Student Feedback Form: Format, 30 Questions and How a Coaching Institute Should Use It

What a student feedback form is, and why a coaching institute needs one

In a coaching centre, the owner rarely sits in every class. Test marks tell you what students scored, and attendance tells you who came. Neither tells you why a batch is losing interest, why students skip one teacher's class, or why the second hour feels too fast. Students know these things. A feedback form is the simplest way to ask them, all at once, in a way they can answer honestly.

Feedback is not the same as assessment. Assessment is you checking what the student learnt. Feedback, in this guide, is the student telling you how the teaching and the institute are working for them. Both matter. Our guide to formative assessment covers the first; this one covers the second.

There is also a rule-based reason. The Ministry of Education's Guidelines for Regulation of Coaching Center, issued on 16 January 2024 for states and union territories to adopt through their own laws, say that a complaint box or register may be placed at the centre for students, and that the centre shall have a committee to handle complaints and grievances of students. A feedback form is not a complaint system, but it is the friendly, regular side of the same idea: students should have a safe way to be heard.

Types of student feedback forms, and when to collect each

For the parent form and how it fits into a PTM, see our guide to the parent teacher meeting. The rest of this guide is about the forms students fill in.

University teaching centres that study this give similar advice on timing. Columbia University's Center for Teaching and Learning suggests collecting feedback early, for example in the third or fourth week of a fourteen-week semester, and repeating it after the first major test. Seattle University's faculty centre suggests a quick check in late week 2 or early week 3, and a fuller form just before the mid-point. The reason is simple: early feedback can still change the course.

Here is how that looks for a typical one-year coaching batch. Adjust the weeks to your course length.

A short tuition class with one teacher can do less: a start, stop, continue form in week 3 and one full form near the end is enough.

Step 1: Decide what you will do with the answers

Before you write a single question, write down who will read the answers and what they can change. If the owner cannot change the room, do not ask five questions about the room. If teachers will see their own results, decide now whether they also see the comments, and who removes rude or personal remarks first.

Seattle University's advice is useful here: tell students that some things are outside your control, such as the time of day or the room, while other things can change. Students then give feedback you can act on, and they are not disappointed later.

Also decide if the form is anonymous. For a coaching centre, the answer is almost always yes. Students who depend on a teacher for doubts, marks and recommendations will not criticise that teacher by name. The University of Rochester calls its mid-semester form totally anonymous for this reason: so that students can be candid. The trade-off is that you cannot follow up with one unhappy student. Handle that with a separate, optional line: "If you want us to call you about something, write your name here."

Step 2: Write good questions

Use two kinds of questions. Rating questions (1 to 5) are quick to answer and easy to count. Open questions (a few lines of writing) tell you why. A good form has mostly rating questions and two or three open ones at the end.

Keep the scale the same for every rating question, and say what the numbers mean: 1 = Strongly disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Not sure, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly agree. Write every question as a statement about one thing only.

Use simple words that a Class 9 student understands, offer a Hindi or regional-language version if your students study in that language, and never ask for marks, roll number or phone number on an anonymous form.

Student feedback form format: a ready-to-copy template

Copy this student feedback form format as it is, or cut it down. It has four parts and 16 questions, and most students finish it in about ten minutes. Questions 1 to 13 use the 1 to 5 scale above.

Top of the form

[Institute name] Student Feedback Form. Batch: ______ Course: ______ Month: ______. Do not write your name. Your answers are anonymous and will be read only by [the owner / the academic head]. We read every form and will tell you, within two weeks, what we are changing.

Part A: Teaching and classes

1. Classes start and end on time.
2. New topics are explained clearly, step by step.
3. The pace of the class is right for me (not too fast, not too slow).
4. I can see and read the board or screen clearly from my seat.
5. I feel comfortable asking a question in class.

Part B: Doubts, tests and material

1. My doubts get solved within a day or two.
2. The weekly or monthly tests match what was taught.
3. After a test, the analysis tells me what to work on.
4. The notes and study material help me revise.
5. The homework or practice load is manageable with school or college.

Part C: The institute

1. The classroom is comfortable: seating, light, fans, drinking water.
2. The office staff are helpful when I have a question about fees or timings.
3. I know how to raise a complaint if something goes wrong.

