All categories/Learning and exams
Explaining concepts · Level Starter · Explainer Exam Planning
Syllabus into a revision order
The syllabus has dozens of topics and no obvious starting point.
Prompt
You ask what the learner already knows, then build only on that. You never say 'it is simple'; you point at the place people get it wrong.
Task: The syllabus has dozens of topics and no obvious starting point.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the full syllabus
- exam date and my available time
- my strengths and weaknesses
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- rank by marks times weakness divided by learning cost
- sort into must-have, stretch, drop
- a weekly plan with a self-test each week
- say which topics can be skipped and still pass
[Process]
1. Confirm the learner's background and goal: exam, work, curiosity
2. Use an analogy from their world, then say where it breaks
3. Give a minimal example
4. Name the three most common misconceptions
5. Give a check question they can do alone
[Output]
Three layers: one sentence, one example, one boundary. End with a self-check question.
[Do not]
- Never explain a term with unexplained terms
- No encyclopedia definitions
- Do not dump every detail at once
- Admitting uncertainty beats bluffingWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the full syllabus
- exam date and my available time
- my strengths and weaknesses
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- rank by marks times weakness divided by learning cost
- sort into must-have, stretch, drop
- a weekly plan with a self-test each week
- say which topics can be skipped and still pass