cards with spaced repetition and, if you like, listen to the audio recap on the go. In WeSolve+ you can also duel a friend with the same questions.
Do the questions really come from my PDF?
In a good tool, yes. In WeSolve+ the questions are derived only from the material you upload and stay faithful to it, so you will not get random questions on topics that are not in your notes. Questions are self contained, meaning they avoid incomplete pointers like "see the figure above," and math symbols render correctly. That way, whether it is reading, math, science or history, you study with questions you can answer directly.
Not just quizzes: flashcards and an audio recap
From the same PDF you can generate more than one study mode. Flashcards are ideal for active recall and come back at increasing intervals with spaced repetition, locking in formulas, definitions and concepts. The audio recap turns your notes into a listenable summary, so you can review hands free while commuting or working out. Seeing a topic in different ways noticeably strengthens learning. Meeting the same material in a different format slows the loss described by Hermann Ebbinghaus, the forgetting curve (1885).
Is turning a PDF into a quiz free?
WeSolve+ is free to start on iOS; Premium and Ultra plans raise the limits. If you want to try it, starting with a course PDF you already have is the fastest way; you can solve your first quiz within a few minutes.
When the PDF fights back: scans, slides and tables
Not every PDF behaves the same way. A file exported from a word processor carries real text and converts cleanly. A scanned book chapter is a picture of text, so quality depends on how straight and how lit the scan is; photographing the page again under a lamp often beats fighting a bad scan. Slide decks convert well but carry little prose, so questions come back thin unless the speaker notes are included. Tables and formulas are the fussiest, because their meaning lives in a layout that flattens on conversion. The practical rule: if you can select the text in your reader, the conversion has something solid to work with.
Check the set before you study from it
Spend two minutes on the output before you spend an hour on the practice. Read the questions once and delete anything that asks about a detail your course never emphasised, because a set matched to your syllabus beats a set matched to the document. Watch for questions that quote the source so closely that recognising the wording answers them; those test your memory of the page, not of the idea. What survives that pass is the set worth scheduling, and Cepeda's spacing work puts the useful gap at ten to twenty percent of the time left before the exam, which for a term course means returning to it weekly rather than the night before. Returning to what you got wrong is where the gain sits, and Roediger and Karpicke, Test-Enhanced Learning (2006) measured that on a delayed test. Dunlosky et al., improving students' learning (2013) placed practice testing in the highest effectiveness group across a wide review of techniques.
By Mert Erarslan (Exam prep and subject routes)
Sources used on this page
- WeSolve+ on the App Store
- Hermann Ebbinghaus, the forgetting curve (1885)
- Roediger and Karpicke, Test-Enhanced Learning (2006)
- Cepeda et al., distributed practice meta analysis (2006)
- Dunlosky et al., improving students' learning (2013)
- Spaced repetition
- Testing effect
- Active recall
- Distributed practice
- Karpicke and Roediger 2008, Science
- Cepeda et al. 2008, temporal ridgeline of optimal retention
- Murre and Dros 2015, the Ebbinghaus replication
- Metacognition
- Long-term memory
- Desirable difficulty
- Study skills
- Flashcard
- Working memory
- Optical character recognition
- Multiple choice
- Educational assessment
- Question answering
- Large language model
- Generative artificial intelligence
- Hallucination (artificial intelligence)
- Natural language processing
- Automatic summarization
Can I make a quiz from a photo or handwritten notes too?
Yes. Besides PDFs, you can upload photos from a textbook or your handwritten notes and generate quizzes and flashcards. The AI reads the content and builds the questions.
How long does it take to create a quiz?
10 to 20 seconds. After you upload your material, the AI reads it and returns explained multiple choice and true/false questions.
Are my uploaded PDFs and notes kept private?
In WeSolve+ your uploaded files are tied only to your account, stored encrypted, and unused files are automatically cleaned up after a while.
Can I choose the question type and the depth of the explanations?
Yes, both are yours to set before you start. On question type, true or false hands you a coin flip as your baseline, so sixty percent tells you almost nothing; mixed is the honest default. Explanation depth can be short, detailed or step by step. If one question type keeps falling over, the step by step mode walks the reasoning line by line, and that is where it earns its keep.
Can I upload a PDF in one language and take the quiz in another?
Yes, the quiz language is a separate choice. This matters more than it looks. Anyone who reads a subject in one language and sits the exam in another spends part of every question translating, and translation against the clock is a tax paid on a skill nobody grades. Whatever language your source is in, practise in the language you will be examined in.
Do formulas and maths symbols survive the conversion?
Yes. Maths symbols render intact and complex expressions do not turn into broken characters. The questions are also written to stand on their own, so you will not run into phrases like see the figure above or as shown in the image. You can answer each one without the document open beside you.
Last updated: 2026-08-24 · Written with AI assistance and reviewed before publishing.