Free Education with ChatGPT

 Unless you have been living under a rock, it is hard to ignore the rise of ChatGPT and its impressive capabilities, self-guided learning being one of the opportunities it unlocks. With its vast knowledge base, ChatGPT can help people easily navigate the overwhelming experience of learning a new skill or topic. The key is being able to ask questions effectively.


I'd like to share some principles and techniques (prompts) I find useful to help you embark on your journey and fully immerse yourself in the experience, whether you're a beginner or an expert. 


❇️ Feynman Technique: just like how Einstein put it - if you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself. It is an important technique to ask ChatGPT to "explain a topic in simplest terms, as if teaching it to a complete beginner". This technique can also help you gauge your own understanding of a topic.

❇️ Pareto Principle (a.k.a 80/20 rule): the principle suggests that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. By asking ChatGPT to "identify 20% of topics to a subject area that will provide 80% of the yield", you can quickly gain solid insights.

❇️ Learning Modalities: everyone learns differently, so it’s important to consider different learning modalities. You can ask ChatGPT to "suggest various learning materials, such as videos, books, podcasts, interactive exercises for a topic" that best suit your personal learning style.

❇️ Building Mental Models: we understand and abstract the world by forming mental models. You can ask ChatGPT to "provide mental models to a specific topic" to help you get an upper hand, and pave a way to understand the key concepts.

❇️ Interleaving: studies suggest interleaving different topics within a subject area leads to better long-term retention and the ability to transfer learned knowledge. You can ask ChatGPT to "generate an interleaving study plan that mixes various topics within a subject area" to build a robust understanding over time.

❇️ Spaced Repetition: it is a powerful way to combat the forgetting curve. You can use ChatGPT to "design a spaced repetition schedule to review the topic at optimal intervals" in order to maximise retention.

❇️ Active Recall: to complete the effort spent learning the topic, you can ask ChatGPT to "generate a series of challenging questions or problems related to the topic" to test your knowledge, recall and reinforce your understanding.


With these frameworks and techniques, ChatGPT can serve as a powerful mentor and assistant in your learning journey. Albeit, you are still in charge of your own learning and ultimately responsible for it. So, happy learning.

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