From Stuck to Unstuck: Using AI as Your Study Coach
The following suggestions are offered to teachers as a starting point for teaching learners strategies with potential to increase concentration and focus during study sessions when the purpose is information gathering, reading to learn, mastering vocabulary and concepts, solving mathematical problems and the like.
Having Productive Conversations When You're Stuck
Your success in studying often depends on how you handle moments of boredom, frustration, or distraction. This guide helps you turn those challenging moments into productive conversations with AI that can get you back on track.
How to Use This Guide
When you feel stuck, first identify what type of challenge you're facing. Find the relevant section below. Take the base prompt that best matches your situation and customize it with details about your specific assignment. Then use this personalized prompt to start a conversation that will help you move forward.
Types of Challenges
When You Feel It's Pointless
When you find yourself thinking the material is useless or too dry to care about, use these AI conversation starters. Begin with "This material will never be of any use to me" or "I'm tired of memorizing facts. How is this connected to real life?" Add specific details about what you're studying.
For example, instead of just saying you don't see the point, say: "I'm reading about cellular respiration in biology, and I can't see how understanding mitochondria will ever matter in my life. Can you help me find some way to make this interesting?”
After starting the conversation, you might want to ask about careers that use this knowledge, about what kinds of people would find it interesting, or about what problems this knowledge helps solve.
When Emotions Get in the Way
Sometimes personal issues make it hard to focus. If you're upset about something with friends, worried about an upcoming event, or stuck on an embarrassing moment, acknowledge it. Start with "I'm trying to work on [your assignment], but I'm distracted by [your situation]."
For instance: "I'm trying to read this history chapter, but I keep thinking about my basketball game tomorrow. Can you help me create a strategy that might help me get on track?"
Then explore how to set aside focused time despite the emotions, techniques for redirecting thoughts, or ways to break the assignment into smaller pieces.
When You're Overwhelmed
Feeling overwhelmed often leads to paralysis. If you don't know where to start or have been procrastinating, be direct about it. Say "I need to complete [specific assignment] by [your deadline]. Can you help me break this down into manageable steps?"
For example: "I have to interview my grandmother about her immigration experience and create a biographical sketch by next week, but I haven't even started. I keep putting off calling her because I don't know what questions to ask or how to organize the information. Can you help me break this into smaller tasks I can start today?"
Follow up with questions like:
“What are examples of questions I could ask?"
"How should I organize my interview notes?"
“What's are different ways to structure a biographical sketch?"
“How can I divide this into 30-minute tasks?"
“Should I record the interview or take notes?"
“What if she shares information that doesn't fit the assignment?"
For another example: "I have a chemistry lab report due Monday on our water quality experiment. We finished the lab work, but I have all these data tables and observations, and I don't know where to start with the analysis. Can you help me organize this into steps I can tackle tonight?"
The key is to admit when you're stuck and ask for specific guidance on the very next step you need to take. Sometimes just figuring out that first step can break through the paralysis of feeling overwhelmed.
When Self-Doubt Creeps In
If you're struggling while others seem to get it easily, or you understand in class but get lost studying alone, admit it. Try saying "I'm struggling with [specific concept] in [subject]. Can you explain it differently and help me find study strategies that match how I learn?"
Example: "I understand algebra when my teacher explains it, but when I try these quadratic equations at home, nothing makes sense. Can you walk me through this in a different way?"
Then ask for simpler explanations. Be sure to ask the AI to test your understanding so you gain competence and can demonstrate your learning on class tests.
When Distractions Win
When you can't stay focused or your environment keeps pulling your attention away, address it directly. Say "I need to focus on [specific task] for [time period], but I keep getting distracted by [specific distraction]. Can you help me create a better study situation?"
For instance: "I need to focus on these vocabulary terms for a quiz tomorrow for at least 30 minutes, but I keep checking my phone. Can you help me figure out a strategy for getting these words in my head?”
Ask about ways to make the material more engaging or how to improve your study environment. Studying unrelated words to memorize verbatim definitions is inefficient. Ask about ways to find connections among new vocabulary and vocabulary you are already familiar with.
Making These Conversations Work
Using AI in this way is appropriate unless you prompt AI to solve your algebra problems or write your interview with your Grandmother. When you intend to offload the mental work to a machine, you lose in two ways.
First, you don’t learn anything about the subject matter when you ask AI to do your work. There are very good reasons for learning cell biology. Second, you don’t learn anything about how to improve your capacity to study. Schooling does two things: It teaches you specific knowledge. More importantly, it strengthens your capacity to learn.
Success with these prompts depends on being specific. Always include:
The exact assignment or material you're working on.
Your deadline or time frame.
What specific challenge you're facing.
What you've already tried.
Remember that it's okay to admit when you're struggling. Being honest about what's not working is the first step to finding a solution that does work.
Use these prompts as starting points, but modify them to fit your exact situation. The more specific you are about what you're studying and what's challenging about it, the more helpful the response will be.
As you gain experience in monitoring your unwanted emotions and their role in sabotaging precious time available for studying, you’ll find your own prompts, and you’ll learn options to experiment with.
AI provides you with a unique resource to keep you on track and growing your mind. Experience in using it and learning from others how they use it will improve your ability to learn and retain academic material.