Testing yourself: quizzes, mock exams and spaced review

Rereading your notes gives you a feeling of mastery: everything looks familiar. But recognising a piece of information is not the same as being able to recall it on your own, facing a blank page. What really makes things stick is pulling the answer out of your memory. Good news: AI is a tireless question-asking machine.

1. The quiz, one question at a time

Ask for a quiz on your notes, but not with the answers right underneath: you'd read them without meaning to.

"Based on these notes, ask me ten questions, one at a time. Wait for my answer before moving on to the next. If I get it wrong, explain why in two sentences. At the end, list the concepts I need to work on."

Mix up the formats: open questions (the most demanding), multiple choice, true or false, definitions to give, exercises to solve.

2. The mock exam

If you have past papers or typical exercises, give them as examples:

"Here are two papers from previous years. Make up a paper in the same style and at the same difficulty on chapter 4. Don't give me the answers until I've sent you my work."

Do it under real conditions, without help and against the clock, then ask for detailed marking. Keep a critical eye: its marking can be wrong, especially with calculations. When in doubt, your notes or your teacher have the final word.

3. Spaced repetition

What you've just learned fades fast. But every time you dig it back out of your memory, it lasts longer. Hence the idea of spaced repetition: reviewing a concept just before you forget it, at ever longer intervals. For example: the next day, three days later, a week later, then a month later.

• Ask the AI to turn your notes into question-and-answer cards, one concept per card, as a two-column table. Many flashcard apps can import this format and show you the cards again at the right time.
• Without an app, a simple calendar will do: write down each chapter and its review dates.
• When the day comes, don't reread: get yourself quizzed.

4. The mistakes log

Your mistakes are the most valuable thing you have: they show you exactly what to work on. Keep them in a document, with the right answer and the reason for the mistake (I didn't know, I mixed things up, I went too fast). Then, at the next session:

"Here are the questions I got wrong last time. Ask me new questions on the same concepts, worded differently, to check that I've really understood."