# AI tutor prompts: make ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini teach you at your level

> An AI tutor prompt tells a chat app to ask one question at a time, wait for your answer, then explain what you understood and what to review next. OpenAI Academy publishes one you can copy. Add your level and notes, then paste it into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. OpenAI wrote it for its own plugin, and Mindket did not run it in all three.

Mindket editors · Published 2026-11-06 · Updated 2026-11-06 · https://mindket.com/learn/learn-with-ai/ai-tutor-prompts

## In short

- Write your level into the first message, so the app does not guess it.
- Answer in full sentences, because a one-word reply gives the tutor nothing to correct.
- Ask for a hint when you are stuck, not for the answer.
- Close each session by asking what to review next.

## A tutor prompt from OpenAI Academy

OpenAI Academy's [guide to its College Student plugin](https://academy.openai.com/public/clubs/higher-education-05x4z/blogs/college-student-plugin-interactive-study-materials), published on 4 August 2026, gives this starter prompt for a guided tutoring session. Its first words, @College Student, call a plugin that OpenAI says you use in ChatGPT Work or Codex. In any other chat, leave them out and paste your notes where it says "the course materials I selected".

Read it clause by clause. It names one thing to learn, asks for one question at a time, tells the app to wait, then asks for feedback and a next step.

````text
@College Student tutor me on [section or concept] using the course materials I selected. Ask one question at a time, wait for my answer, and then explain what I understood and what I should revisit. Finish by creating five interactive flashcards and a short retrieval-practice check based on the concepts I found most difficult.
````

> Copied from OpenAI Academy, "Use the College Student Plugin to Create Interactive Study Materials for Your Courses", read on 6 November 2026.

## Say your level and what you already know

The OpenAI prompt never says who you are, so the app has to guess how much you know. Two sentences fix that. Below is the same idea with your level added, plus one request the OpenAI wording leaves out: explaining the idea back in your own words.

The wording is Mindket's own. It is built from the phrases in the table further down and from the pattern Anthropic's coding study rewarded, asking to understand rather than asking for the finished work.

````text
Teach me [topic]. I am a [beginner / second-year student / working professional] and I already know [what you know]. What confuses me is [the part you are stuck on].
Use plain words and one everyday example. Ask me one question at a time and wait for my answer before you go on. If I am wrong, give me a hint before the answer. Use only the notes I pasted below, and quote the line you rely on.
When we have covered the main points, ask me to explain the idea back in my own words. Then tell me what I got right and what I should review next.

[paste your notes here]
````

## Use it in six steps

1. **Pick one concept.** A section of a chapter is plenty. OpenAI's prompt asks for "a section or concept", not a whole course.
2. **Fill the brackets and paste your notes.** Leave no bracket in the message, because the app will treat "[topic]" as the topic.
3. **Answer in sentences.** Write "I think it is X because Y" and not just "X". The tutor can only correct what you say.
4. **When you are stuck, type "hint only, no answer".** Typing "tell me" ends the exercise.
5. **After about five questions, ask for the review.** Type "What did I get wrong, and what should I review next?"
6. **Check one explanation against your notes or textbook.** OpenAI Academy says to check explanations against the assigned sources and not to assume a grounded answer is correct.

## What each part of the prompt does

| Part | Say it like this | What it keeps from happening |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Your level | "I am a beginner and I already know [x]" | An explanation pitched above or below you |
| Pace | "Ask one question at a time" | A wall of ten questions at once |
| Waiting | "wait for my answer" | The app answering its own question |
| Feedback | "explain what I understood and what I should revisit" | Praise with no direction |
| Grounding | "Only use the reading I uploaded" | Facts that come from the model's memory, not your notes |
| Blind spots | "Tell me what a student might misunderstand after reading this too quickly" | A confident misreading you never notice |

## Nearly half of student chats ask for the answer

Nobody has to write a tutor prompt, and many students go straight for the answer. In an education report published on 8 April 2025, Anthropic looked at about one million anonymized Claude.ai conversations from accounts with university email addresses, within an 18-day window. It kept the 574,740 that it judged relevant to students and academic work, such as coursework or research. The report does not name a model. Nearly half were what Anthropic calls Direct: the student wanted an answer or content with minimal engagement.

Anthropic adds that many of those chats serve real learning, such as a conceptual question or a study guide. It also raises the worry that students offload the thinking itself. A tutor prompt is the smallest change that puts the thinking back with you.

**How students used Claude over 18 days**

- **47%** of student conversations sought answers or content with minimal engagement (Source: [Anthropic: How University Students Use Claude](https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-education-report-how-university-students-use-claude), read 2026-11-06)
- **574,740** student conversations analyzed after filtering for student and academic relevance (Source: [Anthropic: How University Students Use Claude](https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-education-report-how-university-students-use-claude), read 2026-11-06)

## ChatGPT's study mode was a prompt too

On the day OpenAI launched study mode, Simon Willison, a co-creator of the Django web framework, posted that it appeared to be implemented entirely as a carefully crafted system prompt. A system prompt is the standing instruction a model receives before your first message, and the [system prompt lesson](https://mindket.com/learn/prompt-engineering/system-prompt) explains it.

If a mode is a prompt, a prompt you paste at the top of a chat can ask for the same kind of teaching. That is the idea behind this lesson.