Part D: In your own words

1. What should we start doing that would help you learn?
2. What should we stop doing because it is not helping?
3. What should we continue doing because it helps you learn?

Part D is the start, stop, continue method recommended by Columbia, Seattle and Rochester universities' teaching centres. If you only have five minutes, use Part D alone.

Feedback form for teachers by students: questions and how to share results

A feedback form for teachers by students works best as a separate page for each teacher of the batch, so students do not mix up two teachers in one answer. Keep it short, about eight questions, and focus on what the teacher does, not on who the teacher is.

The 2024 coaching guidelines say that a student's doubts shall be resolved by the tutors who taught the class, so that the student feels satisfied. The doubts question is therefore worth asking for every teacher.

Read teacher ratings with care

Student ratings are useful, but they are not a full measure of teaching. A study by Boring, Ottoboni and Stark (2016) looked at 23,001 student evaluations of 379 instructors by 4,423 students at a French university, plus a controlled experiment in the United States. It found that ratings were biased against women instructors and were more sensitive to gender bias and to the grades students expected than to how well the teacher taught. So do not rank teachers by average rating, and never cut pay or fire someone on ratings alone. Use the comments to start a conversation, and look at them next to test results, attendance and your own class visits.

Share results with each teacher privately, in a short one-to-one talk. Start with what students value, then pick one thing to work on, not ten. Our list of teaching skills can help you name the skill.

Short forms for small tuition classes and demo classes

A home tutor with 12 students does not need a 16-question form. Two short forms do the job.

The one-minute check (any class)

At the end of class, hand out small slips or send a two-question form: 1. What was the most confusing point in today's class? 2. One question you still have. Seattle University calls the first question the muddiest point. Read the slips the same evening, and start the next class with the two most common doubts.

Demo class feedback (after a free trial class)

1. How did you hear about us? (Friend, poster, Google, WhatsApp, other)
2. Was the demo class easy to follow? (Yes, partly, no)
3. Which subject or topic do you most want help with?
4. What would stop you from joining? (Fees, timing, distance, teaching, other)
5. Optional: may we call you about admission? If yes, write a parent's phone number.

Step 3: Make the form, on Google Forms or on paper

Paper works well in a classroom, where every student fills it in at once. Google Forms suits online batches and saves the counting. These steps follow Google's own help pages, checked on 29 October 2026.

1. Go to forms.google.com and click Blank form, or in a Google Sheet click Tools, then Create a new form, so that responses are saved in a new sheet.
2. Add your questions. Use Linear scale for 1 to 5 ratings and Paragraph for open questions.
3. Open Settings. Leave collecting email addresses off if the form should be anonymous.
4. Decide on Limit to 1 response. It stops one student filling the form many times, but Google says users must then sign in to their Google Account. Their usernames are not recorded unless you turn on collecting email addresses. Students without a Google account cannot fill it in.
5. Keep View results summary off. If it is on, Google shows the summary of all answers, including full text answers, to anyone who can respond.
6. Click Publish, copy the link and share it with the batch.
7. Under Responses, set a close date so the form stops accepting answers after the feedback week.

Google's help page also says that from September 2026 Forms has new limits of 1 GB total storage and 500,000 responses per form, far more than a coaching institute needs. You can view answers by question, link them to a Google Sheet, or download a CSV file.

Step 4: Run the feedback session in class

How you give the form matters as much as the questions. Columbia's teaching centre notes that students prefer to give feedback before their first major test. Set aside ten minutes at the start of a class, not the last five minutes when everyone wants to leave.

A script for the person giving the form

"We want this course to work for you. This form is anonymous. Do not write your name. Your teacher will leave the room now, and [name of a student] will collect the forms in this box and hand them to the office. We will read every answer, and in two weeks we will tell you what we are changing and what we cannot change and why. Please be honest and polite. Specific comments help us most, like 'the second hour is too fast' instead of 'bad'."

• The teacher being rated should not be in the room or collect the forms.
• Give the same form to every batch so you can compare.
• For online batches, keep the class on hold for ten minutes and stay on the call, so students fill it in then.

