Full topic summary for exam revision
Professional structure: role, context, objective, details, steps, format, criteria and self-check. Designed for better results, not guaranteed ones: always review the answer.
Never use real personal data. If you need to, run it through the data cleaner.
## Role Act as a teacher who is an expert in study techniques. ## Context I have long notes and need to revise a topic for an exam. ## Objective Create a structured summary and questions to check what I have learnt. ## Details (fill in what is in square brackets) - [notes or text of the topic] - [type of exam: multiple choice, essay or oral] - [level: GCSE, A level, university or professional exam] ## Step-by-step instructions 1. Identify the main and secondary ideas. 2. Organise the summary into hierarchical sections. 3. Add an example for each difficult concept. 4. Finish with ten revision questions suited to the exam type. ## Output format Summary with headings and bullets, a short glossary and questions with answers at the end. ## Quality criteria - It only uses information from my notes and marks anything it adds. - It is no longer than a quarter of the original text. - The questions cover the whole topic. ## Self-check Before answering, check every quality criterion. If information is missing, ask me instead of making it up, and at the end state what you have assumed.
Try it here
Open model · not frontier
This tester runs on Gemma 4 26B (Google), an open-weights model served by Cloudflare. It is not a frontier model like the paid versions of ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude: it is faster and more modest, and it will sometimes get things wrong. It shows how a good prompt behaves, not what the most advanced AI can do. Paste the prompt into your usual assistant for its best version.
Fill in the details and try the prompt with an open model without leaving the page.
Objective
Create a structured summary and questions to check what I have learnt.
When to use it
This prompt is brilliant when you are drowning in dense lecture notes and need to distill them into manageable, exam-ready revision material. It works best for consolidating complex topics like history or biology. However, it is less useful for subjects that rely heavily on procedural practice, such as pure mathematics or coding syntax, where you simply need to solve problems repeatedly rather than summarise theory. Use it to clarify your understanding before moving on to active recall practice.
Worked example: input (fictional data)
Worked example: full response
Variants
Quick Revision
Strip away all examples and glossary terms. Focus purely on a concise bulleted list of the top five most critical facts from the notes provided. Ensure the output is under 200 words and tailored for a quick review session just before entering the exam room.
University Level Depth
Adopt a more critical, academic tone. Instead of simple summaries, analyse the underlying arguments and causal relationships within the text. Include a section on potential scholarly debates or multiple perspectives on the topic, suitable for an undergraduate level exam where critical thinking is essential for top marks.
Flashcard Style
Reformat the entire output into a list of specific 'Question and Answer' pairs. Each pair should focus on a discrete fact or concept from the notes. Ensure there are exactly twenty questions, designed to test memory retrieval rather than conceptual understanding, perfect for rapid-fire self-testing.
Common mistakes
- Revising only from the summary without understanding the topic.
- Not checking dates and facts against your notes.
- Ignoring the specific exam format requested, leading to irrelevant or overly broad revision content. How to avoid it: Always check your exam type input and ensure the prompt output matches the required style.
- Over-relying on the AI glossary rather than definitions provided in your original lecture notes. How to avoid it: Cross-reference terms against your course materials to ensure definitions align with your specific curriculum.
- Assuming the summary covers every minor detail found in your extensive original study notes. How to avoid it: Use the summary as a skeleton for revision, then flesh out details using your primary notes.
- Failing to verify the accuracy of dates or names generated within the summary output. How to avoid it: Perform a manual 'fact check' against your textbook or verified notes after the summary is generated.
Related guide
- Prepare for exams with AI: study plan and mock tests
- How to study with AI: study mode, outlines and quizzes
- Revision flashcards
General and assistant-specific tips
Tips by assistant
- Claude: it handles long documents; paste the full text instead of loose fragments.
- Gemini: save this prompt as a Gem to reuse it by filling in only the details.
Getting the most out of it
- Paste the prompt as is and only replace what is in [brackets].
- If the answer does not fit, do not start over: ask for “shorter”, “more formal” or “as a table”.
- Always review the result before using it: AI can get facts, dates or names wrong.
Before you paste it: quick checklist
- State your starting level: “I know nothing” or “I know the basics”.
- Ask for everyday examples and a review question at the end.
- If something isn’t clear, ask it to “explain it another way”.
- Check dates, figures and definitions against a reliable source.
How to adapt it to your assistant
The template works the same in ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Claude because it only uses plain language. If your assistant supports fixed instructions (custom instructions, Gems or projects), you can store your preferred tone and format there and paste only the variable part. On a free plan, split long requests into two or three shorter messages.