How to study a week of lectures with ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini
A chatbot is a lot more useful when it's looking at the same slides you are. Setting that up takes about five minutes a week.
# Source: heading with the file's name. Copy for AI puts the notes on the clipboard, ready to paste into a chatbot and ask about one file by name.1. Gather the week's files
Download the week's slides, readings and lab handouts from your course page into one folder. Get the original PowerPoint, Word or PDF files if you can, not screenshots. The chatbot can only work with text it can actually read.
Leave out anything you don't need this week. Replies stay more focused when everything in the chat is about one topic.
2. Turn them into one document
Drop the files into CourseFeed. It converts each one to plain text in your browser and puts them together in one Markdown document. Each file starts with a heading like # Source: Week 5 slides.pptx, so you can point the chatbot at a specific file by name.
Skim the result before you use it. A file marked "No text found" is a scan, and the scanned PDFs guide covers what to do with it.
3. Give it to the chatbot
For a few files, press Copy for AI and paste into a new chat. For a big batch, download the .md file and attach it, since very long pastes can get cut off. Paste or attach? goes into this more.
Use a new chat for each week or topic. Otherwise old material takes up room and can get mixed in with another course.
4. Ask for an outline first
Before you ask anything specific, try one of these:
- "List the main topics in each Source section, with one line on each."
- "Which ideas appear in both the slides and the reading?"
It's a quick way to see whether the chatbot read everything. If one of your files isn't in the outline, it probably didn't make it in.
5. Get it to quiz you
Summaries are easy to read and don't stick very well. Answering questions does. Some prompts that work:
- "Quiz me on the Week 5 slides, one question at a time. Wait for my answer and tell me what I got wrong."
- "Explain slide 12 of the lecture step by step, as if I missed the class."
- "Make 15 flashcards from the reading: term on one side, definition in my course's own words on the other."
- "Here's my answer to the practice question. What's missing compared with the lecture?"
- "What would a likely exam question on this week look like?"
Mentioning the Source heading keeps answers tied to your notes. If you don't, the chatbot tends to fall back on what it knows in general, which might not match how your course teaches it.
6. Double-check anything that matters
Chatbots sometimes say wrong things with total confidence. Conversion can also drop or shuffle content, especially tables and charts. If a definition or formula is going to be on the exam, find it in the original slides or reading first.
7. Know your course's AI rules
Rules about AI differ between courses, and sometimes between assignments in the same course. Studying from your own course material is usually fine. Having a chatbot write something you hand in for marks usually isn't. If you're not sure, check the syllabus or ask your instructor.