What's new
For tutors: a brand-new AI toolkit on the dashboard. Generate per-learner insights from real quiz data, hand each learner a personalised study plan, and export printable PDF reports — class-wide, single-learner, or as a ZIP of all learners — for parents' evenings, IQA samples or cohort reviews.
For learners: there's now a "✨ Generate my study plan" button on every Key Revision page — the AI looks at your actual quiz history and writes you a personal plan with specific next steps. Plus every unit is built around lessons (video + quiz + Short Answer + Key Facts), and many lessons link to a 📖 Further reading deep-dive.
Why PlumbMate works
PlumbMate isn't just a question bank. It's built around three evidence-based learning principles: retrieval practice (recalling answers strengthens memory far more than re-reading), spaced repetition (revisiting material at intervals locks it in long-term), and weak-area targeting (drilling what you're worst at, not what feels comfortable).
Every feature below exists to serve one of those three principles. Once you know that, the app gets simple: quiz, review your heatmap, drill weak topics, repeat.
Pick your path
One page, three routes through it.
🚀 New & on a free trial
Your 14-day trial is enough time to cover a whole unit properly. Here's the game plan.
- Day 1 — Get set up Sign up, pick the unit you're closest to an exam on — this could be Health & Safety, Heating or something else depending on where you are in your course — and take your first quiz. Don't worry about the score — the app needs a baseline.
- Days 2–3 — Work through the unit Complete two or three quizzes per day. After each one, read the explanations carefully. This is where the learning happens, not the scoring.
- Day 4 — Check your heatmap Open your unit page and look at the topic heatmap. Red areas are where you need to spend time. Use Topic Drill to target them.
- Days 5–10 — Spaced retrieval Do at least one Key Revision session every day. The app decides which questions to resurface — you just show up. This is the feature that moves the needle.
- Day 12 — Final Challenge Attempt the unit's Final Challenge (40 questions, 85% to pass). If you pass, you've earned your certificate. If not, the app tells you exactly where to go back.
- Day 14 — Decide By this point you'll know whether PlumbMate works for you. Most students who've followed this plan keep going.
📚 Revising for my exam
Most modules take around four weeks from start to finish. Here's how to structure that time.
Weeks 1–2: Work through the module
- Take the unit quizzes in sequence — cover the whole unit before you start revising it.
- After every quiz, read the explanations. Especially on the ones you got right by guessing.
- Use the short-answer quizzes too — they build the writing muscle you need on exam day.
- Don't stress about heatmap colours yet. You're still learning, not revising.
Weeks 3–4: Revision mode
Now switch to the revision area. Each unit has 6 Practice Tests and a Final Challenge exam. Run this daily 20-minute routine:
- 5 minutes: one Key Revision session. Let the app choose your questions.
- 10 minutes: one Practice Test, or tap a red AC on your Key Revision heatmap to drill those questions, or take a short-answer quiz on a weak area.
- 5 minutes: read the end-of-quiz AI summary and the explanations on anything you got wrong.
Aim to pass all 6 Practice Tests for each unit before attempting the Final Challenge. The Final Challenge is a 40-question, 85%-to-pass exam simulation — treat it as a readiness check, not something to keep retaking until you luck into a pass.
✨ Get a personalised study plan
On every Key Revision page you'll see a "✨ Generate my study plan" button. Click it and the AI looks at your actual quiz history for that unit and writes you a 5–8 bullet plan: which lessons to revisit, which quizzes to retry, which Topic Drills to run, and when you're ready for the Final Challenge.
- You need at least 3 completed quizzes on a unit before the AI has enough to work with — fewer than that and it'll politely ask you to come back later.
- Plans are saved — when you reopen Key Revision the next day, your plan is still there. Hit 🔄 Regenerate after a chunk of practice to get a fresh plan that reflects your new performance.
- You can generate up to 3 plans per unit per day (and up to 10 in total across all units). That's plenty for normal use — if you're hitting the limit you're probably regenerating instead of revising.
- Print or copy the plan if you want to keep a paper copy on your desk while you work through it.
Your weekly check-in
- Review your heatmap in Key Revision. Pick the reddest AC and tap it to drill those questions until you're scoring above 80%.
- Regenerate your AI study plan after a week of practice — your weak areas will have shifted.
- Take one Final Challenge if you're feeling ready. Use the pass/fail as a readiness signal, not a judgement.
- Check your Achievement Room. Seeing badges stack up genuinely helps motivation.
- If a topic keeps tripping you up, read its revision guide on the blog — sometimes a written explanation cracks open what a quiz can't.
The last few days
- Stop adding new material. Do Key Revision only — pure retrieval practice.
- Use the per-lesson Key Facts cards for a last-minute refresher on the facts you keep slipping on.
- Sleep. No late-night cramming. Retrieval beats re-reading every time.
