PEST - Professional Exam System for Windows

Used PEST - Professional Exam System for Windows?

Editors’ Review

Download.com staffJuly 30, 2026

The developers of PEST software, designed for creating quizzes and tests, must have had a sense of humor. But it lives up to its name in several senses. Although a powerful shortcut for creating computerized tests, it can be a bit aggravating in practice. The program begins with text and script editors, but we found the interface awkward, with clumsy, abbreviated buttons without an immediately obvious function. Newcomers to this type of interface--and perhaps even veterans--will be well served by a trip through the manual, as well as a perusal of the bundled sample test. However, once over these hurdles, we were impressed with the results. The application can produce a range of different formats, including multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, flash cards, and drag-and-drop sequences. The company's site also features free downloads of quizzes on subjects ranging from world history to baseball statistics. The trial version of the software allows unlimited use for 21 days. If you're a teacher looking to create digital tests for your students, this might well be worth a look, as long as you're willing to invest some time learning the ropes yourself.

What’s new in version 3.25

quicker file loads
progress meter added for loading quizzes with over 1,000 questions
new methods of formatting imported & scanned text in the Quiz Script Editor

PEST - Professional Exam System for Windows

Used PEST - Professional Exam System for Windows?

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Full Specifications

GENERAL

Release: April 23, 2014

Latest update: July 30, 2026

Version: 3.25

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Platform: Windows

Operating System

Windows Server
Windows 8
Windows 10
Windows 7
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows 2003

Additional Requirements: None

POPULARITY

Total Downloads: 36,113

Downloads Last Week: 0

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Last Updated

User Reviews

4.4/5

7 User Votes

Been drilling myself with Pest quizzes over 10 years!
MichaelRhodesMay 18, 2014
Pros
It's really easy to take OCR scans of books and bring the printed page to life. Typing up a quiz from scratch is far easier than all the other quiz programs out there. Very impressive collection of quizzes at the website.
Cons
The program looks a little dated, the copyright says 2000-2014, and the interface really does look like the year 2000, but all the functionality is there. With all the hours I've put in over the years, it's developed an "old faithful" look to my eyes.
Summary
It had been quite a few years since I'd visited the website and I was blown away by the number of new quizzes at the website. Great to see Pest is still out there with tons of new quizzes being submitted.
great program, huge selection of quizzes to download
Alicyn ShaynesOctober 28, 2008
Pros
Multiple choice, fill in the blank, essay, drag and drop sequences, flash card, picture-based questions, chapter by chapter results, everything you could want in a computer-based quiz is available but the best part is - it's so easy to create!
Cons
None I can think of.
Summary
This is exactly what I was looking for - you don't create quizzes from some lame on screen form, you open up notepad and you create your quizzes as quick as you can type them up (or import from another source.) 70,000 questions worth of quizzes are available at the website - free to download - and you can see what a wide variety of subjects people are using this program to study. Well worth the $25.
A fantastic program for the money.
DBF68March 12, 2006
Pros
This is a fantastic program for the money and for the ease at which you can create quizzes. After evaluating 6 other programs from Downloads.com; Kwizmaker, Test Commander, Xatquiz, MLifter 1.7, CueCard, Trivia Quiz Shell; other than Xatquiz, nothing came close to creating fast and high quality presentation value quizzes. Most of the other software programs required typing up your own quizzes, retyping quizzes that you might find in books, or copying and pasting of questions and answers. These methods of quiz creation meant having to go through the tedious process of filling in multiple blank fields in order to populate the question and answer database, some of which were proprietary and only readable by that program. <p> <p> <p>With PEST, all I had to do was use my OmniPage Pro 14.0 OCR software (OCR software is Included with MS Word 2003), a scanner, my CCNA certification books, and scan the end of chapter questions into a text file. Next, I'd format the text file for the PEST program so it would properly interpret questions and answers. Afterwards, I'd run the Pest Quiz Script Editor to run the built-in script checker and convert the text file for the PEST quiz program. All that needed to be done next to was to run the quiz and make some editorial modifications in Notepad. <p> <p> <p>As it stands, I now have 334 questions from the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA 1 & 2 640-821 book and 437 questions from the CCNA Self-Study INTRO 640-821 book to use as certification preparation quizzes. Since the end of chapter questions are not always all inclusive of what is covered in a chapter, it's nice to know that I can use PEST to add to existing quizzes or create additional quizzes that deal with that material. Because the CNA is prone to throw outdated and obscure test questions at you from the Cisco Networking Academy CCNA 1 & 2 640-821 CD; some of which aren't even covered in the book; it's probably better to have the control PEST provides over what you study and how you study for the certification exam.
Cons
The only small problem with this program comes from when you have long answers. The check boxes for those answers will line up just below the first line of the answer text. Although, some of these instances can be avoided if PEST is used in full screen mode. Otherwise, it's a small drawback that's not that big of a deal for the value of this program.
Summary
master your material
January 16, 2005
Pros
Cons
Summary
I tried quite a few programs, but when I saw the huge collection and wide variety of subjects posted at the website, I knew this was the one. Nice job.
just type it
Alicyn ShaynesJanuary 11, 2005
Pros
Cons
Summary
I like the fact that you can just open up Notepad and type in your quiz. Very quick quiz production.
Collie_EntragianDecember 25, 2004
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December 23, 2004
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Summary

Developer’s Description

Create your own tests and quizzes.