Two kinds of practice test
Testing yourself is one of the best-supported study methods there is; our piece on active recall covers the research. But a practice test is only as useful as its match to the real one. Fifty well-written questions on the wrong material feel productive and change nothing on exam day.
That splits the tools here into two groups. Course tests are built from what you give them: your slides, notes, readings or recorded lectures. Skolight, Quizgecko, Quizlet, Knowt, Gizmo and ChatGPT can all do this in some form. Standardized-exam tests are built for a public exam with a known format. Gemini offers full-length SAT, JEE Main and NEET UG practice tests,1 and Knowt has timed mock exams for AP, SAT and ACT.2 If you're sitting one of those exams, a tool that knows its format has a head start. For a university midterm, it has none.
Within each group we looked at four things. Timing: can you set a limit, and does the clock behave like an exam's? Question types: multiple choice tests recognition, while short answers and fill-in-the-blank test recall, which is harder and closer to most real papers. Explanations: a score tells you how you did; an explanation tells you why. What happens after a miss: the best tools turn wrong answers into the next thing you study, instead of leaving them on a results screen you never open again.
The seven, one by one
Skolight
Best for a timed mock exam from your own course
Skolight builds two kinds of test from whatever is in a course's space: quizzes of up to 30 questions, and full mock exams. The mock exam is the part worth a look. You set the time limit, the difficulty and how many of each question type you want, and describe the standard you're preparing for, such as a course code or an exam board's style. The clock is kept on the server, so a reload or a dropped connection doesn't reset it, and you can flag questions to come back to.
After you submit, you get a score, an explanation for every question and a written analysis of your strengths and weak points. Then the misses become the next step: turn them into a study plan in one go, work through it, and retake the exam to see whether it stuck.
Why pick it
- Built only from the lectures, slides and readings you choose.
- An exam clock that survives reloads, with flagging and autosave.
- Wrong answers turn into a study plan, and you can retake the exam afterwards.
Before you do
- Four question types: multiple choice, multi-answer, true/false and fill-in-the-blank. No written short answers.
- The Free plan allows 1 generation a day, so a mock exam and a quiz on the same day means a paid plan.
- No ready-made tests for standardized exams like the SAT.
Quizgecko
Best for the widest range of question types
Quizgecko writes six kinds of question from your material: multiple choice, select-all, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching and short answer.5 That range matters, because short answers and matching test recall in a way multiple choice can't. It also has a timed exam mode, though its docs don't describe the timer's settings.6
It started as a quiz generator and still leans that way: quizzes export to CSV and to learning-management systems, which is why teachers use it as much as students do.7 The free plan is thin, one AI lesson a month, and Quizgecko's own pages disagree on the yearly price, so compare it monthly: $16 for Premium, $29 for Ultra.8
Why pick it
Quizlet
Best for testing yourself on sets you already have
Quizlet has two kinds of test. Test mode builds a quiz from any set in the question types you pick,11 and its AI practice tests are timed tests made from your notes or sets.12 If your class already shares Quizlet sets, or the set you need is in its public library, you can be practicing within a minute.13
The limits sit on the free plan and the cheaper paid tier. Free gets one Test per set. Plus, at $7.99 a month or $35.99 a year, includes 3 practice tests a month, and Plus Unlimited, at $9.99 a month or $44.99 a year, removes that cap.14 If you have several exams in one week, that cap is the number to check.
Why pick it
Knowt
Best free option, and for AP, SAT or ACT prep
Knowt does both kinds of test. Its Practice Test mode works on any set, free, with mixed question types, and lets you retake only the questions you missed.18 Separately, its exam hubs have timed, full-length mock exams for AP, SAT and ACT.2
The free plan includes one of those full-length mocks. Student Ultra, at $24.99 a month or $149.99 a year, makes them unlimited and adds AI summaries of your own files, which is how course material gets in.19 Its Exam Predictor goes a step further and builds a study plan from your class files.20
Why pick it
Gizmo
Best for written answers marked against a mark scheme
Gizmo's practice tests stand out for one thing: alongside multiple choice and select-all, they include written answers that it marks against a mark scheme.23 Writing an answer out is closer to most real exams than picking one, and feedback on a written answer is something few tools here offer.
Timing is lighter. Each test shows a running timer and records how long you took, but its docs describe no time limit you can set.24 Practice tests are free; the paid Unlimited plan, whose price Gizmo doesn't publish, lifts the daily caps on AI imports and its tutor.25
Why pick it
Gemini
Best for the SAT, JEE Main and NEET UG
Gemini has the strongest offer for three specific exams: full-length, timed practice tests for the SAT, JEE Main and NEET UG.1 If you're sitting one of them, that's a format a general tool can't rebuild from your notes alone.
