Learn Hardcore Malay: Guru menilai soalan-soalan pelajar secara ringkas selepas kelas. - The teacher evaluates the students’ questions briefly after class.

Without reduplication, soalan can still be understood as plural from context.
If you use a number or quantifier, do not reduplicate: tiga soalan, banyak soalan, beberapa soalan.

Can I just write soalan pelajar instead of soalan-soalan pelajar?

Yes. Soalan pelajar is perfectly acceptable and often preferred for a cleaner style. Soalan-soalan pelajar adds emphasis that there were multiple questions or a range of questions.

Is pelajar singular or plural here? How can I make it explicit?

By default, pelajar is number-neutral. To make it explicit:

Singular: seorang pelajar (one student)
Plural (people): para pelajar (the students, formal), or pelajar-pelajar (reduplication)
With quantifiers: ramai pelajar (many students), beberapa orang pelajar (several students) Note: Don’t combine para with reduplication (avoid para pelajar-pelajar).

What grammatical relationship is in soalan-soalan pelajar? Could I say soalan daripada pelajar?

Malay uses a “possessed + possessor” noun-noun sequence: soalan-soalan pelajar = “students’ questions.”
You can say soalan daripada pelajar to emphasize origin/source (“questions from students”), which is also natural here. The nuance is:

soalan pelajar: possessive/attributive
soalan daripada pelajar: source/origin

Does menilai mean “to answer” the questions? Is it the most natural verb here?

Menilai means “to evaluate/assess/judge.” It’s perfect for assessing work, performance, or quality: menilai tugasan, menilai jawapan, menilai pelajar.
For handling questions, more natural options are:

Answering: menjawab soalan-soalan pelajar
Discussing: membincangkan soalan-soalan pelajar
Marking/Checking (work): menyemak or menanda So if the teacher addressed the questions, menjawab or membincangkan would be a better verb than menilai, unless you really mean “evaluate the quality of the students’ questions.”

What is the morphology of menilai?

Root: nilai (“value”).
Prefix: meN- forms an active transitive verb. With a base starting in n, meN- surfaces as men-, hence menilai.
Examples of this pattern:

menilai (meN- + nilai)
menulis (meN- + tulis; t drops)
mengajar (meN- + ajar; vowel triggers meng-)

How does secara ringkas work? Are there alternatives?

Secara turns an adjective/noun into an adverbial “in a … manner.” Ringkas = “concise/brief,” so secara ringkas = “briefly.”
Alternatives:

dengan ringkas (also good)
secara sepintas lalu (cursorily, “in passing”)
To stress “only briefly”: secara ringkas sahaja Note: sekejap/sebentar mean “for a short time” (duration), not “in a concise manner.”

Can I drop secara and say menilai ringkas?

Better not. While many adjectives can function adverbially without secara (e.g., baca perlahan), ringkas is usually paired with secara/dengan when describing manner. Use menilai secara ringkas or menilai dengan ringkas.

Is the sentence past, present, or future? How would I mark it?

Malay doesn’t mark tense on the verb. Time is inferred from context or time words like selepas kelas. To make it explicit:

Completed: Guru sudah/telah menilai …
Progressive: Guru sedang menilai …
Future: Guru akan menilai …

Can I move selepas kelas? Are there synonyms?

Yes. Word order is flexible:

Selepas kelas, guru menilai … (fronting for emphasis)
Guru menilai … selepas kelas. (neutral) Synonyms:
sesudah (formal), lepas (colloquial) So: Sesudah kelas, or colloquially Lepas kelas.

Can I move secara ringkas to another position?

Yes:

Guru menilai soalan-soalan pelajar secara ringkas selepas kelas. (most common)
Guru secara ringkas menilai soalan-soalan pelajar selepas kelas. (adverb after subject) Avoid splitting verb and object unnecessarily: Guru menilai secara ringkas soalan-soalan pelajar … is possible but less smooth.

What’s the difference between guru, cikgu, and pensyarah?

guru: teacher (general term; common in writing)
cikgu: how you address a school teacher (more colloquial)
pensyarah: lecturer (tertiary level)

Is kelas the right word? How does it differ from darjah and kuliah?

kelas: class (session or group) at any level
darjah: year/grade level in primary school (e.g., Darjah 5)
kuliah: lecture (university) So at university you might say selepas kuliah.

How should I mark plurals with people: pelajar-pelajar or para pelajar?

Both are correct:

pelajar-pelajar: plural via reduplication
para pelajar: human-plural collective, formal/neutral Don’t combine them together. Note that para is only for humans.

How would I make a passive version?

Use the di- passive:

Soalan-soalan pelajar dinilai secara ringkas oleh guru selepas kelas. The agent oleh guru is optional; dropping it is common in formal writing.