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In a practical exam, the examiner may point at a piece of glassware and ask what it is, what it does in your experiment and what could go wrong. An AI chatbot can drill you on them. Your lab manual keeps the drill honest.
What does the CBSE practical actually test?
In CBSE's Class XII chemistry curriculum for 2026-27, the practical exam carries 30 marks, of which 4 are for class record and viva.
The same document has a separate practical scheme for visually challenged learners in Classes XI and XII. It gives 5 of 30 marks for identification of, or familiarity with, the apparatus, and lists 20 items: the beaker, glass rod, tripod stand, wire gauze, Bunsen burner, Whatman filter paper, gas jar, capillary tube, pestle and mortar, test tubes, tongs, test tube holder, test tube stand, burette, pipette, conical flask, standard flask, clamp stand, funnel and filter paper. Its guidelines say each experiment in the practical file should include the aim, apparatus required, simple theory, procedure and precautions, and that viva questions may cover apparatus, procedure, precautions and sources of error. That list makes a sensible starting point for any student.
For Class X, the CBSE Science curriculum for 2026-27 lists 14 experiments, counts practical work as 5 marks of internal assessment and names the NCERT Laboratory Manual as a prescribed book. Ask your teacher how your school will assess the practical.
Why quiz yourself instead of rereading the manual?
In a 2006 study, Roediger and Karpicke found that students who took tests on prose passages remembered more after 2 days and after 1 week than students who restudied, even though restudying left students feeling more confident.
A 2017 meta-analysis by Adesope and colleagues compared practice tests with other ways of studying and found practice tests more beneficial for learning than restudying and all other comparison conditions.
An AI is a patient quizmaster, but it can be wrong. A 2025 paper by Kalai and colleagues puts it this way: "Like students facing hard exam questions, large language models sometimes guess when uncertain, producing plausible yet incorrect statements instead of admitting uncertainty." So the AI asks the questions. Your manual has the final say on the answers.
How do you get an AI to quiz you on lab apparatus?
Copy this prompt and fill in the brackets:
"I have my [Class XII chemistry] practical on [date]. Quiz me on lab apparatus, one question at a time. Use only this list: [paste the apparatus from your manual for the experiments you will do]. Mix three kinds of question: name it from a description, say what it is used for in a named experiment, and give one safety precaution. Wait for my answer before you reply. Keep score, and at the end list everything I got wrong or half right."
Here is what one round might look like:
AI: You need to transfer a fixed, measured volume of oxalic acid solution into a conical flask before a titration. What do you use?
You: A burette.
AI: Close, but no. A pipette delivers one fixed volume. The burette holds the solution you add slowly during the titration. Now give one precaution for using a pipette.
You: I'm not sure. Can I have a hint?
Asking for a hint beats guessing. The AI's correction sounds right, but it stays unchecked until you find it in your manual.
How do you check the AI's answers against your lab manual?
Rule three columns in your notebook: the question, what the AI said, and what the manual says, with the page number. Then:
If they agree, tick it and note the page.
If they differ, cross out the AI's answer and copy the manual's.
If the manual does not cover it, ask your teacher.
Never try a procedure or safety step because a chatbot suggested it.
Some viva questions are really about theory, such as why an indicator changes colour at the end point. For those, the Fermi Concept Library has its own lesson for each concept in chemistry, physics and biology.
What does a five-day plan before the practical look like?
Day 1: List the experiments you may be given and copy the apparatus for each from your manual.
Day 2: Run a names-only quiz. Fill in the three columns and mark your misses.
Day 3: Quiz on uses: which experiment each item belongs to, and why it is used instead of something similar, such as a conical flask instead of a beaker.
Day 4: Quiz on safety, using the precautions section of each experiment.
Day 5: Re-quiz only your misses, then explain each item aloud to someone acting as the examiner.
Parents can help without knowing any chemistry: hold up a picture from the manual, ask what it is and what it is for, and check the answer against the page.
If you would rather not build the quiz yourself, Fermi's AI tutor works out what you already know, builds a plan for the session and checks understanding as it goes. Whichever tool you use, finish each session with your lab manual open.