👩🏫 I'm a tutor
PlumbMate's tutor tools turn student activity into teaching intelligence. Here's how to use them in practice.
Setting up your group
- Create a group in your tutor dashboard and share the college code with your students.
- Rename or delete groups as your cohorts change — IQA plans stay linked through renames.
- Decide whether to turn the leaderboard on for that group — useful for some classes, distracting for others.
Reading the class heatmap
- The class heatmap rolls up every student's activity by Assessment Criterion.
- Red columns are where the whole class is struggling — recap these.
- Red rows are individual students in difficulty — worth a quiet word.
- The "Top 3 dangers" panel surfaces the three weakest ACs across the cohort, so you know exactly what to teach next.
AI teaching plans
- From the class heatmap, click any weak topic and generate an AI teaching plan in one click.
- Use it as a starter — edit before taking into the classroom.
✨ Learner Insights — AI analysis per student
- For any unit, click "Generate insights for all" — within a few seconds you get a 3–4 sentence AI summary on every learner: what they're getting right, where they're stuck, and what to do next.
- Names never leave PlumbMate. The AI sees performance data only — your learners are referred to as "Learner A", "Learner B" etc. when sent to the AI, and renamed back before display.
- Insights are cached and tagged with the time generated. If a learner has been active since, you'll see a "↻ Refresh" prompt so you know when an insight is stale.
📋 Personalised study plans
- Once you've got insights, the 📋 Plan button on each learner card generates a 5–8 bullet study plan written directly to that learner — by name.
- Click "📋 Study plans for all" to bulk-generate. The button picks up missing AND stale plans and tells you the breakdown ("3 new + 2 stale = 5 total").
- Hand them out as printed PDFs (see below), email them, or read them aloud in 1:1s.
📄 Printable PDF reports
- Class report (PDF) — a full unit-level write-up: cover page, LO breakdowns, every learner with insight + heatmap. Useful for cohort reviews and IQA samples.
- 📄 PDF on each learner card — a single-learner report you can share at parents' evenings or 1:1s.
- Study plans (PDF) — one printable booklet of every learner's personal study plan.
- All learner reports (ZIP) — a zip file with one PDF per learner, named by username, ready to drop into your VLE or email out in bulk.
- PDFs are generated on PlumbMate's servers — your browser doesn't have to do the heavy lifting, so it works just as well on a Chromebook or tablet.
Daily AI usage
- AI calls (insights, plans, teaching plans) count against a daily cap that resets at midnight UK time. The remaining count shows on the dashboard so you always know where you are.
- Different subscription tiers have different caps. If you're hitting the cap regularly, get in touch and we'll talk about a tier change.
Leaderboard
- Shows weekly and overall rankings within your group.
- Enable or disable per group — your call based on the class dynamic.
All features, A–Z
One card per feature. Tap to expand. Each explains what it is, why it's there, and how to use it well.
Unit Quizzes
What it is
Multiple-choice quizzes on every unit page — typically one per lesson — covering every learning outcome for Level 2 Plumbing Theory. Each unit page is laid out as a lesson-by-lesson module: watch the video, take the quiz, then (optionally) the Short Answer quiz and the Key Facts card for the same lesson.
Why it's there
Retrieval practice is the single most powerful revision technique. Every quiz you take strengthens memory more than re-reading ever could.
How to use it
Work down the unit page one lesson at a time. Do the quiz for a lesson straight after watching the video — don't batch them. After each quiz, read the explanations — especially on questions you got wrong. The end-of-quiz AI summary highlights patterns in your mistakes. Your unit progress table at the top of each unit page shows which lessons you've passed at a glance.
Short-Answer Quizzes
What it is
Type-your-own-answer quizzes, AI-marked against the workbook mark scheme. There is now one Short-Answer quiz per lesson, paired with the video and quiz for that same lesson. You'll see a purple "Short Answer" button next to the green Quiz button on every lesson card.
Why it's there
Exam questions aren't all multiple choice. Short-answer practice builds the writing muscle you actually need on the day. Having them per-lesson means you practise writing about a topic while it's still fresh from the video — not weeks later.
How to use it
Treat it like an exam. Write your full answer before submitting. Read the AI feedback carefully — it tells you what a mark scheme would credit. If you're running short on time, prioritise the Short-Answer quizzes on the topics you've scored lowest on in the multiple-choice quizzes.
Further Reading
What it is
Below each lesson's buttons you'll often see a small strip that says 📖 Further reading: [topic] →. That's a direct link to a full deep-dive blog article on that exact lesson's topic — written specifically to match Level 2 Plumbing Theory content.
Why it's there
Video plus quiz works well for most learners most of the time. But when a topic isn't landing — when you keep getting the quiz wrong or you can't quite put it into your own words for the Short Answer — you need a written explanation you can reread at your own pace. The blogs fill that gap.
