In the age of study guides and test papers, you are perfectly within your right to ask, “Why should I tell GPT to give me the same answer as my Tk700 guidebook?”

And if you are an SSC or HSC candidate reading this, I do think sticking to conventional notes and guides is much better. Your examiner does not have the ability to fathom a differently written answer which may contradict the answers written and memorised 30 years ago.

This is, however, meant for first-year undergraduates, filled with hope and confusion, trying to cope with short, densely packed semesters, facing new concepts to be understood every other day.

Before sharing how I do it, I must tell you it’ll require a bit more of a reading habit and patience.

AI will write long answers, and you’ll have to read if you wish to understand, and you must let GPT be your teacher.

And yes, I don’t have, or intend to have, any premium subscription in the near future.

The first thing I do is upload my entire textbook (PDF) to GPT or Claude. I then tell it to give answers only (emphasis on ONLY) from that PDF. I explicitly tell it not to follow any other outside resources, no matter how credible it may find them.

To check whether it followed my instruction, I also told it to mention the page number from which it tailored the answer, and every time it did, so you can rest assured that if you tell it clearly not to go outside the PDF, it won’t.

The reason for this is that I (a postgrad studying economics) have to conceptualise a lot of theories and terms that are highly specific to that concept. Mixed outputs from outside resources might not give me the intended result and might muddy the already unknown and fearful waters.

I then tell it to break down each and every concept with easy-to-understand, relevant examples. It has to do so from the examples in the textbook, as I already told it not to venture out of the PDF, which ensures my answers are relevant to the text, which is also a bonus in the eyes of my faculty, falsely giving them the impression I actually opened my textbook rather than reading the PPT.

When it comes to drawing any graphs or figures, it does pose a challenge. GPT is weak at drawing, and you should not trust it when it comes to perfect visualisation, and even if you tell it to generate an image of the graph, you’ll quickly lose out on your free tokens (remember, you ain’t a premium user here).

The best choices are twofold. One, you can tell it to point out the page number in the text and read from the PDF yourself, then ask specific questions about it in the prompt; or you can switch to Claude.

Claude is good (free) with figures and graphs, and I hear it explains code well too. I plan to learn Python using it when I get the chance.

That brings me to another area of concern: learning new skills using AI. My current full-time job requires me to understand Photoshop and Premiere Pro. I have never ever opened these before, but my habit of studying with AI gave me the confidence to try the same approach with learning software as well.

I learned Blender (an easy 3D software meant for engineering drawing) using Gemini. The prompt was very clear.

“I have never ever used Blender before, so I don’t even know where to look for anything, let alone do anything, so your job is to guide me through it as I tell you what I intend to do.”

Don’t copy that quote. Simple, short sentences work best for prompts.

I found Gemini works best when it comes to learning software skills. I don’t know why, actually. GPT mixes up versions and tells you to upload screenshots, which isn’t possible for long when it’s free.

I have gotten the hang of Photoshop, and Premiere Pro is an ongoing process. I just started yesterday, but I think a workable skill set is possible very soon.

All the processes I just mentioned might seem difficult at first, but the plus point is that the more you talk to your LLM, the easier it gets.

My GPT is fully equipped now. I just upload the textbook and tell it to explain to me what I need, and I confidently sit my exams at my part-time Master’s programme with a total preparation time of only six to seven hours.

An all-nighter is all I require, and yes, for many I think they’ll need less. But as I mentioned before, you should have a habit of reading, asking questions at each point, and reading a bit more.

If you’re a student like me who used to sit in the front and annoy teachers with constant questioning, I think this approach is a perfect fit. Give it a try.