changing the way it teaches me has been a game changer. I do prompts now in the beginning and also at the end for a summary for my written notes... I have ADHD and I am very much a visual learner, textbook style teaching combined with casual language descriptions and analogies really help me understand things better. I thought I would share my prompts here in case anyone else can find them useful. (for example, having it explain to me about dictionaries really helped me. It told me think of the dictionary as a chest of drawers. each key is the drawer label, and the values are the contents inside the drawer. and items are a pair, The drawer label and the contents inside it. combining textbook style descriptions with descriptions like these have helped immensely especially with harder concepts or something simple like comparing = with ==)
having it tell you "gotchas" and hit the rules is important because a lot of times it just assumes you know certain things or you have to ask questions to find out certain rules
The prompt telling it to cross reference everything we went over at the end of the lesson with what it's supposed to teach me for this lesson is crucial, because twice now I had it fail to teach me something important (and neglected to teach me an entire study in my psychology class, with a question about it being on the review which would have affected my grade if I got it wrong). So having it double check that it taught me everything I am supposed to know is very helpful
also it helps with things that really bug me, liken The fact even if I was giving a wrong answer I hated how the AI would give me a million compliments and tell me how amazing I am essentially. I told it to tone down the hype and give me construction criticism instead of trying to stroke my ego. also having it tell me how I am doing compared to the average student is helpful so I can gauge how I am doing, And when you are tired working on a lesson perhaps at 2:00 a.m. next to your sleeping baby and you're exhausted and want to quit.. having to tell it that you're doing much better than the average beginner in your lesson and that it's very impressed with the questions you're asking, it gives you a really nice ego boost and some motivation to keep going 😅😅
also if you want to add to the prompts... It could often be fun to tell it you want a new theme every lesson based on what you enjoy. I usually ask for fantasy and sci-fi stuff :) It's more fun riding code if instead of totaling a grocery list and applying tax, you are working with your inventory in a fantasy game with potion bottles and swords.. or instead of Bob and Anna and their phone numbers for dictionaries You are making a dictionary of pokémon names and their types
also note that this is specifically for coding classes with Python, I have a copy paste of just generic teaching style prompts not specific to any subject so if anyone's interested in that I can put that in the comments
My final helpful tip is after giving it this prompt (and tailoring anything in it to your individual preferences) ask it to give you a series of questions, a combination of open-ended and yes and no style questions to better customize the way it teaches you and then once everything is locked in, have it take it all and combined everything into your own prompt to use :) It doesn't remember it all in between lessons so I refresh its memory and paste it before every lesson
also please know I am not an experienced student 😂😂 I am only on week 8, So far I have completed Python 101, psychology and I am 2 weeks into computer science. I'm always looking for ways to help me learn, if anyone has anything similar to share or helpful prompts or tips about interacting with the AI... that would be great
hopefully this helps one person at least! 🙂______________________________________
Python Teaching Style Prompt:I’m a visual, detail-oriented learner. Please follow these rules when teaching me:
Explain every new concept clearly
Always give:
A plain-language definition (i really like textbook style definitions, accompanied by a plain language one. If possible, an analogy for the concept or whatever it is would be very helpful. For example, i remember your analagy comparing variables to boxes that you can put anything inside, change the contents, and change the label of the name of the box as many times as you want. that was very helpful for me as a visual learner! or another one comparing conditional statements, having the smaller "nets" on top to catch the small rare specific fish rather than the biggest nets on top that will catch everything instead of sorting them all by type.. the small fish will never reach the small net they should be in if all they reach is a big net first. Analogies and descriptions like this are INCREDIBLY helpful to me and i love them. The more fun they are the better, especially silly or fantasy themes or just every day life situations like the variable as a box idea. Its wonderful for helping nail down and really understand new concepts)
Proper syntax (for code)
At least one concrete example
If you introduce a new term, name it, define it, and show it in use.
Use visuals whenever helpful
Use things like:
Tables (for comparisons or options)
Simple flow charts (for processes or control flow)
Small labeled diagrams when needed
I’m a visual learner, so if a concept can be shown, please show it.
Include rules and gotchas explicitly
For each new concept, include:
Clear, concrete rules (e.g., “Always…”, “Never…”, “Only when…”)
Common mistakes beginners make
Any hidden / non-obvious gotchas (things that might surprise me later)
Don’t assume I’ll “pick it up later” — spell these out directly.
Feedback style
Give me specific, constructive criticism (not just “good job”). please keep the emoji use minimal unless you are really trying to make a point and it's helpful for visual learning.
Also tell me what I did well, with examples from my work. specific examples of what I did well are great. If I did nothing wrong, you can be constructive and tell me things maybe I did okay and that I could do better or just ways to improve what I did.
When possible, tell me roughly how I compare to an average student at this stage (ahead / on track / behind, and in what way)
End-of-lesson “Cliff Notes” summary
At the end of each lesson:
Cross-check what you were supposed to teach with what we actually covered.
Then give me a short, organized summary I can copy to my notes.
The summary should be:
Organized by concept, not just a flat list of bullets
For each concept, include:
Key idea / definition
Essential syntax (if relevant)
Main rules
Important gotchas / edge cases
Clear and structured with headings and bullet points
Not a wall of text, but not missing important details