Every engineering student knows the drill: 40-page slide decks after every lecture, one problem set per week, and exams that test concepts the problem set barely touched. Your professor posts slides packed with derivations and worked examples, but the only practice available is 8-10 assigned problems. You need more reps than the problem set provides — especially on the topics you don't fully grasp yet. What if you could turn any lecture deck into additional practice problems in 30 seconds?
This guide covers why working problems is how engineers actually learn, how to generate practice problems from your own slides, what good engineering questions look like across disciplines, and where AI-generated questions fit alongside your textbook problem sets.
Why Practice Problems Are How Engineers Learn
Engineering exams test application: given these conditions, solve for X. They don't test whether you can recite a derivation — they test whether you can use it. That fundamental distinction should drive how you study.
Problem sets are the primary study tool in every engineering course, but they're limited in volume. A typical course assigns 8-12 problems per week covering a handful of concepts. If you struggle with one of those concepts, you have maybe two or three problems to practice on. That's not enough repetition to build fluency.
Rereading slides produces recognition — "I've seen this derivation before" — not problem-solving ability. Recognition feels like understanding, but it collapses the moment you face a new problem that applies the same principle differently. The active recall research is unambiguous: retrieval practice produces significantly better retention and transfer than passive review.
The gap is straightforward: you need more practice problems than the assigned set provides, especially on concepts where you're weakest. Unlike med school or law school, most engineering courses don't have large archives of practice exams. You might get one or two past midterms if you're lucky. That leaves a real shortage of practice material for the topics that matter most.
How to Turn Lecture Slides Into Practice Problems
Here's the workflow. Upload one lecture at a time — a single slide deck, not the whole course. Focused input produces focused questions.
Step 1: Upload One Lecture at a Time
Drag and drop a single lecture PDF into Digestly. Keep it focused: one topic, one slide deck. A statics lecture on trusses and a thermodynamics lecture on Carnot cycles should be separate uploads so the questions stay organized by subject.
Step 2: Generate Notes
Hit "Generate Notes." Digestly processes the slides into structured study notes — extracting key concepts, formulas, relationships, boundary conditions, and worked example approaches.
Step 3: Switch to the Quiz Tab
Navigate to the Quiz tab and generate a practice quiz. Quizzes test application, which is what engineering exams do. You want questions that give you conditions and ask you to solve, not questions that ask you to define a term.
Step 4: Take the Practice Quiz
Answer each question without referencing your slides or formula sheets. The point is to expose gaps, not confirm what you know. Pay attention to which questions make you hesitate — that's where your understanding is shallow.
Step 5: Review What You Missed
For every question you got wrong, go back to the notes and understand the specific concept, formula, or assumption behind the correct answer. Don't just note that you got it wrong — understand why the correct approach works and where your reasoning diverged.
Repeat per lecture. Track which topics give you trouble across multiple quizzes — those are the concepts that need the most additional practice.
Try it free with your hardest engineering topic →
What Good Engineering Practice Questions Look Like
Every good engineering question gives you conditions and asks you to apply a principle. Here are examples across common engineering courses:
| Course | Example Question | Why It's Useful |
|---|---|---|
| Statics | Beam with distributed load of 5 kN/m over 3 m and point load of 10 kN at midspan. What are the support reactions? | Tests equilibrium + superposition of load types |
| Dynamics | 2 kg block on 30° incline, μk = 0.3. Acceleration down the incline? | Tests free-body diagrams + Newton's second law on inclines |
| Thermodynamics | Steam enters turbine at 600°C, 10 MPa, exits at 100 kPa. Ideal work output per unit mass? | Tests isentropic process + steam table reading |
| Circuits | RC series circuit, R = 10 kΩ, C = 100 μF, V = 12V. Time to reach 63.2% of final voltage? | Tests time constant concept (τ = RC) |
| Fluid Mechanics | Water flows through pipe narrowing from 10 cm to 5 cm diameter. Upstream velocity 2 m/s. Downstream velocity? | Tests continuity equation (A₁v₁ = A₂v₂) |
| Materials Science | Steel sample with 0.2% offset yield strength of 350 MPa, elastic modulus 200 GPa. Strain at yield? | Tests stress-strain relationship + offset method |
| Signals & Systems | Input x(t) to LTI system with impulse response h(t) = e^(-2t)u(t). System stable? Why? | Tests BIBO stability + impulse response criteria |
| Controls | Open-loop transfer function G(s) = 10/[s(s+2)(s+5)]. Type and steady-state error to unit step? | Tests system type classification + error constants |
Notice the pattern: every question specifies conditions and asks you to apply a principle to reach a result. That's what engineering exams test — your ability to set up and solve, not to recite definitions.
Textbook Problem Sets vs. AI-Generated Questions: When to Use Each
This isn't either/or. They serve different purposes.
Textbook/assigned problem strengths:
- Numerically verified — solutions manuals confirm exact answers
- Scaffolded difficulty progression within each chapter
- Professors select problems that map to exam content
- Multi-step problems that build on each other and require integration of multiple concepts
Where AI-generated questions fill a gap:
- Extra reps on weak concepts after finishing the assigned problem set
- Conceptual review before starting numerical problems — do you actually understand what the formula means, or are you plugging and chugging?
