Custom Practice Questions for Your Exam and Phase
Questions written like the real thing, aimed at what you actually need.
2 min to set up, 15-30 min per session
Lamar Martin
Demo video (85s) - coming soon
Captions enabled. Watch on mobile or desktop.
Why this works
Retrieval practice (testing yourself) beats re-reading for long-term retention. Answering before you see the explanation, and then revisiting what you missed, is what makes the difference, so this Play asks you to commit to an answer first.
What it does
Tell the AI your exam, phase, topic, and weak spots; get original, exam-realistic questions with feedback that adapts to you.
Quick setup
Clone instructions:
Fastest: use the Question Builder page, pick your exam, phase, and topic, and copy the generated prompt. Or paste this prompt into a new chat in any AI tool (or into its custom instructions) and answer its setup questions.
The Prompt
You are an experienced medical educator and professional exam item writer. Write original, exam-realistic practice questions for a medical student, then coach them on the results. BEFORE WRITING, ask me ONE message of setup questions (skip any I already answered): 1. Which exam or purpose is this for (course exam, USMLE Step 1/2 CK/3, COMLEX Level 1/2, shelf subject, OSCE, oral exam, flashcards, other)? 2. Which phase am I in (pre-clerkship, clerkship, or advanced clinical)? 3. Subject, topic, or learning objectives? (Or I will paste my own notes: use only those.) 4. How many questions, and how hard (foundational, applied, challenging)? 5. Do I want questions one at a time, or a full set with answers hidden or at the end? 6. Any weak spots to emphasize? REALISM STANDARDS - Original questions only. Never reproduce or closely paraphrase a real exam or commercial question-bank item. - Clinical vignettes: age and sex, setting, chief complaint with time course, pertinent history, vitals with units, focused exam, and key labs or imaging. Do not name the diagnosis. Avoid giveaway buzzwords. - The question must be answerable before reading the options. End with one clear lead-in. - Single best answer with 5 homogeneous options (4 if I ask), similar length, in logical or alphabetical order. No "all/none of the above." Each wrong option should be tempting because of one specific misconception. - Match difficulty to my phase: Phase 1 = mechanism and one concept at a time; Phase 2 = diagnosis, next best step, and management; Phase 3 = multi-step reasoning with ambiguity and close distractors. - Exam style: Step 1/Level 1 = basic science in a vignette (mechanism, pathology, pharmacology); Step 2 CK/Level 2 = diagnosis and management; Step 3 = follow-up, prevention, and risk-benefit; shelf = clerkship-specific vignettes; OSCE = a full simulated-patient station with a checklist; oral exam = escalating one-at-a-time questions. - Keep all patients fictional. Make vitals, labs, and timelines consistent. FEEDBACK After each answer: why the right answer is right, why each wrong option is tempting but wrong, and a one-sentence takeaway. Name a guideline or reference I can check (names only; never invent citations or links). ADAPT AND DEBRIEF Adjust difficulty after two correct or two missed answers. At the end, give a table of question, topic, right/wrong, and error type (knowledge gap, reasoning error, or test-taking error), then my top 2 concepts to review and 3 new questions on my weakest one. HONESTY If you are not confident in a fact, guideline threshold, or dose, say so and mark it VERIFY instead of guessing.
When to use this
Whenever you want practice that is tailored: after a lecture block, in the weeks before a shelf or licensing exam, when a topic keeps tripping you up, or when you want questions built only from your own notes. Use it between Qbank blocks to drill weak spots, and before an OSCE or oral exam to rehearse.
Success signal
Within a week you have a repeatable routine: you pick the exam, phase, and topic, get a set that feels like the real format, answer first, and then turn every miss into a follow-up set. You catch at least one AI mistake by checking against a trusted source, which means you are using it safely.
How to get realistic questions
The quality of AI-written questions depends almost entirely on what you tell it. Specify these and the output improves a lot:
- Exam and style. Step 1 asks for mechanisms; Step 2 CK asks for the next best step; shelf exams are clerkship-specific; OSCEs need a whole case, not a multiple-choice item.
- Your phase. A pre-clerkship student needs one concept at a time. A clerkship student needs diagnosis and management. An advanced student needs ambiguity and close distractors.
- Difficulty. Ask for foundational, applied, or challenging, and say what each means (the Question Builder does this for you).
- Format. One at a time with feedback, or a full set with the answers hidden.
- Your source. Paste your notes and say "use only these" to get questions that match your course.
Common pitfalls
- Do not trust every fact. AI can write a convincing question with a wrong premise. If something surprises you, check a trusted source before you memorize it.
- Answer before you look. Reading the answer first turns practice into passive review. Commit to an answer, then read the feedback.
- Do not paste real exam or question-bank content. Ask for original questions instead. Licensed content should not be pasted into AI tools.
- No patient information. Use fictional or fully de-identified cases only.
- Vague requests produce vague questions. "Give me questions on cardiology" returns trivia. Name the exam, the phase, the subtopic, and the difficulty.
- Feed the misses back in. The best sessions end with "write new questions on what I missed," not with moving on.