I have some terrible news; the reading break is officially over, and the blitzkrieg all the way to final exams has officially begun at UVIC. While I’m on the topic of intense, nonstop studying, I had a major exam in my Japanese course to get ready for in mid-February. I have a tendency to plan for tests, but forget to stick to my plan and sometimes fall behind schedule.

During my quest to remain on top of all the material, I tried running an experiment: I asked ChatGPT to generate a study plan for me while I was doing some final review the day before the test, with details on what I should focus on for each hour as I went.

Editor’s note: normally, I’d insert a direct link to the conversation with my ChatGPT instance, but it currently doesn’t work since I uploaded an image of what the test was going to be- which is unsupported by its shareable links. So, screenshots will have to do until it gets updated to support them.

I was surprised at how easy the plan was to follow; all I had to do was set a few alarms to mark what to study. In between each topic that I was reviewing, I kept looking back at my schedule to ensure I was on track- and often I was. The only time I was a few minutes behind schedule was to focus on weak points in my skills studying Japanese. (Which at the time, was grammar and placement of the different particles, or modifiers in a sentence– with repetition, I slowly got better at it.)

Starting my study session around 1:00 PM, I spent the whole day comprehensively reviewing the exam’s material according to the format- only taking breaks to eat or shower.

During the final phases of review, which were mostly vocabulary and mock tests, I tried asking ChatGPT to make some mock tests for me, which didn’t work out since the model is trained mostly on data in English. However, using Quizlet, I organized some flashcards in bulk into a folder and ran some mock tests myself- writing down the purposes of each particle on paper.

I did learn through this experiment that if you provide them the context needed to help guide you through it chatbots can make an incredibly helpful study partner. I walked in and out of the exam with full confidence that I came in prepared. There was almost nothing on the test that I didn’t already encounter during my final review. This was partially because I gave updates ChatGPT with what I managed to do and how I felt going into the test, which doubled as both feedback and some much-needed motivation.

Above: a few of my conversations with ChatGPT about how my review process went.

Of course, I can always improve this method with time and practice, and I have a perfect opportunity to refine my GenAI coaching methods- since my Japanese midterms are coming up this week. I’ll give you an update on how preparations for my midterms went this week.