How to use it
Don't open every blog on your first pass through a unit — that's slow and unnecessary. Only dip in when a topic won't stick. Each blog ends with its own 10-question mock test, which is a useful self-check before moving on.
Flashcards
What it is
Self-test flashcards for every Level 2 unit.
Why it's there
Flashcards are retrieval practice at its simplest — pull the answer out of your head, check it, move on. Perfect for definitions, key values and the kind of facts that turn up as multiple-choice distractors.
How to use it
Use flashcards alongside quizzes, not instead of them. Ten minutes of flashcards makes a great warm-up before a longer revision session, or a useful fill-in for dead time — commutes, breaks, or the five minutes before bed.
Key Revision
What it is
PlumbMate's flagship spaced-retrieval system. Wrong answers from every quiz type flow into Key Revision, then resurface on a schedule. Three sessions, with a minimum 4-hour gap between them.
Why it's there
Spacing is the single biggest multiplier in long-term memory. The 4-hour rule and 3-session rule aren't arbitrary — they're tuned to forgetting curves.
How to use it
Run one Key Revision session every day. Use the filter strip to focus on a specific quiz source if you want. Don't skip the Skip button — it's there so you can park a question for later without penalty.
✨ My AI Study Plan
What it is
A "Generate my study plan" button on every Key Revision page. The AI looks at your actual quiz performance for the unit and writes you a 5–8 bullet plan with specific next steps — which lessons to revisit, which Topic Drills to run, which Short Answer quizzes to retry, and when you're ready for the Final Challenge.
Why it's there
Your heatmap shows you where you're weak. Knowing what to actually do about it is a different question. The plan turns "I keep getting LO3 wrong" into "go back and watch lesson 5, take the Short Answer quiz, then drill ACs 3.4 and 3.7 on the heatmap." Your weakness, your data, a concrete next step.
How to use it
Open Key Revision for a unit you've worked on (you need at least 3 completed quizzes for the AI to have enough data). Click "Generate my study plan", read it, then go and act on it. The plan is saved — when you come back later, it's still there. After a chunk of practice, hit Regenerate for a refreshed plan based on your new performance. Limit: 3 plans per unit per day, 10 total per day across all units.
Topic Drill & Heatmaps
What it is
Open the Key Revision page and switch to the Heatmap tab. You'll see every Learning Outcome for the unit, colour-coded from red (weak) to green (mastered), with your accuracy % for each. Tap any LO to expand its Assessment Criteria — then tap any AC row to drill every question tagged to it. Wrong answers come first so you can close the gap on your weakest points quickly.
Why it's there
Most students revise what they already know because it feels comfortable. The heatmap forces you to face the red — that's where the marks are — and the AC-level drill means you can practise a specific criterion to mastery rather than drifting through mixed-topic quizzes.
How to use it
Open your heatmap weekly. Pick the reddest AC. Drill it until you're answering 80%+ correct, then move on. If an AC shows "not attempted", you can still drill it — tap to practise those questions fresh.
Final Challenge
What it is
A 40-question exam-style test per unit. Pass mark is 85%. Questions are pulled at random from across the whole unit, so every attempt is different.
Why it's there
You need a readiness check before the real exam. Final Challenge simulates exam conditions and tells you honestly whether you're ready.
How to use it
Don't take it too early. Work through the unit first, get your heatmap mostly amber or green, then attempt it. If you fail, the app shows you exactly where to go back.
Achievement Room
What it is
Your trophy cabinet: certificates for units passed, badges for milestones, and downloadable PDFs.
Why it's there
Motivation is fuel. Seeing your progress visually is a small thing that makes a real difference on the hard days.
How to use it
Visit weekly. Download your certificates when you earn them — they're yours to keep.
Tip of the Day
What it is
A 365-day rotating tip on the dashboard — one small piece of plumbing knowledge per day.
Why it's there
Little and often beats long cramming. A daily tip keeps your brain lightly engaged even on rest days.
How to use it
Read it. That's it. If it sparks a question, follow it into the relevant unit.
📖 Revision Guides
What it is
Long-form written guides covering each Level 2 unit, written by a plumbing lecturer. Also linked from each unit's revision page.
Why it's there
Before you can retrieve knowledge, you have to encode it. The guides help when a topic is brand new, or when a Key Revision question keeps tripping you up and you need to understand why rather than just what the right answer is.
How to use it
Read the relevant guide before starting quizzes on an unfamiliar unit — it gives you the lay of the land. Come back to it when a specific topic isn't clicking. But don't treat reading as your main revision activity: retrieval practice is what moves the needle, and re-reading the week before your exam is one of the weakest ways to revise.
