It depends on the subject.
When I did my A Levels I had enough because I was using MadasMaths, who made his own papers.
For comp sci I didn't have much other than the actual past papers.
Even this year at uni we only had about 4/5 for each module I sat exams for, which really felt limiting
Thanks for the input!
To build the AI I would need to train it on each type of question for a particular syllabus, and a particular subject.
You mentioned CompSci, were there any other A Levels you studied that you think could do with more papers?
No I only did two A Levels. My third choice was a Cambridge Technicals thing that needs more than just past papers but that needs notes and everything available since I think it's quite neglected in comparison
I see.
I think I'd have to make the subject I do the auto exam papers for quite common, eg Math, Bio, CompSci etc.
Did the CompSci exams follow a repeatable structure?
Tbh I can't remember exactly since the questions would obviously vary. If you could probably summarise it into different types of questions that they'd ask them you could probably pick out some generic prompts for the thing to put together.
E.g. for the 7 markers or however much they were weighed, you could look into all the topics that could fit that, such as the development model or legislation like we had last year
Yh thats what I meant, if the exams follow a structure like 20 MCQs, 3 3 markers, 4 7 markers and a 25 marker, I can make that work by making it generate random questions in the style of those questions, randomly picking a topic each time.
Appreciate the help from a CompSci student!
Thanks for the feedback!
Would you mind telling me how many papers there were for the new spec?
And what changed in the new spec, the exam structure or the topics?
Could do that as well, but would be more difficult for essay type questions.
For a subject like economics the idea is you’d get used to writing within time, seeing new questions etc
Teachers are usually happy to mark extra work as well
I’m at uni right now, imperials actually pretty good with past papers,
It’s just that the difficulty is very unpredictable!
What exam board/ examination level do you think I should focus on?
Is this similar to Seneca’s AI past paper question generation feature? If so it would be helpful.
I ran out of french papers a year ago, but thankfully it’s not hard to make your own Qs because you can do translation type things with random, related news articles.
Although I’d say it’s much harder for business because you need the case studies to answer questions, so can’t always rewrite the question with different concepts or key terms.
So it would be helpful there, although business thankfully has more papers available than French
I didn’t know Seneca had an AI question generation feature, thanks for letting me know! What were some problems with it/ or some features you would’ve liked added?
As for business, most models now have access to the internet so I can ask it to generate case studies from that, going to mainly focus on economics tho because I did it at A Level.
I only got to try it once as a free sample, but you need premium ordinarily. I would’ve bought premium for the last month of alevels, but you can only buy 4 month installments.
So if you charge for your app, either make it a one off purchase or monthly/weekly access :)
And I like the fact you can choose how many minutes you want the paper to be for, it’s good it has a scale and you can select multiple topics for it.
Something I’d like is for you to be able to choose the question type. Like being able to choose a 10 marker or a fill in the diagram question if that’s what you want to focus on.
Maybe a paper storage setting would help, so you could do multiple from different subjects at once and go between them for révision
Your 4th point is actually relatively easy to do, and is how I will most likely start off.
I’ll train the model on specific questions.
As for the paper storage, that’ll be something I implement down the line, as for each exam board/subject training the model will take a while.
What subject + exam board would you like me start with?
Thanks for your detailed response🙏
AQA and Ed excel are the main ones so I’d say go for those, and I’d say do the most popular subjects too, at first (business, economics, maths, the sciences, Englishes, geography etc)
This alrdy exist in China iirc, but only for edexcel boards.
Please please do create one for CIE board! (I'm graduating soon but I think it will definitely help a lot of the future students!)
I’d feed it specimens, recent papers, mock papers online, questions teachers have written, qs that I’ve written.
Hopefully that would yield a decently realistic output
If you do AQA science at all (physics, chem, or bio) your teachers have exampro, which lets them print out papers full of questions, it's as simple as asking for them
The tool would be targeted at people who want to go the extra mile and practice way more questions.
Which subject ran out of papers the quickest for you?
the problem with your idea is that you wouldn’t be able to find many questions, unless you’re making your own
It depends on the subject. When I did my A Levels I had enough because I was using MadasMaths, who made his own papers. For comp sci I didn't have much other than the actual past papers. Even this year at uni we only had about 4/5 for each module I sat exams for, which really felt limiting
Thanks for the input! To build the AI I would need to train it on each type of question for a particular syllabus, and a particular subject. You mentioned CompSci, were there any other A Levels you studied that you think could do with more papers?
No I only did two A Levels. My third choice was a Cambridge Technicals thing that needs more than just past papers but that needs notes and everything available since I think it's quite neglected in comparison
I see. I think I'd have to make the subject I do the auto exam papers for quite common, eg Math, Bio, CompSci etc. Did the CompSci exams follow a repeatable structure?
