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AIupick

Guide for students · 5 jobs

AI for studying, without cheating yourself

Getting answers from AI is easy, and it feels like learning while it happens. What makes learning stick is the opposite: the AI asks, you answer, and every claim goes back to your course. Each job below is set up that way.

  1. 01

    Turn each lecture into questions, not a summary

    A summary is the worst thing to revise from: you recognise every line and feel ready. Ask for questions you must answer from memory, built only from your own slides and transcript, and leave the summary for last.

    Example

    A 50-minute biology lecture with 40 slides on cell respiration. One of the apply questions: "A muscle cell runs out of oxygen in a sprint. Which stage stops first, and what does the cell do instead?" If you cannot answer it without the slides, that is what you revise tonight.

    How to do it

    1. 1Put the course in one place that answers from your material: a Project in Claude or a notebook in Gemini Notebook, with the slides, the lecture transcript and the syllabus as sources.
    2. 2After each lecture, ask for questions with the prompt on this page. Answer them on paper before you look at anything.
    3. 3Paste your answers back. Ask it to mark each one and quote the slide it marked against.
    4. 4Ask for the questions you missed as one line each, question and answer separated by a comma. Anki imports that as a text file of flashcards.

    Built in

    Prompt to copy

    Use only the sources in this project. For lecture [number or title]:
1. Write 12 questions I must answer from memory: 4 on definitions, 4 asking why or how, 4 asking me to apply an idea to a new example.
2. Add one question that links this lecture to an earlier one.
3. After each question, give the slide or page it comes from. Do not give the answers.
When I send my answers, mark each as right, partly right or wrong, quote the source line, and list the ones I missed as: question,answer

    Where it goes wrong

    • Questions that repeat the slide's wording test recognition, not understanding. If most start with "What is", ask for more why and apply questions.
    • A mark without a quoted slide is the model's opinion. Ask for the quote.
  2. 02

    Read a hard paper by finding its weakest step

    "Explain this simply" gets you a smooth summary that skips exactly the step you did not follow. Ask for the argument's skeleton and its weakest link instead, then explain the paper back and let the AI grade you.

    Example

    A 20-page economics paper on minimum wages. The skeleton fits in four lines: the question, the claim (no measurable job losses), the evidence (neighbouring regions compared), and the weak step: were the regions really alike before the change? That last line is what your seminar will argue about.

    How to do it

    1. 1Upload the PDF to a tool that shows which passage each answer comes from, such as Chat with PDF in SciSpace or a notebook in Gemini Notebook.
    2. 2Ask for the skeleton with the prompt on this page: the question, the claim, the evidence, and the step a sceptical reviewer would attack first.
    3. 3Highlight every sentence you cannot put in your own words and ask about that sentence alone.
    4. 4Close the paper, explain it in five sentences, paste them in and ask what you got wrong or left out.

    Built in

    Prompt to copy

    Using only this paper:
1. In one sentence each: the question it asks, its main claim, and the evidence for that claim. Give the page for each.
2. The step in the argument a sceptical reviewer would attack first, and why.
3. Three terms I need, defined the way this paper uses them.
Mark anything that is not stated in the paper as [not in paper].

    Where it goes wrong

    • It fills gaps with what the field usually says, not what this paper says. Anything without a page number is suspect.
    • Your five sentences are the test. If you cannot write them, you have read a summary, not the paper.
  3. 03

    Find out what you don't know before the exam does

    Revising everything evenly spends most of your time on what you already know. Let AI test you across the whole syllabus first, then spend the days left on the weak topics and re-test them every few days.

    Example

    A statistics exam in 12 days, two hours a day. The diagnostic shows you are solid on descriptive statistics and weak on hypothesis tests and confidence intervals. The plan gives those two topics 14 of the 24 hours, with a five-question re-test on days 3, 6 and 9.

    How to do it

    1. 1Give it the syllabus and two or three past papers, so the questions match your exam's format and level.
    2. 2Take the diagnostic test from the prompt on this page with your notes closed, then paste back your answers.
    3. 3Ask for a score per topic and a day-by-day plan that gives the weakest topics the most time.
    4. 4For oral exams and language tests, rehearse out loud: Gemini Live lets you talk, interrupt and show your notes through the camera.

    Built in

    Prompt to copy

    Here are the syllabus and past papers for [course]. My exam is on [date] and I can study [hours] a day.
1. Write a 20-question diagnostic test that covers every syllabus topic, in the style of the past papers. Name the topic of each question. No answers yet.
2. When I send my answers: score me per topic, then make a day-by-day plan that spends time in proportion to how weak each topic is, with a 5-question re-test of weak topics every 2 to 3 days.

    Where it goes wrong

    • A test in the wrong format misleads you. If your exam is essays, ask for essay questions and a marking scheme, not multiple choice.
    • Plans break on the first busy day. Ask for one free day a week to catch up.
  4. 04

    Get criticism on your writing, not a rewrite

    Once AI rewrites your essay it is no longer your essay, and many schools treat that as misconduct. Have it mark the draft like a strict examiner against your rubric, forbid rewrites, and make every change yourself.

    Example

    A 2,000-word history essay marked on argument, evidence and structure. The examiner prompt puts your argument a band below your evidence because the thesis only appears in the conclusion, and quotes the paragraph where it belonged. You move it up yourself.

    How to do it

    1. 1Read your course's AI rules first; some ask you to say how you used AI.
    2. 2Give it the assignment brief, the marking rubric and your draft, with the prompt on this page.
    3. 3Revise on your own. Then ask for the strongest objection to your argument that you have not answered.
    4. 4Keep the chat. It shows how you used AI if anyone asks.

    Prompt to copy

    You are a strict examiner. Here are the assignment brief, the marking rubric and my draft.
For each criterion: the band you would give, the weakest sentence for it (quoted), and what is missing.
Then tell me what would move the whole essay up one band.
Do not rewrite any sentence and do not suggest wording. I will make the changes myself.

    Where it goes wrong

    • It grades too kindly. Ask what grade it would give, and why not one band higher.
    • If it slips rewritten sentences in anyway, do not paste them into your essay. Remind it of the rule and ask again.
  5. 05

    Find sources you can actually cite

    General chatbots can invent references that look perfect. Search a tool built on a real index of papers, and treat the AI's sentence about a paper as a lead, not a source: you cite what the paper itself says.

    Example

    "Does losing sleep lower exam results?" The Meter shows how the top papers split; the Study Snapshot of the largest one gives its sample and length. You open that paper, find the sentence with the result, and cite it, not the summary.

    How to do it

    1. 1Ask Consensus a yes-or-no version of your question; the Consensus Meter shows how the top papers split.
    2. 2Open a paper's Study Snapshot to see its sample size, duration and methods before you rely on it.
    3. 3Take two to five papers you trust and open the Citation Graph to find earlier and later work you missed.
    4. 4For every source you cite, open the paper and find the sentence that supports your point.

    Built in

    Prompt to copy

    I am writing about [question]. For each paper below, tell me what it found, in which population and with what sample size, and quote the sentence of the abstract that states the main result. If you cannot see a paper's text, say so instead of guessing.
[titles or DOIs]

    Where it goes wrong

    • A real paper can still be cited for something it does not say. Check the abstract or results yourself.
    • One small study is not "research shows". Look at how the papers split before you write that.

Rules for students

  • Check the AI rules for each course: they can differ between courses at the same school.
  • Do not put other people's personal details, such as classmates' names from group work, into a personal AI account.
  • Where chats are used for training by default, switch that off before uploading work you have not handed in yet.
  • AI can be wrong while sounding certain. Check anything you hand in against the course material.

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