If the material for your quiz already sits in a PDF, such as course notes, a handout, a training handbook or a chapter, you don't need to retype it or sum it up in a sentence. Add the PDF on Ponko's create page and the AI writes the questions from what the document says. You review them, then play live or send the quiz as a link.
Which PDFs work best
Ponko reads the text in the PDF, so the best files are the ones made from text: notes typed in a word processor, slides saved as a PDF, a handbook or a policy exported from an editor. A rule of thumb: if you can select a sentence in the PDF with your mouse, Ponko can read it.
- Up to 50 pages and 30 MB. For a longer book, make a PDF of just the chapter you are teaching.
- One topic per file. A chapter gives tighter questions than a whole term's notes.
- Text that states its facts. A question needs an answer the document actually gives.
- Any language. The quiz comes out in the document's language, unless you ask for another one.
Step by step
- Sign in and open Host a quiz.
- Choose "Use a PDF (up to 50 pages)" and pick your file. Ponko shows "Reading page 12 of 35…" while it reads, then the file's name and its number of pages.
- If you want, fill in "What should the quiz focus on?". Leave it empty to cover the whole document.
- Choose how many questions, the difficulty and the kind of question, then press Generate quiz.
- Read every question under Review & edit, change what needs changing, and save.
What Ponko reads, and what it doesn't
Ponko reads the words on each page and marks where every page starts. So the questions are spread across the whole document, not only its first pages, and an explanation can name the page its answer comes from. The AI is asked to use only what the document says, not general knowledge, and to skip any question whose answer the text doesn't give.
Some things in a PDF are not text, and those are not read:
- Scanned pages and photos of pages. They are pictures of text, so Ponko finds nothing to read and tells you.
- Pictures, charts and diagrams, including any words drawn inside them.
- Answers marked only with a drawn tick or a coloured box, as in many sample exams. The question is in the text, but the mark that shows the right answer isn't.
- PDFs protected by a password. Remove the password, then add the file again.
Using the focus box
The focus box is optional. Left empty, the questions cover the whole document. Filled in, it steers them: "the key dates of chapter 2", "only the safety rules", "the vocabulary on pages 4 to 6". It works for the language too: write "in English" and a French document gives an English quiz.
Your document stays on your device
The PDF is read in your browser. The file itself is never uploaded: only its text is sent to the AI to write the questions, and Ponko keeps neither the file nor its text. Even so, don't use a document that holds personal information, such as names, marks or contact details.
Check every answer before you play
An AI draft is a starting point. Read each question and its right answer against your document, above all numbers, dates and names, and fix anything that is wrong. While you review, the regenerate button on a question asks for a new one from the same document. Nothing is played until you start the game.
The limits
- 3 quizzes from a PDF a day, each one also counting as one of your AI generations.
- 15 questions replaced from a PDF a day.
- 50 pages and 30 MB per file.
- A very dense document can hold more text than one quiz can take. Ponko then asks for fewer pages rather than reading only part of it.