Define something you want to be able to do
You may watch a guide and feel you understand every word, then try alone and find yourself searching for the same guide from the start. AI helps you ask, try, and get feedback, but you need to give it a role that actually serves your learning.
Instead of “I want to learn Excel,” start with “I want to clean a small sales file, calculate each product's total, and present it clearly.” That is the example we will use. The goal is specific, and at the end we can tell whether we learned it or still need practice.
The same idea works for a concept in your studies, a writing method, or analyzing research. Write what you already know, what you can try alone, and your available time. If your goal is broad, let the assistant help choose a starting part instead of building a large curriculum without knowing your level.
Let an attempt show your level
“Beginner” is broad. You may know how to open a spreadsheet and write a formula but not how to spot duplicate rows. Ask for a simple question or exercise revealing what you can do, and explain where you got stuck. Do not ask it to infer your abilities from a general impression.
Prepare a suitable source: part of a lecture, a chapter, a reliable guide, or practice files. Explain each material's role and limits. If you need source recommendations, ask for the selection reasons and prerequisites, and open the most important source yourself. Lots of links do not prove a plan is suitable.
In the Excel example, we can start with a small sample file without client data and a specific guide to cleanup and aggregation. We do not need a complete course on every program feature to complete this task.
You can try explanation and writing prompts with any of these. File reading, execution, and connections depend on what is available in your account.
Copy the prompt as it is, or tailor it with your details first.
Tailor the prompt to your workOptional: add your details and the prompt adjusts itself
View full prompt
Read a small part, then try without the solution
After understanding the step, close the example and try it with slightly different data. In our example: copy the practice file, identify the duplicate row, and explain how and why you would handle it. If you copied the video's steps without understanding, a small change will probably reveal what still needs practice.
This attempt tells you more than feeling “This is easy.” Ask yourself: can I explain why I did the step? Can I notice when the result is wrong? In theoretical knowledge, write what you recall and compare it with the source. In a practical skill, there must be performance or an output to review.
Retrieval from memory and spaced review are methods supported by research for certain learning tasks.
When confused, describe where you got stuck
Instead of “Explain everything again,” say “I do not understand why the total was duplicated when I changed the grouping,” or “I know the definitions of both concepts but cannot distinguish them in this example.” The assistant can then focus on the gap instead of repeating an introduction you know.
Ask for a hint or question to help you spot the error, and give yourself a chance to try. If the hint is insufficient, ask for a simpler example or explanation of the missing prerequisite. It is fine to get an explained solution when needed, but afterward return to trying a new example.
Some notebook sources explain how to turn confusion into questions, including Justin Sung's guide. The useful idea here is to identify the point of confusion and connect it to your goal. You do not have to feel confused for learning to happen, and not every difficulty is helpful. Sometimes the source itself is unclear or assumes prerequisites you do not have.
Explain it in your own words and have it check against the source
Write or record your explanation if the tool supports audio. Ask it to compare with the material you are learning from: which part is correct? What was vague? What is missing? Ask it to point to the correction's location in the source instead of giving a general score and saying “excellent.”
In the spreadsheet example, you might explain the difference between deleting a duplicate row and combining two rows for the same product. If you confuse them, the review needs to address the reason for the difference, not just how the file looks. After feedback, revise your attempt and explain the change yourself.
Copy the prompt as it is, or tailor it with your details first.
Tailor the prompt to your workOptional: add your details and the prompt adjusts itself
View full prompt
The assistant itself may review incorrectly or miss an error. If its correction contradicts the source or your expertise, open the passage and discuss it. For skills requiring a lab, physical practice, or specialist assessment, conversation alone cannot confirm performance quality.
Return to the idea after a while and change the example
After the session, keep a question you struggled with and the reason for the correction, instead of saving a long unused summary. Return later and try to answer without reading the solution. If the answer is consistently easy, change the example or add suitable complexity. If you still struggle, review the specific prerequisite and make the step smaller.
Not every topic needs hundreds of cards and questions. Choose what deserves revisiting: a distinction you confuse, a step you get wrong, or a key concept the rest of the work builds on. Connect review to use, not just a completion counter.
You can ask the assistant to suggest a review time based on your availability and the section's difficulty, but a written suggestion is not an actual notification. If you want a reminder, make sure scheduling was created in a supporting tool. Completing the learning task and enabling a reminder are two different steps.
At the end, do something whose solution you have not seen
Our Excel test: another sample file with duplicates, a missing value, and different spellings of a product name. Explain what you will fix and what you need to ask about, then produce each product's total and a clear chart.
- First, do the part you learned yourself.
- Check the output against an answer or calculation you can verify.
- If you used the assistant, record how it helped and what you still cannot do alone.
- Choose the next step based on the error that appeared, not a new course just because you finished a video.
If you have many lectures and files, our Gemini Notebook series explains how to organize, question, and reuse them. Having sources in one place makes them easier to revisit. Your attempts and practice show how you benefited from them.