How to Make a Quiz With Copilot From a PDF

To make a quiz with Copilot, open Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, attach your PDF, notes, or slides, and ask it to write multiple-choice, true/false, or short-answer questions with an answer key. Copilot Chat reads the file and drafts the questions right in the conversation. The catch is what happens next: Copilot in Microsoft Forms, the part that builds a real graded quiz, does not read your PDF at all. It generates questions from a topic you type, so you end up copying Copilot Chat's questions into Forms by hand. For a graded quiz you can share from a link, generate the questions straight from your document with a dedicated quiz tool instead.

Copilot is two different tools that people mix up. Copilot Chat (the M365 assistant) is good at reading a file and drafting questions. Copilot in Forms is the quiz builder, but it works from a typed prompt, not an upload. Knowing which one does what saves a lot of clicking. This guide shows the exact prompt for Copilot Chat, explains the Forms gap, and points to where a purpose-built tool turns a PDF into a finished, gradable quiz in one step.

Can Copilot make a quiz?

Yes, Copilot can make a quiz, but it depends on which Copilot you use. Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat can read an uploaded PDF or Word file and draft questions with answers in the chat. Copilot in Microsoft Forms can build a real, auto-graded quiz, but it generates questions from a topic you describe rather than from a file you upload. Both need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

So the honest answer is that Copilot handles the writing and the grading, just not in the same place. You draft in Copilot Chat from your source material, then rebuild those questions in Forms to get something a class or a team can actually take. That handoff is the manual step a dedicated PDF to quiz tool removes.

How do you make a quiz with Copilot from a PDF?

Use Copilot Chat to read the PDF and write the questions, then move them into Microsoft Forms to deliver and grade them. Copilot Chat will not publish a shareable graded quiz on its own, and Copilot in Forms cannot import your PDF, so the questions cross that gap by copy and paste or a formatted Word import.

Here is the full path, step by step:

1. Open Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. You need a Microsoft 365 account with a Copilot license. The free consumer Copilot has tighter file limits, so a work or school M365 account is the reliable route.
2. Attach your PDF. Select the Add content (+) button in the chat box, or drag and drop the file in. Copilot Chat can also read Word and PowerPoint files.
3. Prompt it for questions. Be specific about count, format, and source (the exact prompt is below). Tell it to pull answers only from the document so it does not invent facts.
4. Review every answer. Copilot can hallucinate, so check that each correct answer is actually supported by the PDF and that the wrong options are plausible but clearly wrong.
5. Move the questions into Microsoft Forms. Open Forms, start a new quiz, and either paste the questions in one at a time or use Forms' Import feature with a properly formatted Word file. Copilot in Forms can also draft questions, but only from a topic you type, not from your PDF.
6. Set the answer key and points in Forms so the quiz auto-grades, then share the response link with your students or team.

What is the best prompt to make a quiz with Copilot?

The best prompt names the document, the number of questions, the format, and tells Copilot to use only the file as its source. A vague prompt gives you generic questions; a specific one gives you items you can almost use as-is. Here is a prompt that works well in Copilot Chat with a PDF attached:

"Using only the attached PDF, write 10 multiple-choice questions that test understanding of the main concepts. Give each question four answer options labeled A to D, mark the correct answer, and add a one-line explanation. Do not use any outside information."

Adjust the format to fit what you need. The table below shows prompt variations and what each returns.

Does Copilot in Forms read your PDF?

No. Copilot in Microsoft Forms creates a quiz from a topic description you type, not from a file you upload. It cannot build a quiz directly from a PDF or a PowerPoint. The one file path Forms offers is the Import feature, which pulls questions from an already-formatted Word document, so you still have to write or convert the questions yourself first.

This is the single biggest source of confusion. People expect to drop their lecture PDF into Forms and get a quiz, then discover Forms wants a typed prompt. That is why the reliable Copilot workflow runs through Copilot Chat for the reading and writing, with Forms only handling delivery and grading.

Can Copilot grade a quiz?

Copilot in Microsoft Forms grades automatically once you build the quiz there and set an answer key and point values. Forms then scores multiple-choice and other closed questions for you and shows response analytics. Copilot Chat on its own does not grade: it drafts questions in the conversation but cannot collect responses, score them, or track who took the quiz.

So grading lives in Forms, not in Copilot Chat. If your goal is a quiz students take from a link and have scored automatically, you have to get the questions into Forms (or another delivery tool) first, which is the manual handoff described above.

How many questions should a Copilot quiz have?

For most uses, 10 to 15 questions is the sweet spot. That is long enough to cover a chapter or a training module and short enough that people finish and that you can review each item for accuracy. Ask Copilot for a few more than you need, then cut the weakest ones after you check the answers against the source.

If you are building a longer test, generate it in batches of 10 to 15 by section rather than asking for 40 questions at once. Smaller batches keep Copilot anchored to the document and make the answers easier to verify.

Is Copilot good at making quizzes?

Copilot is good at the writing step and weaker at everything around it. Give Copilot Chat a clear document and a specific prompt and it drafts solid questions in seconds. Where it falls short is the workflow: it cannot turn your PDF into a finished graded quiz in one place, it sometimes writes answer options that give the answer away, and it can state a wrong answer with full confidence. You own the fact-checking and the rebuild in Forms.

The table below compares using Copilot to using a dedicated PDF to quiz tool, so you can pick the right one for the job.

The faster route: turn the PDF straight into a quiz

If the end goal is a quiz people take and have scored, skipping the Copilot Chat to Forms handoff saves the most time. Upload your PDF, notes, or slides to our PDF to quiz maker and the AI reads the document and writes the questions with an answer key in one step, ready to edit and export. You stay in one place instead of drafting in Copilot Chat and rebuilding in Forms.

For tests built entirely from multiple-choice items, the AI MCQ maker writes the options and distractors for you and marks the correct answer, which is the part Copilot most often gets wrong. Teachers building classroom assessments can start from the quiz maker for teachers, and anyone comparing AI assistants for this job can see the same workflow with other tools in how to make a quiz with ChatGPT and how to make a quiz in Microsoft Forms.

A couple of adjacent tasks come up around this. If your source is a scanned handout or a photographed page, run it through document OCR software first so the text is selectable before you build questions from it. For workplace training where you need a record that each person finished the module, pair the quiz with a signed completion form from an online document signing tool. And if you are a course creator turning the same material into published lessons, an AI SEO content tool can help you repurpose that content into search-friendly posts.

The bottom line

Copilot can make a quiz, but the work splits across two tools: Copilot Chat reads your PDF and drafts the questions, and Copilot in Forms grades them, only it cannot read your PDF and needs the questions retyped or imported from Word. That handoff is fine for a one-off, but it adds up when you build quizzes regularly. When you want a graded quiz straight from a document, generate the questions from your PDF with a dedicated tool and skip the rebuild entirely.