Turn a photo of your notes into a quiz
Snap a photo of handwritten or printed notes and get a quiz or flashcards from it. Choose difficulty and question count. Free to start.
Key takeaways
- Take a clear photo of a page of notes and BrainLift builds a quiz or a flashcard deck from it.
- Good light, a flat page, and one page per shot make the biggest difference to what the AI can read.
- Wrong answers can become a flashcard deck with explanations, so the photo keeps paying off after the first quiz.
Point your phone at a page of notes, take the picture, and BrainLift turns what it reads into a quiz. You can also scan the same notes into a flashcard deck if you would rather drill terms than answer questions.
How it works
- Take or choose a photo. You snap a page of class notes, a handout, or a whiteboard with your camera or pick an existing picture from your photo library, and you see it attached before you continue.
- Pick your settings. You choose whether you want a quiz or flashcards, and for a quiz you set the difficulty and how many questions to generate.
- Answer and learn from misses. You work through the questions one at a time, and after the quiz you can turn the ones you got wrong into a flashcard deck with explanations.
What you get
Here is a realistic example from a photo of handwritten US history notes on the American Revolution.
| What is written in your notes | Quiz question BrainLift drafts |
|---|---|
| Stamp Act 1765, taxed printed paper, "no taxation without representation" | Which 1765 act taxed printed materials and sparked the protest "no taxation without representation"? |
| Boston Tea Party, Dec 1773, protest of the Tea Act | The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a protest against which British law? |
| Declaration of Independence adopted July 4, 1776, main author Jefferson | Who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence? |
| Battle of Saratoga 1777, turning point, led to French alliance | Why is the Battle of Saratoga often called a turning point of the war? |
Each question comes with answer choices and the correct answer, so you can see right away whether you remembered it.
Tips for better results
- Shoot in good, even light. Daylight or a bright room without harsh shadows helps the most. Avoid your own shadow falling across the page.
- One page per shot. Fitting two pages into one frame makes the text smaller and harder to read. Take separate photos instead.
- Hold the phone flat above the page. Shooting at an angle stretches the words at the far edge, and curled notebook pages can blur lines near the spine.
- Fill the frame with the notes. Crop out the desk, your hand, and anything that is not study material, so the AI focuses on the content.
- Match the quiz to your goal. Pick fewer, easier questions for a first check after class, and more questions at a higher difficulty when the test is close.
For a full routine built around this, read how to study from photos of your notes. To get the most from the questions you miss, see learning from practice test mistakes.
What it costs
BrainLift is free to start, with limits on how much you can generate. If you need more, Premium is $6.99 a month, $49.99 a year, or $2.99 a week.
Accuracy
A photo adds a step where things can go wrong: the AI has to read your writing before it writes questions, so a smudged word can turn into a wrong fact. When a question looks off, compare it with the photo, and treat your notes and textbook as the final word. Answering questions is still worth the extra check, because students who took a recall test remembered more after two days and a week than students who restudied the same passage (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
The quickest way to try it is the BrainLift app for iPhone and iPad, where the camera is built in.
In high school and taking notes by hand? Here is how BrainLift works for high school students.
FAQ
Can it read handwritten notes?
Yes, BrainLift reads handwriting as well as printed text. Neat, dark writing on plain or lined paper reads best, and very small or faint writing is more likely to be misread.
What photo formats can I use?
Regular photos from your phone's camera or photo library work, including screenshots. If a picture looks blurry to you, it will probably be hard for the AI to read too, so retake it.
How many pages can I photograph at once?
Start with a single page or a small set of related pages so the quiz stays on one topic. Usage limits depend on your plan, so check the app if you plan to scan a large stack.
Does photo to quiz work on the web?
The web app works in any modern browser, and you can upload an image of your notes there. Taking the picture is easiest in the iPhone and iPad app, since the camera is right there.