--- title: "Reviewer Maker From PPT: Turn Lecture Slides Into Practice | Formswrite Blog" description: "Turn lecture slides into a reviewer and practice questions: export the PPT to PDF, pick the slides that matter, generate questions, and check them." canonical: https://formswrite.com/blog/reviewer-maker-from-ppt last-updated: 2026-10-08 --- # Reviewer Maker From PPT: Turn Lecture Slides Into Practice In short To make a reviewer from PowerPoint slides, save the deck as a PDF, remove the slides that are not testable, upload the PDF to a reviewer maker, and check the terms and practice questions it produces against the lecture. ## Why slides are good and bad source material Slides are structured: every slide has a title and a few bullets, which makes them easy to turn into terms and questions. The problem is that slides are cues, not explanations. A slide that says "Piaget: four stages" does not tell you what the stages are unless the lecturer filled it in. A reviewer built only from the slide will repeat the cue. The fix is simple. Add your own notes to the speaker notes or to the PDF before you generate. ## Step by step: slides to reviewer 1. In PowerPoint, choose File, then Export, then save as PDF. In Google Slides, choose File, Download, PDF document. 2. Open the PDF and delete the slides that cannot be tested: the title slide, agenda, thank you slide and slides of only images. 3. Add notes. Put the lecturer's explanations where you can, or keep them in a Word file that you upload with the PDF. 4. Upload to a reviewer maker. Formswrite can generate flashcards and practice questions with an answer key from a PDF, a Word file or a Google Doc. See the [AI reviewer maker](/tools/reviewer-maker). 5. Read every card and question against the lecture and edit what is wrong. 6. Answer the questions without the slides, then check. [Make a reviewer from your slides](/tools/reviewer-maker) ## Slide types and what to do with them | Slide type | What to do | | --- | --- | | Bullet list of definitions | Turns directly into term and definition cards | | Diagram or flowchart | Write a one sentence description of it in your notes, since images may not carry meaning | | Table | Keep it as a table in the PDF, then ask yourself comparison questions | | Case study | Turn it into a scenario question | | Quote or image only | Delete it | ## Common mistakes - **Uploading a whole semester at once.** Upload one lecture or one unit so the output stays focused. - **Trusting a definition that is not on the slide.** If a card says something your lecturer did not, check the textbook. - **Skipping the practice step.** A reviewer is only useful if you answer something. ## A worked example Suppose you have a 30 slide lecture on the stages of the water cycle. After you delete the title, agenda and closing slides, 24 slides remain. Of those, six are diagrams, so you write a sentence for each in a notes file: for example, "The diagram shows evaporation from oceans, condensation into clouds and precipitation back to land." Upload the PDF and the notes file. A good result gives you cards such as "Evaporation: the change of liquid water into vapor, driven by heat from the sun", and questions such as "Which process forms clouds?" with the answer key on a separate page. You then check the 24 slides against the cards, and find that one card repeats another and one definition is vaguer than the lecturer's. You fix both in a minute. That check is the reason to keep the review step, since a reviewer you have not read is not a reviewer you know. ## If you are a teacher You can run the same flow in reverse. Upload your own slides to build a review quiz for your class. The [PDF to quiz generator guide](/blog/pdf-to-quiz-generator) covers turning a PDF into a quiz, and the [quiz generator](/tools/quiz-generator) page shows the export options. Paid plans export to Google Forms and other platforms. ## Fixing thin slides before you generate Some slides are almost empty by design, such as a slide with only a heading and a photo. If you upload them as they are, the tool has nothing to work with and either skips them or guesses. Two quick fixes help. First, merge sparse slides into your notes. If three slides in a row cover one idea, write one paragraph in your own words and upload that paragraph. Second, name the exam style in the file, for example by adding a line at the top such as "Practice questions should be multiple choice". Not every tool reads instructions like this, so check the result either way. If your lecturer shares a handout or reading list as well, upload that with the slides. The handout usually carries the detail the slides leave out, which is exactly what your reviewer is missing. ## Using the reviewer well - Do a first pass on the same day as the lecture, while you remember the explanation. - Do a second pass two or three days later. - Take a mixed set before the exam, including questions from earlier lectures. For an explanation of why this spacing helps, see [are flashcards effective](/blog/are-flashcards-effective). ## FAQ Can I make a reviewer from a PPT file? Yes. Export the presentation as a PDF and upload it. You can also upload a Word file or Google Doc with your lecture notes. Does the reviewer include the speaker notes? Not unless you export or copy them into the file you upload. If you rely on the lecturer's explanation, add it to your notes before generating. How many slides should I upload at once? One lecture is enough, usually 20 to 40 slides. Smaller uploads give more focused questions. Does it work on scanned slides or photos of a whiteboard? Yes for readable images. Formswrite includes OCR for scanned files and photographed notes, but blurry photos produce poor text, so retake them if you cannot read them yourself.