9 Preparing for exams
Anonymous, Undergraduate Student, Philosophy, USA
Last quarter I had a bunch of tests. Big deal, everyone has tests in college. But for me, tests never seem to go my way. When I walk into that room, all of a sudden, the knowledge I thought I had has evaporated and it feels as if I must figure out the problems from scratch. I had 2 classes in particular, Modern Arab Culture and Dreaming Revolution. These 2 classes were very dense, and as explained below there was a difference in the classes’ exam preparation, and therefore how I used AI in each. However, the main reason I wanted to do well on these tests was to improve my chances of getting into grad school, and a higher Grade Point Average (GPA) helps.
I used GenAI differently, depending on the class. The Dreaming Revolution class did not give any material to study for the midterm or final exams, so I used my notes, in combination with the texts for the class to generate a few possible study guides. For the Modern Arab Culture class (where the study guide was given), I started a new Google document where I would put the questions and the answers. Now, for both of these, I would open up an LLM, upload these documents with the questions and answers, and ask the LLM to ask me the questions from the study guide. But I was able to prompt the model much further than that. I asked it to generate short answer questions, multiple choice, and even ranged the difficulty and order, in which the questions appeared.
As someone who has always struggled to take tests, GenAI has certainly been a benefit
As someone who has always struggled to take tests and did not really find value in things like flashcards, GenAI has certainly been a benefit. The questions come at you differently every time (if you prompt the LLM correctly), and that really helps increase your understanding of the topic with nuance. If I had not studied with this LLM assistance, I would not have achieved the grades I desired. But at the end of the day, what are grades? Just letters we use to judge students. Some are given based on how well a student memorises or how well they can explain something. What will really matter in the future (if AI technology does not reach Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) levels) is the ability to create radically new things, and grading encourages the opposite. So, GenAI has helped me realise that I want to be as radical as I possibly can be, while using it for the memorisation these classes require.
