Learning anything faster
Turn an assistant into a tutor: explanations pitched at your actual level, a quiz that asks you one question at a time, and a way to find the hole in your understanding before an exam does.
MOVE ONE
Start from what you already know
"Explain X" has one most likely continuation: the standard encyclopedia paragraph, pitched at nobody. Say three things instead: what you already understand, exactly where you lost the thread, and what you tried. Then the explanation has to start at your step instead of step one.
It also helps to name a field you do know: "I'm a nurse, explain it with an example from a hospital." An analogy built on something you already have in your head does half the work.
The same topic, two requests
Weak prompt
"Explain compound interest."
You get the definition, the formula, and an example with numbers that don't mean anything to you. You've read this before. That was the problem.
Improved prompt
"I can do percentages fine. What I don't get is why compound interest grows so slowly at first and then so fast. Show me one savings account year by year for 10 years, no formula, and point at the year where it changes."
One confusion, one shape, one example you can follow on paper.
Check yourself
Pouya has asked "explain p-value" three times and keeps getting the same textbook paragraph. Which move actually unsticks him?
- Ask a fourth time, but add "explain it like I'm five years old"
- Ask a second assistant the same question and compare the two explanations
- Tell it exactly which sentence confuses him and ask for that part only, with a coin-flip example
- Ask it to act as a university professor of statistics with thirty years of teaching experience, then explain again
Show the answer
Tell it exactly which sentence confuses him and ask for that part only, with a coin-flip example
Yes. The same question gets the same kind of answer. Naming the exact point where he loses the thread changes what a fitting answer can be.
MOVE TWO
Make it ask you
Reading an explanation feels like learning. Being asked feels harder, and that's exactly the point. Pulling something out of your own memory is what makes it available later, much more than reading it again. This is called retrieval practice, and it's one of the steadiest findings in research on studying.
One instruction decides whether this works: one question at a time, and wait for my answer. Without it you get ten questions with ten answers underneath, and you've just read another page.
I'm studying the water cycle for an exam next week. Quiz me.
Rules:
- One question at a time, then wait for my answer.
- Mix short recall questions with "explain why" ones.
- After each answer tell me what was right and what was missing, then ask the next one.
- After 10 questions, name the 2 things I should study again.Question 1 of 10: Water leaves the sea and later falls as rain over land, sometimes hundreds of kilometres away. What moves it from one place to the other?
Type your answer and I'll tell you what was missing before the next question.The last rule is the one people skip. A short list of your weak spots at the end is worth more than any score.
Check yourself
Reading a clear explanation three times is a better use of an hour than reading it once and then being tested on it.
Show the answer
False
Re-reading feels effective because the text gets easier each time, but that's familiarity, not memory. Being asked forces you to produce the idea yourself, which is what makes it available when you need it. Read once, then get quizzed.
MOVE THREE
Explain it back and let it find the holes
The fastest way to find what you don't understand is to explain it to someone. Type your own version, in your own clumsy words, and ask: what's wrong, what did I leave out, and where was I vague? Vagueness is the useful one. A sentence you wrote loosely is almost always a place you don't actually follow.
This is often called the Feynman technique, after the physicist: if you can't say it in plain words, you haven't understood it yet.
I'm going to explain inflation in my own words. Don't be kind about it. Tell me:
1. anything factually wrong,
2. anything important I left out,
3. any sentence where I was vague and was probably hiding confusion.
My explanation: Inflation is when the government prints money, so prices go up and your salary buys less.1. Partly wrong: printing money is one possible cause, not the definition. Inflation is a general rise in prices over time; it can also come from costs rising or demand outrunning supply.
2. Missing: it's a rate measured over a period, usually a year. "Prices went up" isn't inflation until you say by how much and over how long.
3. Vague: "your salary buys less" is the right instinct with the step skipped. If prices rise and your salary doesn't, the same money buys less.Three minutes of typing, three holes found. The second one is the kind of gap that quietly ruins exam answers.
Check yourself
Elham has one hour before her biology exam. Which of these really test her, and which only feel productive?
- Writing the answer from memory, then checking it
- Reading her highlighted notes one more time
- Explaining the process in her own words and asking what she missed
- Asking for a tidy summary and reading it twice
- Being asked 10 questions, one at a time
- Making the summary look nicer with colours
Show the answer
Really tests you: Writing the answer from memory, then checking it, Explaining the process in her own words and asking what she missed, Being asked 10 questions, one at a time
Only feels productive: Reading her highlighted notes one more time, Asking for a tidy summary and reading it twice, Making the summary look nicer with colours
Check yourself
Match what you want to the instruction that gets it
Show the answer
- An explanation pitched at you → "Here's what I already know and here's where I got lost."
- Something that's still there tomorrow → "Quiz me, one question at a time, and wait for my answer."
- To find your own blind spots → "I'll explain it. Tell me what's wrong, missing or vague."
- Answers your course will accept → "Use only the chapter I pasted. Don't add anything from outside it."
A 25-minute session on one topic
- 0–3 min · Say where you are
"I'm studying X. I understand A and B. I got stuck at C. Explain only C, with an everyday example."
- 3–8 min · Read it once, then close it
Once. Re-reading is where the hour quietly disappears.
- 8–13 min · Explain it back
Type your own version from memory and ask what's wrong, missing or vague. Fix the holes.
- 13–22 min · Get quizzed
Ten questions, one at a time, feedback after each. Mix recall with "explain why".
- 22–25 min · Write down the two weak spots
Ask which two things need another look, and put them at the top of tomorrow's session.
Check yourself
Maryam is learning to read a balance sheet for her bakery. She asks for an explanation, reads it twice, and feels she understands. What should she do before deciding she has learned it?
- Ask for a longer, more detailed explanation
- Close it, write her own explanation of what each part means, and ask what she got wrong
- Ask the assistant whether she has understood it properly
- Ask for the same explanation once more with a different example, to be sure the first one was right
Show the answer
Close it, write her own explanation of what each part means, and ask what she got wrong
Yes. Feeling clear while the text is in front of you is the easiest thing in the world. Producing it from memory is the real test, and whatever she can't produce is exactly what to study.
Lesson recap
- Say what you already know and exactly where you got lost, so the explanation starts at your step.
- Make it quiz you: one question at a time, wait for the answer, feedback after each, weak spots at the end.
- Explain the idea back in your own words and ask what's wrong, missing or vague.
- For a course, paste your own notes and study from those; where they disagree with the assistant, your material wins.