AI Study Systems: long-term learning projects

01

Design your study system

In simple words

A good garden is not just seeds. It has beds, a watering plan and a way to see what is growing. A study system is the same: where your notes live, when you practise, how you track progress and what AI is allowed to do in it.

Key facts

John Dunlosky's review of study strategies (American Educator, Fall 2013) is the base for this course. It describes practice testing and distributed practice as the two most effective strategies, and calls interleaved practice, elaborative interrogation and self-explanation promising. It calls rereading and highlighting less useful on their own.
A system has five parts:

Part	What it is	Who does the thinking
Sources	Your notes, textbook pages, lecture slides, readings (that you may use)	You collect them
Practice	Questions and flashcards made from those sources	AI helps make; you answer
Schedule	When each topic comes back	You decide; AI can suggest
Tracker	A log of what you got wrong and why	You write it
Rules	What AI may and may not do for each course	Your school and teacher decide

The rule for AI in your system: AI can make practice material and suggest schedules, but you do the recalling, the explaining and the deciding. If AI does the learning step for you, you are not learning.
Keep the system simple. A notebook, a calendar and one AI chat are enough. Complicated systems are abandoned.

Step by step

List your courses or projects for this term, with the next big date for each (test, paper, defence).
For each course, write its AI rules from the syllabus or by asking the teacher (see course 1.10, Lesson 1).
Make one folder or notebook section per course with the five parts: Sources, Practice, Schedule, Tracker, Rules.
Write on one page what AI does in your system (make practice questions, suggest a schedule) and what you do (answer, explain, track).
Put a 20-minute "weekly review" in your calendar (Lesson 7).
Check: for every course you can say where the notes live, where practice goes, when it is scheduled, and whether AI is allowed.

Watch on YouTube

Retrieval practice: a video for studentsThe Learning Scientists · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01Design your study system

LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00

Voice

Read the video script

[Host] "Do not just study harder. Build a system."
[Text on screen: Sources · Practice · Schedule · Tracker · Rules] "Five parts: your sources, practice questions, a schedule, a tracker and the AI rules for each course."
[Text on screen: AI makes practice. You answer.] "AI can help make practice questions. You do the recalling and the explaining."
[Host] "Keep it simple: a notebook, a calendar and one chat."

Try it now

Set up the five-part system for two real courses. Write one page saying what AI does and what you do.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "AI Study Systems: long-term learning projects" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "Design your study system".

What the lesson teaches:
- John Dunlosky's review of study strategies (American Educator, Fall 2013) is the base for this course. It describes practice testing and distributed practice as the two most effective strategies, and calls interleaved practice, elaborative interrogation and self-explanation promising. It calls rereading and highlighting less useful on their own.
- A system has five parts:
- Part - What it is - Who does the thinking
- Sources - Your notes, textbook pages, lecture slides, readings (that you may use) - You collect them
- Practice - Questions and flashcards made from those sources - AI helps make; you answer
- Schedule - When each topic comes back - You decide; AI can suggest
- Tracker - A log of what you got wrong and why - You write it

The exercise I'm working on:
Set up the five-part system for two real courses. Write one page saying what AI does and what you do.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.

I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "Design your study system" from the course "AI Study Systems: long-term learning projects".

Here's what the lesson says:
A good garden is not just seeds. It has beds, a watering plan and a way to see what is growing. A study system is the same: where your notes live, when you practise, how you track progress and what AI is allowed to do in it.

The activity:
Set up the five-part system for two real courses. Write one page saying what AI does and what you do.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.

Open Claude

Sources

Dunlosky, J., "Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning," American Educator (Fall 2013): www.aft.org/ae/fall2013/dunlosky

My notes

I learned this

02