claudecodeguide.dev
All teacher guides
5 minbeginner

Create Quiz and Test Questions with Claude

Generate multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay questions for any topic in seconds. No more staring at a blank question bank.

The situation

The unit test is next week and the question bank needs 30 questions covering 4 topics.

After this guide you will have a system for generating varied, quality questions faster than you can type them manually.

What you walk away with

01

A full question bank for any topic in under 5 minutes

02

Mixed question types at the right difficulty level

03

Questions you can actually use without heavy editing

The difference one prompt makes

Don't

give me quiz questions about photosynthesis

Do this

Create 10 quiz questions on photosynthesis for Year 9 Biology students (age 13-14). Mix: 4 multiple-choice (with 4 options each, one clearly correct), 3 short-answer (requiring 2-3 sentences), 2 application questions (applying the concept to a new scenario), and 1 diagram-labelling question description. Difficulty should range from recall to application on Bloom's taxonomy. Avoid trick questions.

Question type, student age, difficulty distribution, and taxonomy level tell Claude exactly what kind of assessment you need.

1

Decide your question type mix before prompting

Different question types test different things. Decide the mix first, then put it in the prompt as a specific count for each type.

  1. Multiple-choice: fast to mark, good for recall and comprehension, easy to abuse (avoid "all of the above")
  2. Short-answer: requires students to produce language, not just recognise it, harder to mark consistently
  3. Extended response or essay: tests argument construction and synthesis, slow to mark
  4. Application questions: the student applies the concept to a scenario they have not seen before
  5. Diagram-based: useful for science, geography, and any visual subject
2

Specify Bloom's taxonomy levels

Naming the cognitive level in your prompt is the single highest-leverage thing you can do. Most AI-generated questions default to recall. You often need application or analysis.

text
Create 8 questions on the water cycle for Year 7 Geography students.
- 3 recall questions (Bloom's: Remember) -- define or identify terms
- 3 comprehension questions (Bloom's: Understand) -- explain why or how
- 2 application questions (Bloom's: Apply) -- use the concept to explain a real-world example

Multiple-choice only. 4 options each. No trick questions.
3

Review and adjust specific questions

Claude rarely gets every question right on the first pass. Use follow-up prompts to adjust individual questions rather than regenerating the whole set.

  1. "Make question 3 harder. It is currently at recall level; push it to application."
  2. "Question 7 has two plausible correct answers. Rewrite so there is one clear correct answer."
  3. "Add a fifth question on evaporation specifically. Same format as the rest."
4

Ask Claude to write a marking guide

For short-answer and essay questions, a marking guide saves time and makes your marking more consistent. One prompt does it.

text
Write a marking guide for the 3 short-answer questions above. For each question: the ideal answer (2-3 sentences), the key terms that should appear, and 1 mark / 2 marks / 3 marks criteria.

What's next?

Write grading rubrics with Claude

New guides, when they ship

One email, roughly weekly. CLAUDE.md templates, workflows I actually use, and the cut-for-length stuff that does not make the public guides. One-click unsubscribe.

Or follow on Substack