Become A Top 1% Learner With These 5 Evidence-Based ChatGPT Prompts
I'm going to be walking through 5 ChatGPT prompts I've engineered that can help you to become a top 1% speed learner at any skill.
I've mapped theses super-prompts to the steps that our brains use to learn anything including attention, encoding, active recall and storage and they all feature evidence-based learning techniques to help you learn faster and more effectively.
Learn how to learn: Analyse My Learning Style Study Coach
Okay so prompt number one is a bit of a meta prompt as it helps you to learn how to learn and more than that it actually analyses where you are in the skill or subject that you're learning and gives you an actionable plan to optimize your learning.
There are lots of how to learn tutorials on YouTube but everyone learns a little bit differently and the best study routine is often the one that works best for you.
So rather than watching all of my evidence-based learning series and then fitting it around your learning needs I've built a super-prompt that turns ChatGPT into your own learning coach who will break down your current problems like procrastination or difficulty with certain topics and then outputs a personalized learning plan with coaching advice to turn you into a top 1% learner.
Let's run through the prompt in detail:
// Example//
You are a learning coach who specializes in helping anyone to learn faster using evidence-based learning techniques. Only respond as if I am one of your clients who is seeking advice.
Your tone should be friendly, kind, supportive, and thoughtful.
Ask me one question at a time and wait for my response before asking the next. Do not ask all questions at once.
Ask me four to six distinct questions to gather information about the issue I'm having with studying and learning and to learn about how I study at the moment.
Gather this information from all questions before summarizing my issues.
Only ask one question at a time and take my responses to those questions into account when asking your next question. After my response has been submitted, ask the next question (and wait for my reply to ask the next one). After each response, summarize what you are hearing to make sure you understand me before asking your next question.
Once you have received all of my responses, summarize the issue from my perspective and provide a 4 week study plan tailored to me and my issue that helps me to learn faster and more effectively using evidence-based techniques.
You can tweak this prompt as you like swapping up the study schedule or number of coaching questions and you can be really specific around the current problems you're facing when learning anything.
Feel free to share the coaching advice your ChatGPT learning coach gives you in the comments below or on socials and tag me in as I'd love to see just how creative you can be when trying out the prompt yourself.
Encoding: Mnemonic Generator
Prompt number two focuses on the encoding step of learning. I have some great videos on encoding but as a quick refresher encoding is just the process by which information is put into our memory. It's the act of moving information from the temporary store in our working memory into the permanent store in our long-term memory. You can think of it a bit like how files are organized in folders on your computer when saved to the hard drive.
To better encode information and learn more effectively we want to link new information to what we already know and make it organized and easy to recall later on. One really effective way to do this that is to use mnemonics which can be easy to remember acronyms or rhymes like HOMES for remembering the great lakes in North America or like Every Amateur Does Get Better Eventually for the strings on a guitar. The problem with mnemonics is that unless they exist already they can be hard to construct and made relevant to what you're learning.
Luckily ChatGPT can help you out here. We can use the following prompt to quickly create a selection of word-based mnemonics that help us to more easily encode and remember information for longer.
// Example//
Topic: [Mitosis]
You are a study expert.
I will give you a specific topic that I'm currently studying and then you will respond with an easy to remember mnemonic to help me better encode that information.
Mnemonics should make sense and be humorous and easy to remember.
Break down the topic and simplify if necessary.
Output mnemonics in a table.
You can then select a mnemonic that jumps out at you for whatever you're learning and boost that encoding step.
Active Recall: Multiple Choice Question Generator
Active recall is one of the most effective evidence-based learning techniques out there with tonnes of studies supporting its ability to help you learn faster and more effectively than passive techniques.
The problem with active recall is that creating your own active learning tasks to test yourself can be time-consuming and paid testing or coaching resources can be expensive.
Step in ChatGPT. We can use the following prompt to build out a fun real-time self-testing system to quickly test our knowledge of whatever we're learning.
// Example//
Topic: [Biology]
You are a studying expert.
Please ask me a series of active recall questions on the above topic.
Ask me only one question at a time and wait for my answer.
Do not ask multiple questions at once.
Questions can be of the format: [multiple choice]
When I get a question correct make the next question harder.
When I get a question wrong make the next question easier.
After my answer tell me whether it is correct or incorrect and provide an example correct answer with an explanation. Then move on to the next question.
Begin by asking me the first question.
After each question ChatGPT will provide an explanation and remember you can edit the bracketed variables in the prompt to change the topic and the question type to personalize things to whatever skill you're learning.
Spacing Schedule
Sticking with the retrieval and rehearsal steps of how we learn this prompt helps you to build out a personalized spaced-repetition schedule to help you retain information for longer.
As we know from the forgetting curve if we don't re-test ourselves or practice a skill at regular spaced-out intervals ours brains gradually forget things.
The problem with spacing schedules is that depend on what you're learning and how long you need to remember the information for which can cause confusion around the best spacing intervals to use.
ChatGPT can save you some time here by constructing a spcing schedule for you. The more information you add in here the more accurate and specific the schedule will be. For example if we're studying for an exam we can use the prompt:
// Example//
Exam: [USMLE Step 1]
Time to exam: [12 weeks]
You are an expert in studying and learning.
Provide a spaced repetition schedule for the above exam within the above timeframe.
Use the best spacing schedule for the time to the exam.
Output the schedule in a table with topics and dates that I can follow to study.
Just output the study schedule nothing else.
ChatGPT will then produce a spacing schedule with review dates and you can edit the prompt to follow a specific spacing interval such as re-testing on days 1, 3, 7, 21 and 30 .
Health and Time: GPTNutrition
Effective learning isn't just about learning how to learn. There is lots of evidence that our general health and in particular what we eat plays an important role in helping us to stay focused and to consolidate memories.
Unfortunately nutrition isn't taught particularly well in schools and even if you've watched some of my videos on foods and nutrients that boost our brain's ability to learn shopping and meal-prepping can take ages so we end up defaulting to quick, unhealthy options when we're focused on trying to learn as quickly as possible.
To help you out I built a ChatGPT super-prompt using my CRAFT framework for prompt engineering that turns ChatGPT into your personal nutritionist who will not only a healthy meal plan for the week to help you stay focused and learn effectively but will even provide you with a list of ingredients to shop for and the recipe steps for each meal.
// Example//
Context
You are a nutritionist and personal trainer who helps people transform their bodies and live fitter, happier, healthier lives
Apply these skills to the request: nutrition, physiology, biochemistry, psychology, epidemiology, cuisine, chef
Request
Generate a custom meal plan
Actions:
Create a meal plan following the below rules
Length: [7 day plan]
Daily calorie goal: [2700]
Approximate daily macros: 55% carbs, 20% fat, 25% protein
Protein Type (keto, low-carb, paleo, vegan, gluten-free, Mediterranean, etc): [Keto]
Effort and time: [Prepares in under 25 minutes; cooks in under 1 hour]
Favorite foods: [Mexican food]
Avoid foods/Allergies: [Dairy]
Frame
Use only ingredients commonly available at a regular grocery store
Include the following:
- Meal plan with names of all dishes organized by day and a breakdown of the macronutrients for each meal (carbs, fat and protein)
- Shopping list of ingredients for each meal
- Recipe list in order. Recipes should be as short as possible.
Template
Output the meal plan in a table and then the shopping list and recipe list in markdown with headings, bullet points, **bold**