Lesson 88 · 2 min
Make AI a tutor that gives hints
Tell AI to give hints and ask questions instead of answers, and it becomes a patient tutor that helps you think.
By default, a chatbot wants to be helpful, which usually means solving the problem for you. That feels good and teaches very little.
You can change the deal at the start. "Act as my tutor. Do not give me the answer. Give one hint at a time and wait for my try." Most chatbots follow this well, and some apps have a study or learning mode that works the same way.
Ask for hints in steps: first a nudge, then a bigger clue, then a worked example of a similar problem, never the exact answer. When you get it right, ask it to explain why it is right so the idea sticks.
If it slips and gives the answer anyway, remind it. And check its maths and facts: tutors can be wrong too, and a confident wrong hint can send you the wrong way.
Do it now
Set up your tutor
- 1. Pick one problem you are stuck on: a maths exercise, a grammar point, a work task.
- 2. Start a new chat with the prompt below.
- 3. Use at most three hints before trying again on your own.
Be my tutor for [SUBJECT]. I am at [LEVEL]. Rules: never give me the final answer. Ask me what I think first. Then give one hint at a time, from small to bigger, and wait for my reply after each one. When I get it right, ask me to explain why. Here is my problem: [PASTE]
Quick check
Keep going
Next →Homework: learning or copying?Words from this lesson
- System prompt
- Background instructions set by the app maker, hidden from you, that tell the AI how to behave in every conversation.
- Chatbot
- A program you talk to in everyday language by typing or speaking, which replies in the same way.