Studying with ChatGPT could be the game-changer for your next exam preparation.
Are you sitting at your desk wondering how to cram all this knowledge into your head for the upcoming exam?
You could go to the library and pore over some books. Or you could start a study group, hoping to find someone who can explain the concepts to you in an understandable way.
But as you know, we’ve arrived in 2024, and it’s time to rethink exam preparation.
With the help of artificial intelligence, you can prepare for your exams in a way that has never been possible before.
In this video, I’ll show you 7 ways to make ChatGPT your personal tutor and outshine everyone else in your next exam.
#1 Achieving Your Goals with the Right Study Plan
Use ChatGPT as your personal assistant to help you organize your study material effectively. With a well-thought-out study plan, you’ll navigate your exam preparation with ChatGPT confidently.
Just tell ChatGPT what exams are coming up and what your weekly schedule looks like. Whether you’re a night owl or a morning person, ChatGPT can suggest a plan that fits your most productive hours and includes enough breaks.
Example prompt: “I have a microeconomics exam in 4 weeks and I learn best in the morning. Assign a learning topic for each week and specify which topics I should study. I have 2 hours a day to study. Include study breaks. What would my study plan look like?”
ChatGPT will then create a personalized plan for you. If you have access to ChatGPT’s Pro version, you can also send a topic overview of the subject along with it.
If you’re using the free version of ChatGPT, you could attach this overview to your prompt via copy-and-paste.
Extra tip: Once you’ve created the study plan, you can also ask ChatGPT for ideas about how to collect additional resources on the exam contents. Never settle for the study material that your professor hasn’t updated in 10 years.
#2 Mind Maps as a Study Booster
Mind maps are incredibly helpful for keeping track of complex topics. ChatGPT can assist you in creating a visual map of your study material.
Here’s how it works: Ask ChatGPT to organize the key topics of your exam into a mind map. You’ll receive a clear, visual representation of the material, showing how everything is connected. Perfect for grasping the big picture!
Example prompt: “Can you create a mind map for the main topics of microeconomics, including the connections between supply, demand, and market prices?”
The more information you provide to the AI, the better the outcome. The best result comes from using a GPT specifically adapted for creating mind maps. Look for a “Mind Map Generator” in the GPT database.
If you’re using the free version of ChatGPT, get creative and have the AI describe what the mind map should look like, then draw it using a free tool or by hand.
#3 Turning Long into Short
Your professor’s slide deck is over 100 pages long and written like in 1995.
Unfortunately, not every professor is a pedagogical genius.
However, these contents are often crucial for exams. What do you do to understand this jumble of words and formulas?
Don’t worry, if there’s one thing ChatGPT excels at, it’s summarizing large amounts of text and data.
The summaries created by the AI can be key for you to manage all the study material. Provide ChatGPT with a text or your notes and ask for a summary. The AI filters out the most important points, saving you hours of compiling.
Example prompt: “Here’s a lecture slide deck about Adam Smith’s market theories. Can you summarize the main points for me?”
The concise versions you have now are invaluable when you want to focus on the essentials and quickly get up to speed. They’re also great for quickly revisiting topics before an exam. Just save ChatGPT’s response in Notion or whatever you use as a second brain, and you can access it anytime.
Note: If you’re using ChatGPT 3.5, you’ll need to paste the content via copy and paste. Unfortunately, you can only process a limited number of words per prompt. With ChatGPT 4, it’s more convenient as ChatGPT can access entire PDF files via plugins. Alternatively, try other LLM’s such as Microsoft’s Bing AI to summarize PDF files for you.
#4 Your 24/7 Study Buddy
There are days when your study group just doesn’t cut it – whether it’s because everyone has different schedules, or because your meetings turn more into coffee chats than effective study sessions.
Then, there are those nights when you, being a night owl, learn best.
In such moments, you can turn ChatGPT into your tutor. The best part: AI can always adapt precisely to your needs.
With ChatGPT, you can dive deep into topics that give you a headache. Ask the AI for precise questions, request clear, detailed explanations, or seek support for the trickiest tasks.
You can ask ChatGPT to explain things as simply as if you were a 6-year-old – ideal for getting to the heart of complex topics.
Imagine having someone by your side who explains everything at your pace, without the pressure of a group or the constraints of a fixed schedule.
Example prompt: “I don’t understand how cross-price elasticity works. Pretend you’re a microeconomics expert. Can you explain it in a way that a third-grader would understand?”
ChatGPT provides quick feedback and helps you close gaps in your understanding. And don’t worry if you still don’t get it after the fifth follow-up question. ChatGPT is cool with you asking a ton of questions – so go for it!
#5 Mastering Past Exams
In my studies, I preferred studying with mock exams. It gives you a feel for the questions you can expect in the exam.
ChatGPT can help you understand and answer mock exam questions.
Simply give ChatGPT questions from previous or mock exams and ask the AI for sample answers. This way, you get a sense of what’s expected and how you can structure your answers.
Furthermore, ChatGPT can provide explanations and tips on how to best structure your answers. This helps you understand the mindset behind the questions and adjust your answers accordingly.
Additionally, you can ask ChatGPT to review your answers and provide feedback, helping you identify and specifically improve weaknesses in your knowledge.
Example prompt: “Here’s a question from an old microeconomics exam: ‘Describe the effects of subsidies on the market.’ Can you give me a sample answer and explain how I should structure my answer?”
#6 Question Generator for Deeper Understanding
Solving questions from previous exams is a good idea, but what if there are no mock exams available? No problem, because ChatGPT can also help you generate your own exam questions.
This method is not only a good substitute for past exams but also allows you to view topics from different perspectives and dive deeper into the material.
Extra tip: Use ChatGPT to create various scenarios or case studies. This way, you can prepare for different types of questions and ensure that you’re comprehensively equipped for the exam. Additionally, you can use ChatGPT to check your answers and get feedback, helping you identify weaknesses in your knowledge and improve them specifically.
Example prompt: “Can you give me some exam questions on price elasticity in microeconomics?”
Save the questions and answers so you can review them later, following the principles of the Spaced Repetition learning method.
#7 Creating Flashcards
Flashcards are a classic.
With ChatGPT, you can quickly and efficiently create them, perfect for reviewing the lecture contents before an exam.
Simply provide the AI with the desired content and ask it to create corresponding flashcards.
ChatGPT analyzes the main concepts of the content and develops suitable questions and answers. You can also ask it to provide the result in a specific format, such as for flashcard apps like Anki.
You can create a table with two columns: one for the questions on the front side and one for the answers on the back.
Example prompt: “Create a list of flashcard questions on market power in microeconomics with corresponding answers. Use two columns, one for the question and the other for the answer.”
Alternatively, you can copy and paste your own notes or scripts, and ChatGPT will create flashcards from them. When studying with your flashcards, remember to apply the principles of Active Recall. You can find a corresponding tutorial linked here.