How do you use ChatGPT as a study partner?

Exams are coming for many students this month, and ChatGPT arrived just in time to tempt them. Used one way, it writes your answers and you learn nothing. Used another way, it becomes a patient study partner that will explain the same idea five different ways at two in the morning and never get tired of your questions.

The difference lies in who does the thinking. A good study partner makes you explain, recall and apply. ChatGPT can play that role well because of how it works in conversation: it remembers the earlier messages in the same chat, so it can build on your answers, notice what you got wrong and adjust.

What it is good at, and where it slips

The Verge's first look at ChatGPT shows it explaining scientific concepts clearly and adapting its style to the request. OpenAI's launch examples show it handling follow-up questions that depend on the previous answer, which is exactly what tutoring needs. You can ask for a simpler version, an analogy, a diagram described in words or a worked example.

The weak spot is accuracy. OpenAI says plainly that ChatGPT sometimes writes answers that sound right but are incorrect, and early testers have caught it getting basic facts wrong, such as naming the wrong country as the largest in Central America after Mexico. It also tends to be wordy. A study partner who is occasionally wrong with total confidence is still useful, as long as you treat your course material as the final word.

Three ground rules make it work:

• Anchor it to your material. Paste the relevant section of your notes or a summary of the chapter, and ask it to stay within that.
• Ask it to make you work. Request questions, not answers; hints, not solutions.
• Verify what matters. Anything you will be tested on, check against the textbook.

A worked example: a biology quiz session

Suppose you are studying a chapter on cellular respiration. Here is a prompt that sets up a quiz with clear feedback rules.

You are my study partner for a high-school biology test on cellular respiration. Here are my notes:
[paste your notes: glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the electron transport chain, where each happens, inputs and outputs, ATP totals as given in class]

Rules:
1. Ask me one question at a time. Wait for my answer before continuing.
2. Mix question types: definitions, "where does this happen?", and "what would happen if...?"
3. After each answer, say whether I'm right, partly right or wrong, and explain in two sentences or fewer.
4. If I'm wrong, give me a hint and let me try again before telling me the answer.
5. Use only the facts in my notes. If my notes don't cover something, say so instead of guessing.
6. After ten questions, list the topics I struggled with.
Start with an easy question.

The session might run like this. The exchange is illustrative, not a transcript.

Rule 5 matters most. Telling it to stay inside your notes reduces the chance that it slips in a number or a detail your teacher never taught, or one that is simply wrong. When a fact it gives you differs from your notes, trust your notes and ask your teacher.

How do you make it quiz you?

The key is to tell it, explicitly, to ask and then wait. If you simply ask for a quiz, it may write all the questions and their answers in one long reply, which turns a quiz into a reading exercise. The phrase "Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer" fixes that.

Then shape the questions. Ask for the format your exam will use: multiple choice, short answer, or "explain in your own words." Ask it to make the next question harder when you get one right and easier when you get one wrong. For definitions and vocabulary, try reverse quizzing: it gives the definition and you name the term. For understanding, ask it to give you a flawed explanation and have you find the mistake.

When a session ends, ask for a short summary of what you got wrong and turn that into your next round. Because it remembers the conversation, you can say "Quiz me again on just the topics I missed" and continue in the same chat. Keep sessions focused on one chapter, check its feedback against your course material, and you have a tutor that fits around your schedule.