Step 5: Read the results: a worked example

Here is an example of how to read one batch's results. The numbers are invented for illustration only. Suppose a Class 11 science batch has 40 students and 36 return the mid-course form.

Now read the open answers and group them into themes. Count how many forms mention each theme. In this example, 14 forms might say physics numericals go too fast, 9 might ask for a weekly doubt hour, and 6 might say the back rows cannot read the board. The Rochester teaching centre's method is the same: find two or three key trends and act on those, rather than reacting to every single comment.

• Look at the share of low ratings, not only the average. An average of 3.4 can hide nine unhappy students.
• Treat one angry comment as one comment. Treat the same point on ten forms as a trend.
• Remove names and personal remarks before you show comments to a teacher.

In this example, the three actions could be: slow down physics numericals and add a ten-minute recap at the start of each class; add one doubt hour every Saturday; move the board or use a larger font, and seat students by rotation.

Step 6: Tell students what you changed

This is the step most institutes skip, and it is the one that makes the next form honest. Columbia's teaching centre advises summarising the feedback, thanking students in the next class, and saying what you will change, what you are considering, and what you cannot change, with reasons.

Sample "you said, we did" message

"Dear students of the Class 11 morning batch, thank you for filling in the feedback form. 36 of you shared your views. You said: physics numericals move too fast, you want more time for doubts, and the back rows cannot see the board. We are doing this: from Monday, every physics class starts with a ten-minute recap; there is a doubt hour every Saturday at 4 pm; and seats will rotate every week. You also asked for a later start time. We cannot change it this term because of school timings, but we will consider it for the next batch. Thank you. [Institute name]"

Put it on the notice board and send it to the batch group. Our WhatsApp message templates for tuition classes have more messages in the same style.

Rules and privacy: what the guidelines and the law say

The coaching guidelines of 16 January 2024 define a coaching center as one that coaches more than 50 students. They say a centre shall not make public the results of its assessment tests, and should use them for regular analysis of each student's performance. Treat feedback the same way: use it inside the institute and do not publish individual answers. Complaints against a coaching center can be filed before the competent authority, and the guidelines say they shall be disposed of within thirty days. A working feedback and complaint process helps you solve problems before they reach that stage. Our guide to the coaching centre guidelines covers the rest.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 treats anyone under eighteen as a child. Section 9 says that before processing a child's personal data, the organisation must get verifiable consent from a parent or lawful guardian, and must not track or behaviourally monitor children. Section 5 says that a request for consent must come with a notice that says what personal data is collected and why. By a notification of 13 November 2025, sections 3 to 17, including these duties, come into force eighteen months after that date, so around May 2027. Plan for them now.

• An anonymous form with no name, phone, email or roll number collects the least personal data. That is the simplest choice.
• If you collect a name or phone number (for example on a demo class form), say why, ask a parent if the student is under 18, and use it only for that reason.
• Keep forms in a closed cupboard or a Google account only the owner can open. Shred or delete them after a set time, for example at the end of the next batch.
• Do not paste raw comments that name a student into a staff group.

Common mistakes with student feedback forms, and how to avoid them

When a student feedback form is not for you

If you teach one or two students at home, a form is too formal. Ask them at the end of a class: what was hard today, and what should we do differently? Then listen and change something next time. If your problem is fees, discipline or a complaint about harassment, a feedback form is the wrong tool: those need a direct talk, a written fee policy, or your complaints committee.

A form also cannot replace watching a class. If many students rate one teacher low, sit in on two of that teacher's classes before you draw any conclusion.

Keep courses, tests and batches in one place with Sikhami

Sikhami, a social network for learners, gives coaching institutes and tuition centres in India a free LMS: video courses with tests and certificates, classroom batches with attendance, and fees with receipts. Sikhami does not have a feedback form tool, so you can run your forms on paper or Google Forms as shown above and use the test and attendance records in Sikhami next to them when you read the results.

Your institute and each course also get a public page on Sikhami that any learner can find, follow and review. Public reviews are not the same as private feedback: reviews help new learners choose, while the anonymous form in this guide helps you improve. You can find out more on the Sikhami for institutes page.