Use AI for school the right way

What you'll need

• The AI rules for this class, or a plan to ask for them
• One topic you are actually trying to learn
• Willingness to close the chat and do the work yourself

Step 1: Sort the use before you open a chat

Green. This is studying. You can do these unless the policy says no AI at all.

• "Explain this idea in plain words, then ask me to explain it back."
• "Quiz me one question at a time and wait for my answer."
• "Here are my notes. What did I leave out?"

Yellow. Ask, and say you used it. Fine in many classes, banned in some.

• Feedback on a paragraph you wrote. See Get feedback on your essay.
• Help planning when to study. See Make a study schedule.
• Research questions. You still read the sources and write the paper.

Red. Do not do this.

• "Write my essay," "solve my homework," "do my lab," or "finish my discussion post."
• Pasting a test or a graded problem set and turning in the answer.
• Trying to hide that you used AI.
• Saying you did not use AI when you did.

If you wanted a way to hide AI use from a teacher, stop. This page will not help you do that. Read the policy, stay on the green list, and say what you used when the rules ask you to.

Step 2: Use a tutor prompt, not an answer prompt

Act as my tutor for [class and topic].
Follow these rules for the whole chat:
- Do not give me the final answer to a problem I could hand in.
- Do not write sentences I could paste into an assignment.
- Ask me one question at a time and wait.
- If I am wrong, give one hint, then wait again.
- If I paste a graded assignment, refuse to complete it and ask what I have tried.

Here is what I understand so far, in my words:
[paste]

Step 3: Check the policy against what you just did

Read the syllabus line about AI. If it says no AI, delete the chat from your study plan and use the book. If it says you must disclose help, write one sentence on the assignment: what tool you used and what you used it for. "I used ChatGPT to quiz me on chapter 3. I wrote the essay myself." is a disclosure. A hidden chat is not.

Step 4: Keep the writing yours

Brainstorming questions is Brainstorm and outline an essay. A one-time exam session is Study for an exam. A weekly habit is a ChatGPT study routine. None of those pages will write the assignment.

Common mistakes

• Calling it "just editing" when the chat wrote the paragraph.
• Asking how to hide AI use. That request is the red list.
• Trusting a chat that says "teachers cannot tell." You do not know that, and it is the wrong goal.
• Using AI in one class because another class allowed it.

Privacy: what not to paste

School accounts sometimes allow the teacher or the district to see school-tool logs. A personal account is not a secret from an honor-code investigation if the work itself gives you away. Do not paste a classmate's essay, a student's private information, or an exam you were told not to copy.

Director check: look before you use it

• Which list is this task on? If you have to argue, it is not green.
• Could you do the next problem with the chat closed? If not, you were copying.
• Does the syllabus allow this? The syllabus wins over this page.
• Are you trying to hide the help? Stop. Ask what is allowed instead.

One extra tip

If your ChatGPT account shows Study and learn in the tools menu, turn it on for one homework-free study block. It is built to ask questions. You still follow the red list. More class guides are on the School hub.