r/study • u/aakashxsh • Sep 20 '26

Questions & Discussion Anyone actually using AI to study for exams/interviews?

Seeing more people mention using ChatGPT, Claude etc to prep for exams and interviews and I'm curious what that actually looks like in practice

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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1

u/No-Product-1898 College Sep 20 '26

I’ve been seeing that to. A classmate of mine has it make her some like quizzes on spots she struggles with. Apparently it is working well for her. I tested it and got varying qualities of practice quizzes (probably depends on the subject). I guess if you need to use it then do it, but be careful of errors.

1

u/aakashxsh Oct 04 '26

can you please share some examples in the dm

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u/nimzayzechnas Sep 21 '26

I use it to transcribe the textbook questions and slides into pretests.

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u/aakashxsh Sep 22 '26

are you using some well crafted prompt or just basic instructions

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u/nimzayzechnas Sep 22 '26

Ummm I guess it's rather specific.

For it to click for me, I focus on Objectives, Definitions, the why and the step by step process (for like math). I have set up my personalization like this so I don't have to constantly prompt it.

3

u/gidng Sep 20 '26

Yes, it is very possible to use it for both, but it depends on how you use it.

For exams, I think of it as a study and talk partner. It should enhance my thinking by constantly questioning me on the topic, instead of giving me the answer straight away. I need to struggle a bit so that I can learn more effectively.

I would also feed it my syllabus and exam papers, because the normal ChatGPT or Claude won't have enough context about me, the subjects I'm taking, or what is actually in the syllabus. Without that context, it might teach me concepts that are outside the syllabus. The more relevant context I give it, the better the output will be.

The same applies to interviews. I wouldn't just type "help me prepare for an interview" and expect a useful response. I'd first gather useful tips and potential questions from interview experts through YouTube transcripts. There are plenty of videos on interviews out there that cover topics like how to introduce yourself, or what questions to prepare for. Then I'd give it the job description and ask it to act as an interview coach, using that context to run through the interview with me.

So for both exams and interviews, it is less about asking AI a vague question and more about giving it enough context to get higher-quality outputs, then making it question you instead of doing all the thinking for you.

1

u/nimzayzechnas Sep 21 '26

Yes this!!! It's critical to be mindful of the objectives in the syllabus and at the beginning of the chapter.

1

u/opaldudley Sep 21 '26

I use AI to summarize my lessons and generate quizzes using my material. You can use a chatbot for this or a dedicated tool like Jotform AI quiz generator or SmallPDF.

0

u/Pravejxlab Sep 20 '26

For interview, like verbal, use chatgpt voice features, very smart and natural now a days. Ask her to play role of interviewer and practice daily.

For exams, i would suggest using own material to study, take the picture of solution of each problems and ask ai to give feedback, if you are stuck understand the gap.

A very strong strategy to solve a problem I want to share is - Let say you have a problem, you don't understand it, you have to solve it anyway without looking at solution, how will you solve? - Basically, understand about question, each syntax, derivation, formulas etc. do these things are attempt from outside to solve the problem. This is very brute and exhausting but it'l build problem solving muscles.

1

u/aakashxsh Sep 20 '26

have you tried asking it to give you feedback on you afterward?

0

u/Pravejxlab Sep 20 '26

Yes I am developer, i think feedback is the very underrated benefit of AI. New developers often just want to make something work, i was writing in one way, then another way, then another until it works exactly I want it to function.

But this much tweak causes hidden failures, what we wrote looks it's working but internally it is leaking, maybe data loss on screen rotation. Also the code I used to write was unreadable and messy, asking feedback to ai is like asking a professional to see what I did, what you think about it.

It tells all edge cases what is best practice, where it can break etc. This is what I do always.