> appears to be entirely implemented as a carefully crafted system prompt
>
> Simon Willison, Co-creator of Django, [X](https://x.com/simonw/status/1950277554025484768) (read 2026-11-06)

[![Simon Willison (@simonw) on X, 29 July 2025: The new ChatGPT "study mode" feature appears to be entirely implemented as a carefully crafted system prompt. Thankfully OpenAI mostly don't take measures to protect those these days so it's easy to extract it and see how it works.](https://mindket.com/blog/shots/x-simonw-study-mode-system-prompt.webp?v=e49565730064)](https://x.com/simonw/status/1950277554025484768)

Simon Willison on X, 29 July 2025

> A screenshot of X's own embed of the post, taken on 6 November 2026, with the time in UTC. Select it to open the post on X.

## Common mistakes

- Leaving the brackets in. The app then teaches you "[topic]" and nothing else.
- Answering with one word. The tutor has nothing to correct, so the session turns back into a lecture.
- Letting the tutor and your notes disagree. Look the point up before you trust either, as the [hallucinations lesson](https://mindket.com/learn/ai-basics/ai-hallucinations) explains.
- Skipping the closing question. Without "what should I review next", you finish with a feeling instead of a list.

## Try it yourself

- Take three paragraphs from a textbook, fill in the second prompt with your real level, and run five questions.
- Run it a second time with a harder level, such as "second-year student", and note what changes in the questions.
- Save your best version in a notes app. Next time you only change the topic and the pasted notes.

## Next: quizzes and flashcards

A tutor teaches new material. To make it stick, you need to be tested on it later. [Quizzes and flashcards](https://mindket.com/learn/learn-with-ai/ai-quizzes-flashcards) turns your notes into both.

## Check yourself

1. Which line in a tutor prompt stops the app from answering its own question?

   A. Use plain words
   B. Wait for my answer
   C. Finish with five flashcards

   Answer: B. Telling the app to wait for your answer keeps it from supplying the answer itself, and OpenAI Academy's prompt says exactly that.

2. Why does the prompt in this lesson include your level and what you already know?

   A. The app has to guess how much you know otherwise
   B. Free accounts require it
   C. It makes the app answer faster
   D. It switches on a study mode

   Answer: A. The OpenAI prompt never says who you are, so a sentence about your level and what you know lets the app pitch its questions right.

3. You want the tutor to stay on your uploaded reading. Which phrase from OpenAI Academy does that?

   A. Create five interactive flashcards
   B. Tell me what I should revisit
   C. Only use the reading I uploaded

   Answer: C. OpenAI Academy suggests "Only use the reading I uploaded" to anchor an answer more tightly to your material.

4. In Anthropic's look at student conversations with Claude, roughly how many were Direct, seeking answers with little back and forth?

   A. About 5%
   B. Nearly half, about 47%
   C. About 95%

   Answer: B. Anthropic reported about 47% of the 574,740 student conversations it analyzed as Direct.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a good prompt for an AI tutor?

A good one is short and has four jobs. It names the topic, says who you are, sets the pace of the questions and ends with a review list. The second prompt in this lesson does all four.

### Can I make ChatGPT act like a tutor?

You can ask for it in a prompt. Ethan Mollick wrote on 12 May 2026 that you can prompt a model to be a good tutor, but most people don't know to do that. Simon Willison noted on 29 July 2025 that ChatGPT's own study mode appeared to be implemented as a system prompt. How closely an app follows your prompt can differ, so read the first two questions it asks.

### Do tutor prompts work in Claude and Gemini too?

They are written in plain language, so you can paste one into any chat app. OpenAI Academy wrote the starter prompt for its own ChatGPT plugin. None of the sources for this lesson tests it in Claude or Gemini, so read the first two questions the app asks and adjust. Claude's Learning style and Gemini's Guided Learning are those apps' own built-in ways to learn step by step, with no prompt to write.

### How do I stop the AI giving me the answer straight away?

Give it a hint rule, such as "If I am wrong, give me a hint before the answer". If it slips anyway, reply "hint only, no answer". Keep your first reply to a full sentence, so it has something to react to.

### Can I trust what an AI tutor teaches me?

Not without a check. Pick one claim per session and look it up in your notes or textbook. A smooth explanation can still be wrong, and a tutor prompt does not change that.

## Sources

- [OpenAI Academy: Use the College Student Plugin to Create Interactive Study Materials](https://academy.openai.com/public/clubs/higher-education-05x4z/blogs/college-student-plugin-interactive-study-materials) (read 2026-11-06)
- [OpenAI Academy: Turn Readings and Notes into Study Materials](https://academy.openai.com/public/clubs/higher-education-05x4z/blogs/turn-readings-and-notes-into-study-materials-2026-05-18) (read 2026-11-06)
- [Anthropic: How University Students Use Claude](https://www.anthropic.com/research/anthropic-education-report-how-university-students-use-claude) (read 2026-11-06)
- [Anthropic: Introducing Claude for Education](https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-claude-for-education) (read 2026-11-06)
- [Simon Willison (@simonw) on X: study mode as a system prompt](https://x.com/simonw/status/1950277554025484768) (read 2026-11-06)
- [Ethan Mollick (@emollick) on X: tutor prompts and Study Mode](https://x.com/emollick/status/2054289201055871160) (read 2026-11-06)
- [Wikipedia: Simon Willison (co-creator of Django)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Willison) (read 2026-11-06)

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