For a course exam it's a different tool. It makes quizzes and flashcards on any topic you ask about,1 and its study notebooks turn an uploaded syllabus and notes into lessons and practice quizzes,30 but its timed tests aren't built from your own material, and its answers aren't limited to your files.31 Eligible US college students can get Google AI Pro free for a year if they redeem by December 31, 2026.32
Why pick it
ChatGPT
Best for a quick, conversational check
ChatGPT will quiz you on almost anything, including your uploaded notes,35 and its Study mode asks questions and gives hints instead of handing over answers.36 Flashcards you can mark known or missed now live in the chat as well.37
What it doesn't have is an exam. There's no timed mock exam in its docs,36 and its answers can draw on general knowledge rather than only your files, so a question can drift past your syllabus.37 It's very good for a ten-minute check on a topic; it isn't built to simulate a three-hour paper.
The five with dedicated test modes
| Feature | Skolight | Quizgecko | Quizlet | Knowt | Gizmo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timed mock exams | Skolight Yes. A server-kept clock that survives reloads, autosave, flagging and a written analysis.40 | Quizgecko Yes. A timed exam mode for practice under time pressure; timer settings aren't documented.6 | Quizlet Yes. Timed AI practice tests from notes or sets; limited free, 3 a month on Plus, no cap on Unlimited.12 | Knowt Partly. Timed full-length mock exams for AP, SAT and ACT only; 1 free, unlimited on Ultra.2 | Gizmo Partly. Practice tests show a running timer and time taken; no set time limit in its docs.24 |
| Quizzes | Skolight Yes. Up to 30 questions in four types, easy to hard, every answer explained.41 | Quizgecko Yes. Multiple choice, select-all, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, matching and short answer.5 | Quizlet Yes. Test mode builds a quiz from a set in the question types you pick; free gets 1 test per set.11 | Knowt Yes. Practice Test mode on any set, free: mixed question types, retake only the ones you missed.18 | Gizmo Yes. AI practice tests with multiple choice and written answers marked to a mark scheme.23 |
| Makes study aids from your files | Skolight Yes. PDFs (scanned too), Word, PowerPoint, text and LaTeX files, captioned YouTube videos, web pages, audio and live lectures.4 | Quizgecko Yes. PDFs, slides, photos, recordings, public YouTube videos, web pages, text and topics.42 | Quizlet Yes. Notes, PDFs, Word and PowerPoint files, photos or audio become study guides and flashcards.43 | Knowt Yes. PDFs, slides, images, videos and YouTube, Canvas or Drive links; 1 a month free, unlimited on Ultra.44 | Gizmo Yes. Magic Import: PDFs, recordings, notes, photos, PowerPoint, spreadsheets and websites.45 |
| Spaced repetition | Skolight Yes. SM-2-style scheduling. Review what's due, the whole deck, or only your misses.46 | Quizgecko Yes. SM-2-based scheduling, adjusted by your confidence ratings.9 | Quizlet Yes. Web only, added August 2026: rate cards Repeat, Hard, Okay or Easy; set new cards per day.16 | Knowt Yes. Free on your own sets: rate cards Again, Hard, Good or Easy, with a daily new-card limit.47 | Gizmo Yes. Memorise mode times each card's return; the algorithm isn't named and has no settings.27 |
| AI tutor chat | Skolight Yes. Skolar answers from your material, with modes for explaining, solving and quizzing.48 | Quizgecko Yes. Chat about your uploads; highlight text to explain, solve or turn into questions.10 | Quizlet Yes. Ask Quizlet explains topics and answers on up to 3 uploaded files; US only, ages 14+.49 | Knowt Yes. Ask Kai with attachments, math, a whiteboard or web search; Ultra on your own files.50 | Gizmo Yes. AI Tutor runs step-by-step lessons from a topic, deck or import; Free gets 5 sessions a day.51 |
| Phone and desktop apps | Skolight Partly. Works in any browser, with a layout built for phones. No native app.4 | Quizgecko Yes. Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps; Apple-silicon Macs run the iPad app.6 | Quizlet Yes. Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps; no desktop app, so computers use the website.17 | Knowt Yes. Native iPhone, iPad and Android apps that sync with the web.52 | Gizmo Yes. iPhone, iPad and Android apps plus the web; no Mac or desktop app is listed.53 |
What they cost
Skolight3
Free: 1,500 AI words, 1 generation a day and 3 flashcard sets a day, 1 space and 30 minutes of lecture transcription a month. No card needed.
Starter
$7.99 a month or $59 a year · $4.92/mo yearly
15 generations a day, 10 flashcard sets a day, 3 hours of transcription a month
Pro
$12.99 a month or $89 a year · $7.42/mo yearly
25 generations a day, 50 flashcard sets a day, 8 hours of transcription a month, 1 hour of podcasts
Max
$24.99 a month or $179 a year · $14.92/mo yearly
unlimited generations, unlimited flashcard sets, 20 hours of transcription a month, 3 hours of podcasts
Yearly billing saves at least 38%. One-time top-up packs of AI words never expire.
Quizgecko8
Free: 1 AI lesson a month, with its quiz, flashcards, notes and podcast. No card needed.
