Study & Research Assistant

The Problem

Studying is time-consuming and often inefficient. You read through pages of notes or textbook chapters, but retaining the information requires active recall: making summaries, creating flashcards, and testing yourself. An AI agent can do the heavy lifting: transforming your raw material into structured study tools.

What we’re building: An agent that takes lecture notes, articles, or textbook excerpts and produces study guides, practice questions, simplified explanations, and flashcards.

The Approach

Our study assistant will:

Accept any learning material (notes, articles, textbook passages)
Generate concise summaries highlighting key concepts
Create practice questions with answers for self-testing
Explain difficult concepts in simpler terms
Produce flashcard-ready Q&A pairs

Build It

Step 1: Set up your system prompt

Create a Project on claude.ai with the system prompt below. You can also upload PDFs or documents directly into the Project for the agent to reference.

Create a Modelfile:

FROM llama3.2
SYSTEM """<paste system prompt below>"""

Run: ollama create study-assistant -f Modelfile

The system prompt:

You are a study assistant and tutor. You help students learn effectively
by transforming their notes and materials into active learning tools.

When given study material, provide the following:

1. SUMMARY (3-5 bullet points)
   - Identify the key concepts and main ideas
   - Use simple, clear language
   - Highlight relationships between concepts

2. KEY TERMS
   - List important terms with brief definitions
   - Mark terms that are likely to appear on exams with ⭐

3. PRACTICE QUESTIONS (5 questions)
   - Mix of types: 2 multiple choice, 2 short answer, 1 explain-in-your-own-words
   - Include answers at the end, separated by a line
   - Questions should test understanding, not just memorization

4. FLASHCARDS (5-8 pairs)
   - Format: Q: [question] | A: [answer]
   - Keep answers concise (1-2 sentences)
   - Focus on concepts students commonly confuse or forget

5. SIMPLIFIED EXPLANATION
   - Re-explain the hardest concept from the material as if talking to someone
     with no background in the subject
   - Use analogies and everyday examples

Guidelines:
- Never make up facts that aren't in the source material
- If the material is unclear or incomplete, say so
- Adapt difficulty to the apparent level (high school, university, professional)
- When asked "explain like I'm 10," use very simple language and fun comparisons

Step 2: Test with sample material

Try pasting this text and asking for a study guide:

Here are my notes from today's economics class about supply and demand:

Supply and demand determines prices in a market. When demand goes up and
supply stays the same, prices rise. When supply goes up and demand stays
the same, prices fall. The equilibrium price is where supply equals demand.

Factors that shift demand: consumer income, tastes/preferences, price of
related goods (substitutes and complements), expectations about future
prices, number of buyers.

Factors that shift supply: input costs, technology, government policies
(taxes/subsidies), number of sellers, expectations about future prices.

Price elasticity measures how sensitive quantity demanded is to price
changes. Elastic = big change in quantity when price changes. Inelastic =
small change in quantity when price changes. Examples: luxury goods tend
to be elastic, necessities tend to be inelastic.

Step 3: Try different study modes

Test these follow-up requests:

“Give me 5 more practice questions, harder this time”
“Explain price elasticity like I’m 10 years old”
“Create a comparison table: elastic vs. inelastic goods”
“What are the most likely exam questions from this material?”
“Quiz me — ask me one question at a time and tell me if I’m right”

Test It

Try with your own real study material:

Paste notes from a recent class or lecture
Copy a section from a textbook or article you need to study
Paste a Wikipedia article on a topic you want to learn
Upload a PDF (on platforms that support it, like Claude Projects)

Make It Better

Add your course context: “I’m studying for a Microeconomics midterm” helps the agent focus on what matters
Request specific formats: “Create a mind map outline” or “Make a timeline of events”
Build a study schedule: “I have an exam in 5 days. Create a day-by-day study plan from these notes”
Cumulative review: Paste notes from multiple classes and ask: “What themes connect these topics?”

Sample Output

Here’s a partial example of what your agent should produce from the economics notes:

## Summary
- Supply and demand is the core mechanism that sets prices in markets
- Price moves up when demand exceeds supply, and down when supply exceeds demand
- The equilibrium price is the "sweet spot" where supply and demand balance
- Multiple factors can shift both supply and demand curves independently
- Price elasticity measures how much buyers change their behavior when prices change

## Key Terms
- **Equilibrium price** — the price where supply equals demand ⭐
- **Price elasticity** — how sensitive quantity demanded is to price changes ⭐
- **Elastic demand** — quantity changes a lot when price changes (e.g., luxury goods)
- **Inelastic demand** — quantity barely changes when price changes (e.g., medicine) ⭐
- **Substitutes** — goods that can replace each other (Coke vs. Pepsi)
- **Complements** — goods used together (phones and phone cases)

## Practice Questions

**1. (Multiple Choice)** If the price of coffee rises significantly and the
quantity demanded drops by only 2%, coffee demand is:
a) Elastic  b) Inelastic  c) Unit elastic  d) Perfectly elastic

**2. (Short Answer)** Name three factors that can shift the demand curve
and give an example of each.

**3. (Explain)** In your own words, explain why the equilibrium price is
important and what happens when a price is set above or below it.

[Answers at the end...]

Troubleshooting

The practice questions are too easy. Add context about your level: “I’m a second-year university student. Make questions exam-level difficulty. Include questions that require applying concepts to new scenarios, not just recalling definitions.”

The agent adds information not in your notes. Reinforce the grounding rule: “ONLY use information from the material I provide. If a concept is mentioned but not explained, flag it as ‘mentioned but not defined in your notes, look this up.’”

Flashcards are too wordy. Add: “Flashcard answers must be 10 words or fewer. If a concept needs more explanation, split it into multiple flashcards.”

The simplified explanations are still too complex. Try: “Explain this using only words a 10-year-old would know. Use an analogy from everyday life, like sports, cooking, or shopping.”

Free Tools to Enhance This Project

Anki: Free flashcard app with spaced repetition. Copy your AI-generated flashcards here for scientifically optimized review timing.
Quizlet: Free tier for creating and sharing flashcard sets. Has a mobile app for studying on the go.
Notion: Free for personal use. Build a study wiki by saving organized notes and study guides from each session.

Making It Better Over Time

Track what you get wrong: After a quiz or exam, tell the agent: “I got questions about elasticity wrong. Give me 10 more practice questions focused on elasticity, increasing in difficulty.”
Build a personal glossary: Over the semester, ask the agent to maintain a running glossary of all terms you’ve studied. Paste it at the start of each session.
Add exam feedback: “I scored 78% on the midterm. I struggled with graph interpretation. Adjust future study materials to include more graph-based questions.”