Prompt Playbook: AI Tutor Personalised Learning PART 4

Hey Prompt Entrepreneur,

We've all been there. The night before an exam, frantically cramming information into our brains, desperately trying to memorise facts, formulas, and concepts.

Then, after the exam? Poof. It all vanishes, like it was never there.

Despite "learning" enough to pass an exam, we don’t truly learn at all.

Exposure to information isn't the same as learning it. Without the right approaches to reinforce knowledge, even the most brilliantly explained concepts fade quickly from memory.

The challenge is particularly relevant in our AI age. When information is instantly accessible through AI assistants, it's tempting to think, "Why bother committing anything to memory?"

But this creates a dangerous dependency that hampers your ability to think critically and creatively about complex problems. In this Part, we'll focus on how to ensure the knowledge you gain from your AI tutor actually sticks, becoming a permanent part of your intellectual toolkit rather than temporary cramming.

Let's get started:

Your Project as a Knowledge Repository

As we discussed in Part 2, using a dedicated Project for your learning creates a valuable knowledge repository. Each learning session becomes part of this growing body of knowledge, with previous explanations, examples, and exercises all searchable and accessible.

Here's how to maximise the value of this repository:

1. Explicit Session Tagging

At the end of each learning session, ask your AI tutor to create a clear tag or label summarising what was covered. For example:

"Session 4: Functions in Python - Parameters, Return Values, and Scope"

This makes it easier to locate specific content when you need to revisit it. We already mentioned finishing each session by asking for a summary. This is why.

2. Concept Mapping Within Your Project

Periodically ask your AI tutor to create a concept map or outline of everything you've covered so far. This helps visualise how different concepts connect and identify any gaps in your knowledge. For example:

"Could you create a structured outline of all the marketing concepts we've covered so far, showing how they relate to each other?"

Your AI can go ahead and create cool knowledge graphs and flowcharts for you. Notebook LM is particularly good for this. Get a data dump of your knowledge file and pass it to Notebook for awesome flowcharts:

3. Knowledge Summary Requests

As your project grows, you can ask your AI tutor to synthesise information across multiple sessions:

"We've discussed customer acquisition strategies across several sessions. Could you create a comprehensive summary of all the approaches we've covered, with the key advantages and limitations of each?"

These summaries become valuable reference points within your knowledge repository.

Active Recall: The Gold Standard for Retention

Active recall—retrieving information from memory rather than simply reviewing it—is consistently shown to be one of the most effective learning techniques. Your AI tutor is the perfect partner for implementing this approach because it’s infinitely patient.

Daily Retrieval Practice

Begin each session with retrieval practice rather than passive review:

Try: "Before we start, can you ask me to explain the three economic indicators we discussed last session and how they relate to each other?"

This small change makes a profound difference in retention. The act of struggling to retrieve information strengthens the neural pathways associated with that knowledge, making future retrieval easier.

The Question Bank Technique

Have your AI tutor create a bank of questions covering the material you've learned. These questions should:

• Focus on application rather than mere definition

• Require connecting multiple concepts

• Include "why" and "how" questions, not just "what" questions

• Range from basic recall to complex problem-solving

At the beginning of each session, have your tutor select a few questions from this bank, including some from recent material and some from earlier sessions.

The Explanation Challenge

Regularly challenge yourself to explain complex concepts without referencing your notes or previous sessions. Your AI tutor can listen to and assess your explainations:

"Test my ability to explain [topic]. What could I explain better? What’s not clear?”

This approach combines active recall with the Feynman Technique we'll explore more in Part 5.

What's Next?

In Part 5, our final Part in this series, we'll explore the ultimate retention technique: teaching what you've learned.

We'll dive deep into the Feynman Technique and show you how to cement your knowledge by explaining it to others—even if that "other" is your AI tutor or a camera.

Keep Prompting,

Kyle

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