Learning with AI
Using AI for testing and learning just about anything
One of the most promising applications of AI is that of a tutor and educator. Suddenly, through a simple internet connection on a smartphone or computer, anyone in the world now has access to an always available, world-class tutor.
The Democratization of Learning
AI is just the latest milestone in a long history of tools that have advanced access to education of course. For much of Western history, literacy was a privilege and the domain of the church, until the printing press. That revolutionary technology democratized access to texts and led to the protestant reformation, scientific revolution, and age of exploration that shaped our modern times.
Fast forward to my childhood in the 1990s. When the heavy expensive printed encyclopedia set of my youth – a huge investment for my family! - was replaced by a small Microsoft Encarta CD, it was another small revolution. How could such a small object contain so much information? Soon after came the explosion of the internet, offering immense educational content through resources like Wikipedia, YouTube, and then services like MOOCs and Khan Academy. These platforms made self-directed, on-demand learning accessible and often free.
Even with all this abundance of information and resources though, investing money on personalized tutoring still has a huge payoff, with the benefits accruing to those who have the means to afford it. The key isn’t just having access to knowledge—it’s in personalizing and reinforcing it effectively.
Leveraging AI for Personalized Learning
We’re now entering a new phase with the rise of our AI learning companions. What’s novel about these tools is how personalized and available tutoring now is to everyone. These models are trained on massive amounts of human knowledge - though they can still make mistakes! - and they do a great job of translating complex ideas into simple language, adapting to user learning styles, and providing instant tailored feedback to the user. All things a good human tutor might do.
AI shouldn’t replace reading and learning directly from source texts of course (though this is certainly a risk!), but it is a powerful aid in helping you digest and reinforce what you’ve learned.
Let’s dive in and explore some methods to apply.
Use AI to Learn Anything
AI can help you study for a test or a certification (more on that below), but don’t limit yourself to that. You can use AI to learn just about anything.
Want to learn about an aspect of history? Reinforce learning ideas in a recent book you read? Learn a new software tool? Teach yourself how to stitch a bunch of AI video clips into a video (something I’ve been meaning to do)? Yeah, AI can help you learn all that and personalize learning to your skill level throughout.
Again, your imagination really is the limiting factor. There’s never been a better time to learn something new.
Strategies for AI Study
First come caveats upfront…
AI is great at explaining things in simple language, quizzing you on topics, summarizing long or complex material, helping create study guides and outlines, offering practice scenarios or flashcards, and generating mnemonics, metaphors, or memory tricks.
As discussed before, AI is not guaranteed to be 100% factual - always double-check for high-stakes topics! It’s not going to know exactly what’s on your test and it’s not going to replace real-world problem solving or deep comprehension activities like studying.
Bottom line: Use AI as a coach or (in Microsoft speak) a copilot — not a crutch.
Step 1: Ground it First
This simple step will increase accuracy of your chat output dramatically. Providing source material to your AI is a great way to minimize errors in its responses. This is especially important if you are studying for an exam based on a specific text or source (as opposed to general knowledge learning).
How to do this? Simply create a new chat, tell it what you’re studying for, and upload or point it to the sources that you want it to utilize and work off.
📝 Example Prompt: I will provide a document or URL. Only use the source material here—no outside knowledge. If something is unclear, say so instead of guessing.
Using AI to Summarize and Simplify
Using AI to summarize and simplify material is going to be a key use and immensely helpful in understanding complex topics. Worth reviewing!
Looking for some ideas to start out?
📝 Example Prompt: Explain [topic or skill] in the simplest terms for a complete beginner. Identify any gaps in my understanding and suggest resources to address them.
Or maybe try the 80/20 rule.
📝 Example Prompt: Using the 80/20 Principle, what 20% of concepts in [insert subject or field] provide 80% of the overall understanding? Please explain these concepts concisely.
Create a Study Guide
Take the course material and ask AI to create a study guide or cheat sheet from the work. Do you have class or work notes that you’ve taken? Upload them too!
📝 Example Prompt: "Summarize this into a study guide with bullet points and section headers."
📝 Example Prompt: "Can you pull out the most testable information and give me a cheat sheet?"
Scenario-Based Learning
A particular strength of AI is taking test material and applying it in scenario-based learning exercises. For instance:
📝 Example Prompt: "Give me 3 scenarios where I’d need to apply [learning content]. Include possible questions and how I should respond."
📝 Example Prompt: "I’m prepping for a leadership assessment—what are common case study situations and how should I approach them?"
Generate Practice Quizzes
Another area where AI shines! AI can create nearly unlimited practice quizzes for you to test with. Typically, it’s a simple format where it asks a question, you think about it, then scroll down to find the answer. I’m sure there are
To start just ask it for a practice quiz and you should get something like this:
Turn the Tables: Teach the AI
I’ve used this a bit, and I think it’s an underrated and powerful method. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn and reinforce knowledge. (If you can’t teach it simply to someone, do you really understand it?)
Now you have something to practice with anytime. Try to teach it and get feedback from your effort, which will help you reinforce and refine your understanding.
📝 Example Prompt: "I’m going to explain the difference between types of encryption. Interrupt me if I get anything wrong."
📝 Example Prompt: "Here’s what I think about the stages of project management—can you spot anything I missed?"
Plan your work and work your plan
You could also use AI to help you build a study plan. Tell it how far out you are from your test and what amount of time you’re willing to put towards this to succeed. Let it help you build a plan and keep coming back to your thread and use it as your digital tutor.
AI in Action: Passing the AI-900 Exam
Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been studying for an AI certification for work. It’s a relatively simple and straightforward certification but one that I did need to study for to familiarize myself with the concepts and materials.
As much as I use and think about AI, my default a lot of times is still going to my old standbys. I initially went to a YouTube study video which was helpful, but honestly wasn’t a great use of my limited time.
Yet another aha! moment – let’s try doing this with AI.
I started a chat and told GPT when I was taking the certification test. I asked it to be my study guide and pointed it to some documentation. It apparently knew the material well and immediately launched into a helpful AI-900 101 guide. (I did double check the contents with the study materials, and it was spot-on.)
I asked it for clarification on some of the key concepts and asked it to create digital flashcards for me, which were just summaries of important content.
I then asked it for quizzes – this is really where it shines – seemingly unlimited quiz questions to help me study. It included both concept questions and scenario-based questions, which are all part of the exam.
An hour before the exam, I came back to my chat and asked for a final quick hits list to scan before my test to refresh concepts before I dove in. Again, great output and helped me remember a few things I had already forgotten.
And I was off. The whole experience really cemented how effective and personalized AI can be in helping learn something new. It was much more effective for me than spending hours on the course content (though I did skim that) and watching long YouTube tutorial videos.
Conclusion
AI is a fantastic study partner - the next time you want to get smarter on something, head to AI first and try it out. The ability to learn how to learn will become increasingly important over time. AI is a fantastic tool to aid you in ongoing skilling and development and mastering it will set you apart.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - there’s never been a better time to learn something new.
