PYQ Analysis Prompt: Let AI Count What Repeats in 5 Years of Board Papers

You have five years of previous year papers saved on your phone. You know the answer to “what is important” is sitting somewhere inside them. Going through all of them with a pen and a tally sheet takes a full Sunday, so it never happens.

This is the job to hand to AI. It cannot tell you what will come in your paper. Nobody can. What it can do in about two minutes is the counting: which topic came how many times, which questions keep coming back and which chapters carry the fewest marks.

The full prompt is below. Copy it, follow the two steps and your table is ready.

What you get at the end

A chapter-wise table of questions and marks for each of the 5 years.
Every topic marked High, Medium or Low by how often it was asked.
A list of questions that were repeated, with the years.
The 3 chapters with the lowest marks, so you know what to keep for the end.

Step 1: Upload the papers

Open Gemini or ChatGPT and attach the last 5 years of board papers for one subject as PDF files. Take the papers from your board’s official website or from your teacher. Do one subject at a time. Mixing subjects in one chat confuses the count.

Step 2: Paste this prompt

The full PYQ prompt

I have uploaded the last 5 years of [CBSE or RBSE] Class [10 or 12] [SUBJECT] board papers. Use only these files. Do not use your own memory of past papers. 1. Make a table of every chapter with the number of questions asked in each year, the total questions and the total marks across the 5 years. 2. Inside each chapter, list the topics that were asked and how many times each topic came. 3. Mark each topic as High (came in 4 or 5 papers), Medium (came in 2 or 3 papers) or Low (came in 0 or 1 paper). 4. List the questions that were repeated or asked again with small changes, and write the years next to each. 5. List the 3 chapters with the lowest total marks. Label them "do last". If any page is unreadable or a year is missing, tell me. Do not guess.

Change the three parts in square brackets before you send it.

Level 2: Turn the table into a plan

A table is nice to look at. A study order is what you can use tomorrow morning.

Level 2 · Study order

From the table you just made, give me a study order for this subject. Put the High topics first, then Medium, then Low. I have [NUMBER] days and can give this subject [NUMBER] minutes a day. Show it as a day-wise list.

Level 2 · Quiz me on the repeats

Ask me the repeated questions from your list one at a time. Do not show the answer. After I reply, check my answer the way a board examiner would and tell me which points I missed.

Boss level: Check it against this year’s syllabus

Old papers follow old syllabuses. Boards add and remove topics, so a topic that was High three years ago may not even be in your book now. Run this once before you trust the table.

Boss level · Syllabus check

Here is my current official syllabus for this subject: [PASTE THE SYLLABUS]. Compare it with your table. Remove any topic that is no longer in the syllabus. Then list the topics that are in the syllabus but never appeared in the 5 papers, because those can still be asked.

About skipping those 3 chapters

You will be tempted to drop the three “do last” chapters completely. Be careful with that. A low count in five papers only tells you what happened before. The board can ask from any part of the syllabus.

A safer way to use the list: finish the High and Medium topics first, then give each “do last” chapter one quick reading and its 1-mark questions. That way a surprise question still gets you something.

Check the AI’s counting once

AI tools miscount sometimes, and scanned PDFs make it worse. Pick one chapter, count its questions in one paper yourself and compare with the table. If the numbers match, carry on. If they are off, tell the AI which paper it got wrong and ask it to recount.

Quick round

Three questions before you upload

What can a PYQ table tell you for sure?
- What will come in this year's paper
- Which topics were asked most in past papers
- Your final marks
A topic was High three years ago. What should you check before giving it top priority?
- Whether it is still in this year's syllabus
- Whether your friend is studying it
- Nothing, just start
What is the smart way to treat the 3 "do last" chapters?
- Never open them
- Study them first
- Read them once at the end and do the 1-mark questions

Do it for one subject today

Start with the subject that scares you most. Once you see its table, the syllabus stops looking like one giant block and starts looking like a list with an order.