ChatGPT Prompts for Students

You are an academic writing tutor helping a college student build a strong argumentative essay outline. Do not write the essay for me — help me build the structure so I can write it myself.

Assignment details:
- Course: Introduction to Political Philosophy (sophomore level)
- Prompt: "Is civil disobedience ever morally justified? Defend your position with reference to at least two philosophers."
- My position: Yes — civil disobedience is morally justified when three conditions are met: the law being broken is genuinely unjust, legal channels have been exhausted or are unavailable, and the disobedience is nonviolent and public.
- Philosophers I want to use: John Rawls (from "A Theory of Justice") and Martin Luther King Jr. (from "Letter from Birmingham Jail")
- Length requirement: 2,000–2,500 words, 6–8 paragraphs

Create an essay outline that includes:
1. Thesis statement (my actual argument in one sentence — tighten what I described above if needed)
2. Introduction structure: what background context to provide, and how to set up the thesis without starting too broad
3. Body paragraphs (suggest 5–6): for each, provide a topic sentence, which philosopher or evidence to draw from, and what counterargument (if any) this paragraph should anticipate
4. Counterargument section: what the strongest objection to my position is, and how I should rebut it using the philosophers I've chosen
5. Conclusion: how to close without just restating the intro — what the "so what" of this argument is

Flag any part of my argument that needs stronger support before I start writing.

You are a knowledgeable tutor helping a student build a comprehensive study guide for an upcoming exam.

Student context:
- I am a second-year undergraduate studying economics
- Exam topic: monetary policy and its effects on inflation, unemployment, and economic output
- Subtopics I know I'll be tested on: the Taylor Rule, the Phillips Curve (and its modern critiques), quantitative easing, open market operations, and the Federal Reserve's dual mandate
- Exam format: short answer and one long essay question (I won't know the essay prompt in advance)
- Time until exam: 4 days

Build me a study guide that includes:

1. A one-paragraph conceptual overview of how monetary policy works — written plainly, not like a textbook
2. For each subtopic listed above:
   - Core concept explanation (3–5 sentences)
   - One concrete real-world example (use a real historical event where possible)
   - A likely exam question on this subtopic and what a strong answer would cover
3. A "connections" section: how these concepts link to each other — what a professor is likely testing when they ask a question that spans two or more of these topics
4. Three common mistakes students make when explaining these concepts on exams

Write this for a student who understands the basics but gets confused when concepts interact with each other.

You are a patient, skilled tutor who can explain the same concept to different levels of understanding. I am a college junior studying neuroscience and I'm having trouble understanding action potentials.

I understand: basic biology (cells, membranes, ions), and I've read the textbook section twice — but I still don't have an intuitive sense of why the action potential works the way it does. I get confused at the depolarization-repolarization transition.

Explain action potentials three times, at increasing depth:

Level 1 — Intuitive (no jargon): Use an analogy from everyday life that captures the essential mechanism. Don't worry about being precise — just make it click.

Level 2 — Intermediate (some biology terms): Explain it using the correct terms (sodium, potassium, membrane potential, threshold) but walk through it as a story — what happens first, what triggers what, why it's "all or nothing."

Level 3 — Precise (exam-ready): A technically accurate explanation of the full sequence, including the roles of voltage-gated Na+ and K+ channels, the refractory period, and why action potentials travel in one direction. This should be the version I could use to write an exam answer.

After the three explanations, give me:
- The one thing that trips up most students about action potentials (and how to think about it correctly)
- A self-test question I can use to check whether I actually understand this, not just whether I've memorized it

You are a research assistant helping a graduate student synthesize sources for a literature review section of a thesis.

My thesis topic: the role of sleep quality in academic performance among undergraduate students, with a focus on the mechanisms linking sleep deprivation to working memory impairment.

I have gathered 5 sources I need to incorporate into my literature review. For each source, I'll give you the citation and a brief description of what it covers. I need you to help me synthesize them — not summarize each one separately, but identify the themes, tensions, and gaps across all of them together.

Source 1: [Author, Year] — A 2019 longitudinal study showing that students sleeping fewer than 6 hours have significantly lower GPA outcomes, controlling for prior academic achievement.
Source 2: [Author, Year] — A meta-analysis of 24 studies on sleep deprivation and cognitive performance, finding that working memory is the most consistently impaired domain.
Source 3: [Author, Year] — An experimental study showing that even one night of sleep restriction (5 hours) reduced working memory capacity by 23% in college-aged adults.
Source 4: [Author, Year] — A critique arguing that most studies in this area use self-reported sleep measures, which are unreliable, and calling for more actigraphy-based research.
Source 5: [Author, Year] — A newer study (2022) using actigraphy that partially replicated Source 1's findings but found the GPA effect was strongest for STEM students, not across all majors.

Synthesize these sources into a 400–500 word literature review section that:
- Groups sources by theme rather than discussing them one by one
- Identifies where sources agree, where they disagree, and what methodological tension runs through the field
- Ends with a clear statement of the gap my thesis addresses
- Uses academic writing style: third person, past tense for completed studies, hedged language where appropriate

You are a knowledgeable tutor preparing a student for an exam by generating practice questions. Do not just quiz me — help me learn from the questions whether I get them right or wrong.

My exam details:
- Course: Organic Chemistry II (junior level)
- Exam coverage: reaction mechanisms including SN1, SN2, E1, E2, electrophilic aromatic substitution, and nucleophilic addition to carbonyl groups
- Format: the exam will have multiple choice, mechanism-drawing questions, and one synthesis problem
- My weak areas: I consistently mix up when E2 is favored over SN2 (and vice versa), and I struggle with predicting the major product in substitution vs. elimination competitions

Generate a 10-question practice set:
- 5 multiple choice questions (with 4 options each)
- 3 mechanism/prediction questions (describe the starting material, reagents, and conditions — ask me to predict the product and the mechanism)
- 1 synthesis question (give me a starting material and a target molecule, ask me to design a 2–3 step route)
- 1 "explain the reasoning" question where I have to justify why a specific mechanism is favored over an alternative

For each question:
- After the question, include a hidden answer section labeled [ANSWER] that I can read after I've attempted it
- For each answer, explain the reasoning — not just the correct answer, but why the wrong answers are wrong
- For my weak areas specifically, include a decision tree or rule of thumb that helps me choose correctly in future questions