Premium
$16 a month
Unlimited AI lessons, 30 podcasts a month, offline mode and no ads.
Ultra
$29 a month
50 podcasts a month, custom prompts and LMS export.
Organization
Price not published
Team management, invoice billing and document security controls.
Monthly prices only: Quizgecko's own pages list different yearly prices for Premium ($72, $64 and $108). Its plans page puts Ultra at $276 a year. The 3-day free trial needs a payment method.
Quizlet14
Free: Flashcards and games, limited Learn rounds, 1 Test per set and limited AI tools, with ads.
Plus14
$7.99 a month or $35.99 a year · $3/mo yearly
No ads, plus 3 practice tests, 3 textbook solutions or Q&As and 20 Learn rounds a month.
Plus Unlimited14
$9.99 a month or $44.99 a year · $3.75/mo yearly
No ads, unlimited practice tests, Learn rounds and Audio Notes, and English textbook solutions.
Quizlet's upgrade page blocks automated reads, so these prices come from archived copies of it and the US App Store. The 7-day free trial is for yearly plans only. Teacher and Family plans are sold yearly, and group or school purchases get 5% to 84% off by seat count. Students get free, ad-free Learn and Test on sets their teacher adds to a class.
Knowt19
Free: Every study mode on your own sets, unlimited files, 1 AI summary a month and 1 AP, SAT or ACT mock exam, with ads.
Student Ultra19
$24.99 a month or $149.99 a year · $12.50/mo yearly
No ads, unlimited AI summaries and mock exams, podcasts, Kai chat and voice tutor, and full AP, SAT and ACT prep.
The yearly plan starts with a 3-day free trial and is shown as $12.99 a month, though $149.99 a year works out to $12.50. App Store prices differ, from $59.99 to $149.99 a year. Teacher Ultra is $199.99 a year with a 30-day trial, and schools get volume-based quotes. In February 2026 Knowt's single Ultra plan cost $119.99 a year or $19.99 a month.
Gizmo28
Free: Unlimited decks, practice tests and Gizmo Live, with 2 AI imports and 5 AI Tutor sessions a day and 15 hearts in Memorise.
Gizmo Unlimited25
Price not published
Unlimited hearts, AI imports with no wait, and unlimited AI Tutor and hints.
Gizmo doesn't publish prices; they vary by device and region. Unlimited is billed weekly or yearly (no monthly plan is described), with a student discount of unstated size. The US App Store lists Unlimited purchases from $6.99 to $154.99 without saying which period each covers.
Gemini33
Free: Guided Learning, Deep Research, Gemini Live and Canvas, mostly on Flash-Lite, with limits that refill every 5 hours up to a weekly cap.
Google AI Plus
$4.99 a month
Twice the free usage and 400 GB of storage.
Google AI Pro
$19.99 a month
Four times the free usage, up to 1,500 pages of uploads at once, and 5 TB of storage.
US prices; elsewhere Google charges a local equivalent. Google AI Ultra costs $99.99 or $199.99 a month. Limits are compute-based and not published as numbers. Eligible US college students 18+ can get AI Pro free for a year, and students in 140+ other markets AI Plus, if they redeem by December 31, 2026; it then renews at the normal price. Free in every Google Workspace for Education edition, for all ages.
ChatGPT38
Free: Study mode and unlimited text chat on a lighter model, with ads and limits on uploads, images and voice.
Go54
$8 a month
More uploads and image generation than Free and longer memory, still with ads.
Plus55
$20 a month
No ads, the larger GPT-6 Sol model and higher limits.
OpenAI's pricing page couldn't be read when we checked, so these US prices come from dated press reports. Free and Go show ads; Plus and up don't. Go is sold in every country ChatGPT supports, billed in local currency in some. Pro plans run from $100 to $500 a month. Free accounts are used for model training unless you opt out.
For course tests on a budget, Knowt is hard to beat: Practice Test mode is free on your own sets. Among paid plans, Quizlet Plus is the cheapest at $35.99 a year, but it caps AI practice tests at 3 a month. Skolight's mock exams are on every plan; Starter, at $59 a year, raises the daily limit for exam weeks.
How to get the most out of a practice test
Step 1: Sit it like the real thing
Set the same time limit as the exam, close your notes, put the phone in another room and don't pause. A practice test taken with the textbook open measures your searching, not your memory.
Step 2: Take it early, not the night before
A test two weeks out shows you what to study. A test the night before only shows you what you don't know when there's no time left to fix it.
Step 3: Read every explanation, including the right answers
A right answer you reached by guessing is a weak point that happened to score. Check why each answer is right before you look at your total.
Step 4: Turn misses into review within a day
Make flashcards or a short quiz from every question you got wrong and go through them within 24 hours, while the mistake is still fresh. It's the step most people skip, and the one that moves the score.
Step 5: Retake a fresh version a few days later
Don't retake the identical test the same evening, or you'll remember the answers instead of the material. Wait a few days, then sit new questions on the same topics. There's a full walk-through in making a practice test from your lecture slides.