Powerful AI prompts to help you study and score high on exams

While certainly complicating the world of plagiarism in the 21st century, ChatGPT and other natural language AI assistants have also proven themselves to be very powerful and legitimate learning aids.

The difference between having AI learn for you (bad) and having AI help you learn more effectively (good) is all about prompts.

Prompts are natural language (as opposed to computer language) instructions that tell AI what we want it to do. As with any form of communication, the more precise and specific the instructions we use, the more likely we are to get the desired result.

Here are some AI prompts that can help anyone quickly understand how they work, as well as how they should start thinking about structuring their own helpful prompts.

Create a Study Plan

This AI Prompt will create a study plan for any subject that helps you learn at your own pace.

Example prompt: Please create a personalized study plan for me. First, ask me each question one by one to understand my requirements. Once you have enough information, create a study plan for the relevant time period, with specific learning objectives, areas of study, practical or theoretical exercises and a guide to learning resources for each session. Include both practice and review sessions to reinforce learning.

Simplify complex concepts

If there is an idea or concept related to your field of study that you cannot understand, you can ask ChatGPT to simplify it in a more understandable way.

Example prompt: Can you explain [concept] as if you were teaching it to a 12-year-old? Use simple analogies and easy-to-understand examples, avoiding technical or complex terminology. If necessary, break down your explanation into smaller, more digestible chunks and summarize the main idea in a short sentence at the end.

Create a test

To help you understand the types of questions that may appear and prepare for them:

Example prompt: Create a practice test for students who are taking an exam. First, ask them which exam they are taking, then create a practice test that is as close as possible to the exam they need to practice for.

Create a basic lesson

When diving into learning a new topic or even developing a new skill, this will provide what you need to get started:

Example prompt: Create a beginner-friendly introductory lesson on [insert subject/skill]. Include an introduction and overview of the key concepts important to this course, provide real-world examples of its impact, value, or relevance to the world, and list 10 key facts that anyone interested in learning this subject should know.

Create a quick test

GenAI chatbots can always be ready with a quick quiz to test your proficiency on a topic:

Example prompt: Please create 10 questions to test my knowledge of [subject]. Ask me each question one by one. Finally, report my score and then, for each incorrect question, explain why I got it wrong. For each correct question, provide additional useful or interesting information to encourage further study of the question's topic.

Feedback and improve essays

You can't have AI write your essay unless you want to get kicked out of the course. But you can use AI to review your work, estimate your grade, and suggest ways to improve:

Example prompt: Please rate and review this essay, written for my [degree name] course. Please rate the accuracy of the content and the extent to which it addresses key topics important to the essay. Give me a predicted score for the essay and then provide simple, bulleted suggestions for improving this score. [insert essay content]

Jessica Tanner

Update 11 June 2025