In my previous inquiry updates, I detailed that I was going to use the same format as before to help guide me through a Japanese midterm exam. Here’s how I did it. I began with a similar prompt to what I had on my previous exam- detailing the test’s format, and the amount of time I had to prepare.

Note: like I mentioned in my previous update, ChatGPT currently doesn’t support images shared in hyperlinks, but I will manually add screenshots from the material we were working through.

The day before the test, my Japanese prof gave me some details on what was on the test: a short story from Japanese folklore that was in the textbook we were using at the time, and a composition where I had to write an RSVP in Japanese. The second I got out of class, I had ChatGPT make a checklist that I could copy-paste to Notion, (shown below) which I use for a lot of my school planning, in tandem with some paper planners to capture info in class.

above: my annotated copy of Tanabata Festival. I highlighted details about each of the story’s characters in a different colour. It’s laid out in a bit of an unconventional format- the story reads right-to-left, and vertically.

The story I had to read was called Tanabata Festival. Quick history lesson: the story’s about Orihime, the daughter of a god named Tentei (referred to as Kami-sama in the text, which is a generic name for a god.) Orihime worked as a weaver, living in the Milky Way with her dad. She was an incredibly hard worker, starting her shifts early in the morning, and finishing work late at night. Later, Tentei decides that since his daughter’s old enough, she should get married- so he finds a farmer on the other of the Milky Way named Hikoboshi, a farmer who had an equally incredible work ethic. Orihime fell in love with him, and they promptly got married. But here’s the kicker- they were so in love with each other they stopped working altogether, against Tentei’s wish. Naturally, Tentei was pissed. So, he forced the two to break up and placed them back on either side of the Milky Way, only allowing them to visit each other every July 7th, which became Tanabata Day in modern-day Japan.

Tanabata Festival was the thing I focused the most on, since reading comprehension was one of my weakpoints when I was preparing for the test- but as I ran through it, I inputted my findings into ChatGPT, which gave me more suggestions on what to look for in the story.

After doing a few runthroughs of the story, I then did a mock test for myself, asking ChatGPT again for feedback on my answer, and what it found was that my answers were correct, but could be simplified.

Above: ChatGPT fact-checking my grammar for my mock test’s answers.

After ironing out my weakpoints, I went through other elements of the plan I was following, sticking with one topic until I felt confident to move on to the next one- sending updates with each part of the plan.

What I learned here was how to plan for tests more effectively and get more done in less time. By following the plan that ChatGPT made, I walked in and out of the test the next morning without a gram of hesitation in my body. I felt like I had a very comprehensive grasp on all the topics that were on the test, and I didn’t encounter anything on it that I didn’t already practice before. Using ChatGPT, I think I’ve found a proven formula on how to study for a test, but I’ll experiment on the next one with writing down a paper copy of it to help retain the test’s format in my head. I’ve found some great success with capturing deadlines on paper, and I want to try the same here. I’ll keep experimenting with my prompting and will update you on the results in my next post.

Here were a few of the mock RSVPs I wrote to get ready for the test.