In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use ChatGPT to accelerate your learning. We'll use ChatGPT to generate a learning plan, teach core concepts, give examples, and even generate coding challenges.
You have probably heard a lot about ChatGPT already. It is an AI tool that has been trained using a lot of textual data on the internet. This allows ChatGPT to generate responses like a regular person when you give it some input. Only this person knows a lot about a lot of things.
You can use ChatGPT to do a variety of tasks which include answering questions and providing explanations. However, there are two important things that you should keep in mind. First, ChatGPT has been trained using a vast amount of data, but that doesn't mean it knows everything. Second, it can sometimes give the wrong results. You need to be aware of these things and set your expectations accordingly.
Now, let's get started and see how we can use ChatGPT to accelerate our learning. We will use Python as an example in this tutorial.
Create an Action Plan
The first step in our learning process is creating an action plan. ChatGPT has a decent knowledge of Python and related programming concepts. While it cannot handle complex logic, it is more than capable of devising an action plan for you to learn a programming language.
ChatGPT also knows what topics for Python will be appropriate for beginners and what an intermediate user should learn.
You could pass it a prompt like this:
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I want to learn Python. Tell me what I should learn first to get started. |
It will then give a response that will tell you how to proceed. In my case, it told me to begin by installing Python.
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Installing Python: Begin by installing Python on your computer. |
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Visit the official Python website (python.org) and download the latest version of Python for your operating system. |
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Follow the installation instructions provided. |
In the next step, it tells me to familiarize myself with Python's syntax and understand concepts such as variables, data types, operators, and so on. It basically provides a path to get started with Python.
You could also try other prompts like:
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Can you provide a step-by-step plan to start learning Python from scratch? |
This will give you a step-by-step guide that conveys the same thing as the previous response. However, it will be broken down into more steps this time.
If you are already familiar with Python basics, you might want to jump ahead and learn something more advanced. In that case, your prompt would be like this:
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I am fully comfortable with Python basics. Tell me what I should learn next. |
With this prompt, ChatGPT suggested that I should start diving deeper into OOP concepts in Python and explore some Python libraries like NumPy or frameworks like Django. It also suggested that I should learn web scraping, database integration, concurrency, and parallel programming.
As you can see, ChatGPT will create a custom action plan that fulfills your requirements.
Explore Specific Topics in Detail
When I prompted ChatGPT to give me an action plan for learning Python as an absolute beginner, it suggested that I start by familiarizing myself with the language syntax and concepts like data types, control structures, and conditionals.
Let's begin by asking ChatGPT about data types in Python. Your prompt could be something like:
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Tell me about data types in Python. |
The response from ChatGPT begins by telling me that data types define the nature of the values that can be stored and manipulated in variables. It then goes on to provide some examples and short explanations for different types of data types. Here is a snippet of the response:
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// More text from the response |
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|
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Sequence Types: |
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str: Represents strings of characters, such as "hello" or "Python". Strings are immutable, meaning they cannot be modified after creation. |
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list: Represents an ordered collection of items enclosed in square brackets ([]), separated by commas. Lists can contain elements of different data types and are mutable. |
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tuple: Similar to lists, tuples are ordered collections enclosed in parentheses (()). However, tuples are immutable, meaning they cannot be modified once created. |
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// More text from the response |
From the above response, it is fair to conclude that lists in Python are similar to arrays in other languages. You can continue your conversation with the following prompt:
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Are lists in Python the same as arrays in other languages? Is there any difference? |
I got the following response for the above question:
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Lists in Python are similar to arrays in other programming languages in that they both can store multiple elements. However, there are some key differences between lists in Python and arrays in other languages: |
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Flexibility of data types: In Python lists, you can store elements of different data types within the same list. For example, a list can contain integers, strings, or even other lists. In many other languages, arrays typically require elements of the same data type. |
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Dynamic resizing: Lists in Python have a dynamic size, meaning they can grow or shrink as needed. You can add or remove elements from a list without explicitly defining its size beforehand. In contrast, arrays in some languages have a fixed size that needs to be determined when they are declared. |
... and so on.
If you have ever used C++, then you will know that arrays in C++ have a fixed size and can contain only specified data types. On the other hand, arrays in languages like JavaScript can contain a variable number of items with different data types. So the differences seem about right. If you have no experience with other languages, you can simply ask ChatGPT which languages don't allow multiple data types in the same array or require fixed size arrays.
Ask ChatGPT to Provide Examples
Continuing from our previous example, let's say you now want to learn how to use lists in Python. You could simply enter the following prompt:
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Give me some examples that show how to use lists in Python |
This gave me a response with several examples showing how to create a list, access elements in that list, modify the elements in the list, append elements to the list, remove elements from the list, slice a list, and so on. Here is a screenshot for reference:
Want an example where lists are used with a for loop in Python? You can just use this prompt:
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Give me an example that shows how I can use lists and a for loop together. |
In my case, the output was:
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numbers = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] |
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# Compute the square of each number in the list using a for loop
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squared_numbers = [] |
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for num in numbers: |
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squared_numbers.append(num ** 2) |
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# Print the squared numbers
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for squared_num in squared_numbers: |
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print(squared_num) |
In this example, we have a prepopulated numbers list and an empty squared_numbers list. The first for loop iterates over the numbers to populate squared_numbers. The second for loop iterates over squared_num to simply print it out.
Ask ChatGPT for Practice Questions
Once you feel comfortable with a topic, you can even ask ChatGPT to generate some practice questions for you. This will help you evaluate how much you have learned.
In the previous section, we asked for an example that involved the use of for loops with list. Let's ask ChatGPT to generate a question that we can solve with list and for loops. Here is the prompt we feed into ChatGPT:
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Give me a practice question that involves lists and for loops in Python |
I get back the following question from ChatGPT:
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Write a program that takes a list of numbers as input and computes the sum of all the even numbers in the list. Print the sum as the output. |
Now, you can try writing the solution to this problem yourself. However, you can also ask ChatGPT for a solution and an explanation if you feel stumped.
Final Thoughts
ChatGPT can be a great learning tool if used properly. It has several advantages over traditional teaching methods. For example, you can learn at your own pace. You can ask as many questions as you like, and it will quickly give you an answer.
The important thing to remember is that ChatGPT can sometimes provide the wrong answers with a confidence that makes them seem right. Make sure you cross-check its responses if you suspect that something isn't right.
