How does the practice test choose my questions?

CSTSetup picks every practice question for you. You press Practice; there is no question count, mode or topic to choose. Each set is built at that moment from everything you have answered on that exam so far.

Sets of 10, then 5 more

A practice test starts with 10 questions. At the end of a set, Keep going adds 5 more, chosen the same way, as many times as you like. Done for now or End stops it. Every answer counts the moment you give it, so stopping never loses anything.

It aims at your level

You have a level in each area of the exam. Questions are aimed so you get about 3 in 4 right: hard enough that you learn something, easy enough to keep going. Getting right the questions most students miss raises your level in that area. Missing the ones most students get right lowers it. Until you have answered five questions in an area, you start there at the easy end.

Every question has a measured difficulty

A question's difficulty is the share of students who got it wrong the first time they answered it. Only first answers count, so students practicing a question again doesn't make it look easier. A new question starts in the middle and moves as students answer it. Nobody guesses which questions are hard. The answers decide.

It leans on your weak areas

Every answer is scored by area of the exam's official content outline. An area where you're under the pass mark gets more of each set until it catches up.

New questions first, misses when you're ready

Questions you haven't seen come first, so a large bank doesn't repeat on you. A question you missed is weighted to come back once your level says you can get it. There's no separate missed-questions list to manage. Practice does it for you.

Instruments you mix up

On exams with instrument photo questions, if you pick one instrument when the answer was another, practice starts using each one as a wrong answer on the other's question until you can tell them apart. That only happens in practice, never on the timed exam.

After every answer

You see the right answer, why it's right, why each wrong answer is wrong, and the source the question was checked against. See Where do the questions come from?