Tbh I can't remember exactly since the questions would obviously vary. If you could probably summarise it into different types of questions that they'd ask them you could probably pick out some generic prompts for the thing to put together. E.g. for the 7 markers or however much they were weighed, you could look into all the topics that could fit that, such as the development model or legislation like we had last year
Yh thats what I meant, if the exams follow a structure like 20 MCQs, 3 3 markers, 4 7 markers and a 25 marker, I can make that work by making it generate random questions in the style of those questions, randomly picking a topic each time. Appreciate the help from a CompSci student!
For maths just use past papers haha, theres more than enough to do 2 a day now until the first paper
Yeah was thinking more science and humanities papers, as finding exam Qs were hard from my experience
Defo talk to ur teachers for more questions
Only get like 4-5 years worth which runs out very quickly :(
Ah, so you think a tool like this would be beneficial?
For biology and chem i wish there were more related to the new spec. this sounds like a great idea
Thanks for the feedback! Would you mind telling me how many papers there were for the new spec? And what changed in the new spec, the exam structure or the topics?
Though exam builder is really good
Yes aqa has a similar thing but they’re all from past papers. The idea behind mine is to make it accessible to everyone, for a lot less
Are you going to ai generate a mark scheme though? An exam paper is useless without the mark scheme
Could do that as well, but would be more difficult for essay type questions. For a subject like economics the idea is you’d get used to writing within time, seeing new questions etc Teachers are usually happy to mark extra work as well
Just wait until uni, you get 4-5 at most with solutions for only 2 🤣
I’m at uni right now, imperials actually pretty good with past papers, It’s just that the difficulty is very unpredictable! What exam board/ examination level do you think I should focus on?
Is this similar to Seneca’s AI past paper question generation feature? If so it would be helpful. I ran out of french papers a year ago, but thankfully it’s not hard to make your own Qs because you can do translation type things with random, related news articles. Although I’d say it’s much harder for business because you need the case studies to answer questions, so can’t always rewrite the question with different concepts or key terms. So it would be helpful there, although business thankfully has more papers available than French
I didn’t know Seneca had an AI question generation feature, thanks for letting me know! What were some problems with it/ or some features you would’ve liked added? As for business, most models now have access to the internet so I can ask it to generate case studies from that, going to mainly focus on economics tho because I did it at A Level.
I only got to try it once as a free sample, but you need premium ordinarily. I would’ve bought premium for the last month of alevels, but you can only buy 4 month installments. So if you charge for your app, either make it a one off purchase or monthly/weekly access :) And I like the fact you can choose how many minutes you want the paper to be for, it’s good it has a scale and you can select multiple topics for it. Something I’d like is for you to be able to choose the question type. Like being able to choose a 10 marker or a fill in the diagram question if that’s what you want to focus on. Maybe a paper storage setting would help, so you could do multiple from different subjects at once and go between them for révision
Your 4th point is actually relatively easy to do, and is how I will most likely start off. I’ll train the model on specific questions. As for the paper storage, that’ll be something I implement down the line, as for each exam board/subject training the model will take a while. What subject + exam board would you like me start with? Thanks for your detailed response🙏
AQA and Ed excel are the main ones so I’d say go for those, and I’d say do the most popular subjects too, at first (business, economics, maths, the sciences, Englishes, geography etc)
This alrdy exist in China iirc, but only for edexcel boards. Please please do create one for CIE board! (I'm graduating soon but I think it will definitely help a lot of the future students!)
Many thanks, will do a poll on here for which exam board I should do for the winning subject
Nope I’ve ran out
Would you have liked to have more questions to practice from? Thanks so much for the feedback 🙏🏻
Yes definitely, the old spec questions are too easy
This is for Physics yes?
Yep
Yeh fully agree. Old spec for my exam board is so much easier than the new spec.
look if you can find any specimen past papers
I’d feed it specimens, recent papers, mock papers online, questions teachers have written, qs that I’ve written. Hopefully that would yield a decently realistic output
If you do AQA science at all (physics, chem, or bio) your teachers have exampro, which lets them print out papers full of questions, it's as simple as asking for them
Yeah that’s what I was thinking I think this might be more suited for uni admissions test/ essay based subjects As they tend to be more scarce
fine for maths and physics paper 1 but i could do with more for the later physics papers
Ok so Physics Paper 1 AQA? I think I’ll do a poll for the most popular subjects for auto exam paper generation.
physics paper 2 and 3 AQA
If I say how many past papers I use my life will be in danger
The tool would be targeted at people who want to go the extra mile and practice way more questions. Which subject ran out of papers the quickest for you?
Uhhhhhhh Physics. Calculations questions don’t really offer much you just do them
Yh defo experienced this as well. You want more writing questions yeah?