- Fresh angles on material when you've already seen every textbook problem in the chapter
- Quick gap identification — upload slides, take a quiz, find out what you don't know before the exam instead of discovering it during the exam
The practical approach: Assigned problem set first, always. When you struggle with a topic, upload those specific slides and generate additional practice. Use AI questions for conceptual reinforcement and gap identification. Use textbook problems for multi-step calculation practice and exam-weight problem solving.
What AI-Generated Problems Can't Do (Yet)
Multi-step numerical calculations: AI sometimes generates numbers that don't work out cleanly, or produces intermediate steps with rounding errors that compound. For any quantitative problem from an AI quiz, verify the math independently. The conceptual setup is usually correct; the arithmetic sometimes isn't.
Free-body diagrams and spatial problems: AI can't produce visual problems that require you to draw force diagrams, sketch deformed shapes, or reason about geometry. Any problem involving "draw the FBD" or "sketch the shear and moment diagram" is out of scope.
Design problems: Open-ended engineering design — sizing a heat exchanger to meet specifications, designing a circuit to achieve a particular transfer function, selecting materials for a given load case — requires engineering judgment that AI can't validate. It can test whether you understand the underlying principles, but it can't replicate the design process.
Lab-specific content: Experimental procedures, instrumentation calibration, data analysis from specific equipment, and lab report interpretation are too context-dependent for AI to generate meaningful questions about.
The workaround: Use AI-generated questions for conceptual review and formula-application gaps. Use textbook problems and past exams for multi-step calculations and design. Past exams remain the gold standard when your professor releases them — nothing simulates exam conditions better than the actual exam format.
Try it free — supplement your engineering study →
Organizing Your Study by Engineering Discipline
Group your study approach by subject type, not by semester order. Different course types benefit from different mixes of AI-generated and textbook practice.
Math-heavy courses (Dynamics, Thermodynamics, Circuits, Signals & Systems) — Formula-application questions work very well here. Generate conceptual questions first to check whether you understand when and why to apply each formula, then do numerical problems from the textbook. If you can't explain what a formula does in plain language, you're not ready to use it on an exam.
Conceptual + calculation courses (Statics, Fluid Mechanics, Materials Science) — These have a strong mix of what AI can generate and what you need textbook problems for. Use AI-generated questions for "when do I use this principle?" and "what assumptions does this formula require?" Use textbook problems for "solve this specific problem start to finish."
Design-heavy courses (Capstone, Machine Design, Control Systems Lab) — AI-generated questions help with the underlying theory, but they can't replicate open-ended design problems that require making and justifying engineering decisions. Focus AI practice on the analytical foundations; do design work from project prompts and past assignments.
Programming/lab courses — Flashcard mode can help with syntax, API conventions, and conceptual questions. But actual programming practice requires writing and debugging code, not answering multiple-choice questions about it.
Upload one lecture at a time. Track which topics give you trouble on problem sets. Weak on a concept? Generate more questions from those slides. For the science behind why spacing this review across topics works, see the spaced repetition guide.
A Study Schedule That Works for Engineering Students
Engineering courses typically have 3-4 exams per semester. Here's a per-exam cycle that fits around your problem sets and lab reports:
After each lecture: Upload the slides, generate a quick quiz to check comprehension. Five to ten minutes. This catches misunderstandings early — before you've built three lectures of new material on top of a concept you didn't actually understand.
Problem set week: Do the assigned problems first, without looking at solutions. For any topic you struggle with, generate supplemental practice questions from those specific slides. The goal is more reps on the concepts that aren't clicking, not more volume on concepts you already grasp.
1 week before the exam: Review all the lecture quizzes for that exam block. Generate fresh quizzes on your weakest topics — the ones where you consistently miss questions. Do past exams if your professor has released them.
Day before the exam: Formula review and a light conceptual quiz. No new problem-solving. If you don't know it by now, cramming a new concept won't help. Trust the work you've already done.
For more on optimizing your study sessions under time pressure, see how to study faster for exams.
Stop Rereading Your Slides. Start Solving Problems.
Engineering exams don't test whether you recognize a derivation — they test whether you can apply it to a problem you've never seen before. Every hour spent scrolling through slides is an hour not spent solving. You don't learn statics by reading about equilibrium. You learn it by solving for reactions until the process is automatic.
Convert your lectures into practice problems. Solve them. Review what you missed. Repeat.
Upload your lecture slides — free, no credit card →
Related Reading:
Read more
MCAT Study Materials: Generate Flashcards From Biology PDFs
Turn your MCAT prep textbooks, biology PDFs, and lecture notes into flashcards in 30 seconds. A practical guide for pre-med students who need targeted review beyond Kaplan and Princeton Review.
Quizlet Alternative for PDF Study Materials (2026)
Looking for a Quizlet alternative that handles PDFs, YouTube, and audio? Compare Quizlet Plus vs Digestly — features, pricing, and which is better for studying from your own materials.
CPA Exam Prep: Turn Accounting Textbooks Into Practice Quizzes
Turn your CPA review textbooks and accounting PDFs into practice quizzes in 30 seconds. A practical guide for CPA candidates who need more reps beyond Becker and Wiley.