You’ll get answers WAY better if you fix your prompts
I learned this during one of those college weeks where you have 3 deadlines, 2 unread readings, and somehow your professor thinks you have free time.
I was using NotebookLM for a research paper and kept asking:
“summarize this” “what is this about”
Then I'd read the answer and go, “…okay, but what am I supposed to do with this?”
I blamed the AI for a solid 10 minutes before realizing my prompts were just terrible.
So I started being more specific:
Don't just ask for a summary. Instead of “summarize this,” make it specific like: “Summarize the 5 concepts most important for an exam and explain to someone who has zero knowledge about it, each in simple terms.”
Make it compare things. “Compare these two authors. Identify where they agree, disagree, and what evidence each uses.” Way better than opening 5 PDFs and trying to remember which author said what.
Ask it to find connections. “How are these three concepts related? Use only the sources I uploaded.”
Perfect when your notes feel like 5 unrelated topics thrown into one document.
Turn your sources into practice questions. “Create 5 application-based questions from these materials. Don't show the answers yet.”
Way better than rereading your notes for the 4th time and calling it studying.
Tell it what NOT to do. This is what you need to ALWAYS do. For research, I use: “Use only the provided sources. If the answer isn't supported, say so instead of guessing.”
I had to be specific and explicit with this because I ain’t spending another 20 minutes investigating whether an AI-generated citation actually exists.
Guys, stop asking AI for an answer, and start asking on HOW you should find the answer. Good luck!