Make a study guide with AI

What is a study guide?

A study guide is designed to help you review and understand your course material, typically for an upcoming test or exam. Unlike general notes, study guides are more comprehensive and usually include overviews of large amounts of information. Every study guide looks slightly different, but most include:

• An outline of the information
• Summaries of primary and secondary topics
• Definitions and examples
• Practice questions and answers
• Visuals

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How to make your study guide with AI

Start creating your study guide by reviewing your notes, summarizing the information, and organizing everything into a clear, easy-to-understand structure. Instead of synthesizing the information manually, ask AI to summarize your material and highlight key points. Use these or your own AI prompts to try it out:

• Organize the following into a clear hierarchy. Summarize the information into a bulleted list of key points. [notes]
• I’m creating a study guide on [subject]. Based on my notes, create a summary of the primary and secondary topics I need to include.
• Summarize the information in the following PDFs into a few sentences: [PDFs].
• Read this research article and highlight the main points in scannable notes.

Create your outline

Now that you’ve reviewed your notes, create a study guide outline with placeholders for relevant information. Tailor your study guide sections to match your priorities or learning style. Ask your generative AI tool to create a study guide outline with prompts like these:

• Make an outline of what’s typically included in a study guide for advanced calculus.
• Organize the information I’ve summarized into a study guide outline with the following: [sections].
• What sections should I include in my study guide for [subject]? Create an initial outline based on your answer.
• How can I organize my notes in a logical way for a study guide on [subject]?

Add visuals and practice questions

Once you’ve drafted your study guide, add finishing touches and final sections. If you’re a visual learner, include a section with visual aids like graphs and charts to enhance your memory. Want to track your progress? Create a section with practice questions to test your knowledge and see which areas need improvement. Generate visuals, practice test questions, and images with the following example prompts:

• Generate a table based on the following information: [notes]. Create additional visual aids, like a pie chart or graph, to make it easier to interpret and memorize the data.
• Create a chart based on the relationship between [key point] and [key point].
• What’s the best way to convey the following in a study guide? [data]
• Locate a diagram for my study guide that depicts the process of mitosis.

AI study guide makers simplify the process of creating a comprehensive overview of your material. In addition to AI tools, streamline your workflows with Microsoft 365 for free.