How Google NotebookLM AI App Can Help You Succeed in Exams

School is not easy. If you’re like most students, you probably feel like you need all the help you can get, especially when it comes time to sit for exams that could potentially make or break your future.

But maybe study groups, tutors, help desks, and online tutorials just aren’t for you. You may want to try self-study. In that case, you now have another option: NotepadLM.

NotepadLM is Google’s experimental AI note-taking and research app. It’s like ChatGPT, except it learns from the documents you give it, becomes an expert on those issues, and then in turn helps you with those items.

If you want to easily boil down a complex topic to its essential elements, NotebookLM is great for that. This is the AI version of TL;DR and can be useful if you are preparing for an exam. Here’s what it can do and how you can take advantage of it.

related: The best note-taking apps for students

Organize your study materials in notebooks to help you focus

Dave Parrack / IDG

With NotebookLM, you can load up to 50 different sources of information into a notebook, so as a student, you’ll want to make sure you’re using different notebooks for each subject you want to study.

By importing study notes from lectures, essays, and other subject-related source material, you can sort your study materials into useful groups. For courses with a lot of information, you can even split the course into several notebooks, one for each topic of the semester.

Let’s say, for example, you study computer science. You can create separate notebooks for each course: one for history of computing, one for assembly, one for PC hardware, one for networking, one for artificial intelligence, and so on. To do this, just click + New notebook and add source material from your course to the notebook.

Summarize learning materials to make them more digestible

Dave Parrack / IDG

Once you’ve uploaded your study materials, NotebookLM can create summaries to make them more digestible—and the more digestible they are, the more likely you’ll understand them.

Of course, it’s still important to read all material in its original form, and it’s still important to write or type notes, essays, and other coursework yourself. But once you do, NotebookLM’s AI-generated summaries help you digest the main ideas.

Nicely, NotebookLM automatically does this for you. After downloading the materials, the application offers a summary for each of the sources. You can break this down further by selecting just one source and asking NotebookLM to summarize what it talk and then narrow things down even further, requiring a deeper dive.

Create a study guide with practice questions and flashcards

Dave Parrack / IDG

You no longer need to create and maintain your own study guides before exams. Instead, you can ask NotebookLM to create them based on the materials you’ve uploaded, along with practice questions to help you prepare for the real test ahead.

You can also ask him to create flashcards containing key terms related to the subject you are studying, along with their definitions.

To do this, make sure you fill your notebooks with all relevant sources. Then just ask NotebookLM to create a tutorial. If you want to include practice questions, just say so. The same goes for flashcards that can help you remember.

Ask NotebookLM to explain and clarify unclear concepts

Dave Parrack / IDG

Even with all of the above, you’ll probably still come across confusing concepts that you struggle to understand. Wouldn’t it be great if you had a free on-demand tutor who could explain these things to you? Well, NotebookLM is the next best thing.

Just ask NotebookLM to explain any concept you don’t fully understand, and it will generate a simplified — but still useful — explanation of that very thing. Often things can change if something is explained in a slightly different way.

You can frame your questions to ask what specific terms mean, who specific people are, or how specific principles work. NotebookLM will look at your uploaded sources and use the information in them as a basis for its explanations. If something doesn’t sound right, ask for more changes.

Get quizzes on your study materials to check your progress

Dave Parrack / IDG

Once you’ve learned enough about a subject and feel confident about it, you can test your progress with a test created by NotebookLM. This will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to adjust your training sessions accordingly.

Just tell NotebookLM, “Ask a series of questions to help me check my progress.” It should create a list of relevant questions based on the materials you upload. You can also ask NotebookLM to ask you increasingly difficult questions as the exam time approaches.

Create an audio review “podcast” to hear a breakdown of the topic

Dave Parrack / IDG

Audio review is a feature that was recently added to NotebookLM as of this writing, and it’s so cool it’s gone viral. It essentially creates an AI-generated “podcast” from your input, with two virtual hosts discussing the topic out loud.

This is a very easy way to understand any complex topic, as the medium of podcasts is inherently easy to digest. And if this AI-generated podcast raises more questions than it answers, you can go right back to the NotebookLM FAQ for clarification.

To create an audio review, search Audio review in the upper right corner of the program. You can any Generate review audio based on all selected sources or Adjust this by offering specific topics for hosts to focus on. Once it’s created, you’ll have a great podcast-like discussion of what you’re learning.

Use NotebookLM as your AI learning partner

Dave Parrack / IDG

Last but not least, NotebookLM can be your learning partner—someone with whom you can exchange ideas, share knowledge, and help consolidate what you learn so you remember it.

Students have used study partners for decades, and now NotebookLM can become a virtual study partner in an instant. Even though it’s artificial intelligence, it can also prevent you from feeling lonely and isolated when learning a ton of learning material on your own.

There are no specific instructions here. You just need to think of NotebookLM as your learning partner and communicate with it accordingly. Whatever you ask your human partner, you can also ask this AI equivalent.

NotebookLM will be able to offer information you may have missed, suggest areas to focus on, and act as a foil for any questions you may have. The only thing missing is human touch and emotional support.

Additional information: How ChatGPT has improved my life this year