How to convert a question paper into an online test.

Sort your papers first

Before converting anything, sort your papers by class, subject, and chapter, and set aside papers that are outdated or no longer match the syllabus. Converting one well-organised set is far more useful than converting everything in a hurry. Start with the papers you reuse most often, such as chapter tests and pre-board papers.

Choose the right route for each paper

If a paper exists as a typed document, copying the questions into the Excel import template is usually the most accurate route, because questions arrive exactly as written. If a paper exists only on paper, take clear photos and attach them in the AI tab, which can draft the questions for you to review and correct.

For typed PDFs, attaching the PDF in the AI tab works well too.

Filling the import template

Download the template and fill one row per question: the question text, its type, options A to D where relevant, the correct answer, points, tags, and difficulty. Keep the header row exactly as downloaded, since columns are matched by name. Remove numbering, marks in brackets, and instructions such as 'tick the correct answer' from the question text.

Handling rows that fail

When you import, any row that fails is listed with a reason, such as a missing correct answer or an unrecognised question type. Fix just those rows in the spreadsheet and import them again, rather than re-importing the whole file. This makes large conversions manageable even when the original papers were inconsistent.

Converting question types

Most objective questions from paper translate directly: one correct option becomes single choice, several correct options become multiple choice, and one-word answers become fill-in-the-blank. Short and long answer questions become free text, which you grade manually. Matching-style questions from paper can often be rewritten as a set of single choice questions.

Checking answers

Old papers often have answer keys stored separately, marked by hand, or missing altogether. Check every correct answer before importing, especially for numerical questions. For fill-in-the-blank questions, remember that grading is an exact match, so set the answer in the simplest form a student is likely to write.

Tagging as you go

Add tags for class, subject, and chapter, and a difficulty level, in the same spreadsheet. It is much faster to tag during conversion than afterwards. Well-tagged questions can be filtered to build new tests in any combination, which is where most of the long-term benefit of conversion comes from.

Keeping a paper option

Converting to online does not mean giving up paper. Any test built from converted questions can be exported as a print-ready paper with answers, without answers, or as an offline exam paper. You get the flexibility of both formats from a single source.

A realistic pace

Converting one chapter's papers each week is a sustainable pace for most teachers. Over a term, that builds a substantial, reusable Question Bank covering most of the syllabus, without a single exhausting weekend of data entry.

Example: a pre-board paper in one evening

A teacher has last year's typed pre-board paper as a Word file. She copies its forty objective questions into the Excel template, adds chapter tags and difficulty, checks each answer, and imports the file. Three rows fail because of missing answers; she fixes them and re-imports.

The five long-answer questions are added as free text. Within an evening, the whole paper exists as an online test and as a printable offline paper for students without devices.

After conversion

Once questions are in the bank, you are no longer limited to the original paper. Build shorter chapter tests from the same questions, mix questions from several old papers into a fresh revision test, and use Question Performance to discover which old questions were too easy or confusing.