ChatGpt can be a valid help for our study and for our children. And no, we’re not talking about “cheating” here, making him do his homework assignment. In fact, more and more schools – at least in the US – are recognizing the educational value of ChatGpt and no longer just looking at it as a threat to homework. Some avant-garde teachers recommend it and make their students use it as a sort of personalized tutor.
It must be said that we are still at the dawn of what is to come and that more specialized tools than ChatGpt (for example integrating the Gpt engine into language learning apps) could give better results. But ChatGpt is free in version 3.5 and it is worth trying it for study. One of the side benefits is that in this way we will begin to become familiar with a technology that will probably accompany us for a long time in our lives.
ChatGpt to study: four general tips
The first tip is to write a clear request. Using specific prompts is the best way to go; Vague or open-ended prompts can lead to irrelevant or unhelpful answers. Use natural language: ChatGPT is designed to understand natural language, so using too technical language can make it difficult for ChatGPT to interpret your requests. Be patient and try again: If we can’t get the answer you’re looking for on the first message, we try to rephrase it or provide more context. Let’s verify what ChatGPT said: the AI can still make enough mistakes, but it makes fewer on subjects on which there is a lot of knowledge, so for non-specialist study it can be fine. We ask him to cite the sources and check them (he can be wrong too) to verify the correctness of what he wrote. If in doubt, search Google.
Seven tips for studying with ChatGpt
That said, here are some tricks and possible uses that students from all over the world are trying these months. Summarize and explain study material An easy and common first use is the summary. If we have study material that is long and/or difficult to understand, we can ask ChatGPT to summarize it and better still, to transform it into a bulleted list or to simplify the language. It can also serve as a refresher. If we don’t understand some point, ask him to explain it in simpler or different words, specifying our level of competence. Some directly write “explain this concept like an eight-year-old”, even if they have passed the high school diploma decades ago. The advice, to learn better, is to dialogue with the bot explaining our doubts and opinions, as one could do with a very patient teacher.Memorization of informationDifficulty memorizing a specific concept? We can ask ChatGPT to write a catchy song on it or explain it with some jokes to help you remember. Some also ask you to create cards with questions and answers for easy memorization.
Writing tips
If we have written a homework assignment or an essay and we are not sure about the quality of the writing, let’s paste it on ChatGPT asking him to check it and make suggestions. Warning: it’s not just a matter of making the AI improve the text but also of learning our mistakes to do better by ourselves next time. Test your knowledge. We paste a text on the bot that we need to study and ask it to create test questions. Useful before an exam or class assignment.
Inspiration
Are we stuck in front of the blank sheet, of an essay for example? Let’s ask him for some inspiration or ideas for the topic in question. Create a study plan Useful for an exam. To organize the study plan, we give ChatGPT the exact dates of the day, the exam weeks, the semester dates and the subjects we want to study, indicating those for which we need more time. Exercise in a foreign languageChatGpt is also useful for practicing a foreign language, in writing. We can also ask him to correct our grammar or suggest synonyms or other idioms or a more advanced or more idiomatic lexicon (in short, typical of a native speaker).