Key Facts
What it is
Per-lesson summary cards with the essential facts, numbers and definitions for that topic — pulled from the workbook. You'll see a "Key Facts" button on every lesson card, sitting alongside Quiz and Short Answer. (You may know these as "Cheat Sheets" from earlier versions — same thing, clearer name.)
Why it's there
Sometimes you need facts in front of you — not another quiz. A minute spent re-reading the Key Facts for a lesson you got wrong is often more useful than immediately re-taking the quiz.
How to use it
Use Key Facts sparingly. They're for a last-minute refresher, not the first pass through a topic. If you read before you test, you're not doing retrieval practice. A good pattern: fail a quiz → read Key Facts → take the Short Answer quiz for that lesson → retake the quiz.
Leaderboard
What it is
Weekly and overall ranking within your class group. Opt-in per group.
Why it's there
Friendly competition helps some learners and distracts others. Your tutor decides whether to turn it on.
How to use it
If you're motivated by rankings, use it. If not, ignore it — it won't affect your learning.
For tutors
PlumbMate's tutor toolkit turns quiz data into teaching action. Here's everything available on the tutor dashboard.
Class Heatmap & Top 3 Dangers
What it is
A grid view on your tutor dashboard showing every learner against every Assessment Criterion for the unit, colour-coded red-to-green by their accuracy. A "Top 3 dangers" panel above the grid surfaces the three weakest ACs across the whole cohort.
Why it's there
You can see two things at once: the columns tell you what to teach next (whole-class weaknesses), and the rows tell you who needs a quiet word (individual learners drifting). Top 3 dangers does the prioritising for you so you don't have to scan the whole grid.
How to use it
Open it weekly. Glance at Top 3 dangers and plan your next session around the reddest column. Look down the rows for any learner showing a lot of red and check in with them. Click a weak AC to generate an AI teaching plan starter for that exact criterion.
✨ Learner Insights
What it is
One-click AI analysis of every learner in your group. For each learner, the AI looks at their quiz performance, identifies a pattern, and writes a 3–4 sentence summary: what they're doing well, where they're stuck, and what to do next.
Why it's there
You don't have time to read every learner's quiz history before every lesson. Insights compress that into something you can scan over a coffee. They're for spotting patterns and prepping 1:1s — not for replacing your judgement.
How to use it
Click "Generate insights for all" before parents' evening, IQA visit prep, or a 1:1 round. Each insight is timestamped — if a learner's been active since, you'll see a "↻ Refresh" prompt. Names never leave PlumbMate: the AI sees only "Learner A", "Learner B" and the data; we rename them back before showing you.
📋 Personalised Study Plans
What it is
A 5–8 bullet study plan, AI-generated per learner, written directly to that learner by name. Tells them exactly which lessons to revisit, which Short Answer quizzes to retry, and which Key Facts cards to brush up.
Why it's there
Generic "revise more" advice doesn't move learners. A plan that names their actual weak topics and tells them what to click does. Generating one used to take an hour of digging through quiz history. Now it takes a second.
How to use it
Generate insights first (the plan uses the insight as its source). Then click 📋 Plan on a learner card, or "📋 Study plans for all" to bulk-generate. Hand them out as printable PDFs at the next 1:1, or email them. The plan stays in sync with insights — if an insight is stale, the plan flags it too.
📄 Printable PDF Reports
What it is
Four kinds of professional PDF export from the tutor dashboard:
- Class report — a full unit write-up with cover page, LO breakdowns and every learner.
- Single learner report — one learner's heatmap, insight and recent activity.
- Study plans booklet — every learner's plan in one printable file.
- All learner reports (ZIP) — a zip with one PDF per learner, ready to drop into your VLE.
Why it's there
IQAs, parents' evenings, end-of-term reviews and college-internal reporting all need something printable. PDFs are the universal format. Generating them on PlumbMate's servers (rather than in the browser) means it works the same on a Chromebook or tablet as on a beefy desktop.
How to use it
Generate insights first so the PDFs include them. Then pick the right export for your audience: class report for IQA, single learner for 1:1s, study plans for handouts, ZIP for cohort archiving. The first PDF after a quiet period takes 10–15 seconds (server warm-up); subsequent ones are 2–3 seconds.
AI Teaching Plans
What it is
One-click teaching plan starter for any weak Assessment Criterion. Click an AC on the class heatmap → AI generates a draft session plan: warm-up, key teaching points, common misconceptions, suggested activities and a quick assessment.
Why it's there
The hardest part of planning a session is the blank page. Teaching plans solve that. They're a starter, not a finished plan — you bring the professional judgement, the resources, and the local context.
How to use it
Open the heatmap, find a weak AC, click "Generate teaching plan". Read it through, edit ruthlessly, then save or take it into class. Common misconceptions in particular tend to be useful — that's the bit you'd otherwise have to dig out yourself.