Turn an article or web page into a practice test
Upload a web article and QuerySpark writes practice tests from what is actually in it, so you can rehearse the real exam on exactly what your course covers. Any public article URL.
- No credit card
- Free plan after the trial
- Cancel anytime
Drop a PDF, slides or notes
or paste a YouTube link
Quick answer
How do you turn a web article into practice tests?
Paste the article's link and choose practice test. QuerySpark fetches the page, keeps the article text, and writes a mixed test from it: multiple choice, true or false, short answer and essay questions, with a score at the end and an explanation for every answer. It takes about a minute. Paywalled or login-only pages need copying and pasting instead. New accounts get a 3-day Pro trial with no credit card; the free plan then includes 2 web links and 20 questions a month.
- A scored test from any public article URL
- Essay and short-answer questions for argument-heavy readings
- Typically 10 to 20 questions per run
- Export as PDF, Word, QTI or Moodle XML
How it works
How to turn a web article into practice tests
- 01
Pick the readings the exam draws on
Use the course reading list. Each link becomes its own test, so start with the readings you are least sure about.
- 02
Paste the link and choose practice test
Set the level for your course. At graduate and professional level, more questions ask you to evaluate the argument rather than recall it.
- 03
Answer without the article open
Close the tab and work from memory, especially the short-answer and essay questions. Then compare your answers with the model answers.
- 04
Go back to the passages you missed
Most questions show the passage they came from, so you can reread just those paragraphs.
Example
Practice test from Reading
A sample of what you get from a web article on modern history. Yours is written from your own file.
Question 1 · Multiple choice
What event in July 1789 became the symbolic start of the French Revolution?
- The Tennis Court Oath
- The storming of the Bastille
- The execution of Louis XVI
- The Reign of Terror
The fall of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 is the Revolution's symbolic beginning, still marked as France's national day.
Question 2 · Multiple choice
Which group made up the Third Estate?
- Clergy
- Nobility
- Everyone else, from peasants to the bourgeoisie
- The royal family
The First Estate was the clergy, the Second the nobility, and the Third about 97% of the population.
Question 3 · Short answer
How did France's debt contribute to the Revolution?
Model answer: Debt from wars, including support for the American Revolution, forced the king to call the Estates-General, which opened the door to reform demands.
What your practice tests include
- A timed, exam-style test mixing question types
- A score at the end, with every question you missed explained
- Questions pitched at the level you choose, from high school to professional
- The source passage behind every answer, so you can check it yourself
How you study them
Take it under exam conditions, then review your misses. Questions you got wrong go into your review queue so they come back before the real exam.
Best for: mock exams, measuring readiness, teachers building assessments.
How we read web articles
Paste a link and we fetch the page, strip navigation and ads, and keep the article text, so a Wikipedia entry or an assigned reading becomes a study set in one step.
Get the best results
- Link the specific article, not a site's home page.
- Combine several readings on one topic into one set for synthesis questions.
Practice tests for reading-heavy courses
In history, politics, law, philosophy and similar courses, the exam often draws on assigned readings rather than a textbook. A practice test from each reading checks two different things: the facts and terms (multiple choice and true or false), and whether you can explain the argument in your own words (short answer and essay).
Essay questions come with a model answer, so you can mark yourself on whether you hit the main points before you see it.
Getting a whole reading list into practice tests
Each link makes one test, so a reading list of eight articles means eight tests. The free plan's 2 web links a month covers a couple of readings; for a full list, the trial or Student ($9 a month, or $7 a month billed yearly) is the realistic option.
Spread the tests out. Taking one per reading as you go through the term, then retaking the low scores before the exam, works far better than ten in one night.
Research papers and journal articles
Journal article pages are often paywalled, or show only the abstract without a login, so a link gives you a test on the abstract at best. If you have access through your library, download the PDF and upload it as a file; PDF uploads take up to 120 pages.
Open-access papers and preprint pages often work from the link, but if the test seems to cover only the abstract, upload the PDF instead.
News and current events tests
For current events quizzes, debate preparation or a civics class, a practice test from a news article checks that you have the facts straight: who, what, when and the arguments on each side. News articles are short, so expect fewer questions than from a long reading.
Things that trip people up with web articles
Paywalled and login-only pages cannot be fetched. Copy the text and paste it instead.
Pages that load their text with heavy scripts may come back short; pasting works there too.
Questions about article to practice test
Yes. Paste the URL of a public article or page and choose practice test. You get a scored test with explanations, written from that page's text.
QuerySpark is free to start with the 3-day Pro trial with no credit card. The free plan then includes 2 web links and 20 questions a month. You can also paste up to 6,000 characters into the question generator without an account.
Yes. Choose high school, undergraduate, graduate or professional. Higher levels lean towards application and analysis rather than recall.
Yes. Multiple choice questions have exactly one correct option, with no select-all-that-apply. Short-answer and essay questions come with a model answer.
Yes. Export it as PDF or Word to print, or as QTI or Moodle XML to give it in Canvas, Blackboard, D2L or Moodle.
The page probably returned little text: a short article, a paywall, or a page that loads its text with scripts. Copy the article text and paste it instead.
Most public articles: Wikipedia, news sites, blogs, open textbooks and course pages. Paywalled pages need copy and paste.
We store the extracted text with your study set so you can check answers against it later. It stays private unless you publish the set.
Yes. Create a class, share the join code, and assign the set. You see each student's progress on every assignment.
Yes, to start. New accounts get a 3-day Pro trial with no credit card. After the trial the free plan includes 1 study session, 20 questions and 10 PDF pages a month, and you keep everything you made. You can also try the question generator on pasted text without an account, 3 times a day.
Still stuck? Email us.
Make practice tests from your web articles
Start with a 3-day Pro trial. No credit card, and you keep everything you make.
