Which tool to choose
They're not all the same. Choose based on what you have in hand.
You only have the exam syllabus and you're starting from scratch → ChatGPT with "Study and learn." It's the right tool for building the calendar from scratch, because it reasons about the dates, distributes the topics, and then quizzes you. It works on the free plan too.
You already have handouts, slides, or hefty PDFs to organize → Google's NotebookLM. When the material is a lot and you have to turn it into review, this tool is the better fit: upload up to 50 documents (PDFs, slides, articles, YouTube videos) and it generates structured summaries, review questions, and an audio summary from your materials (the Audio Overview feature). The basic plan is free.
You have to memorize a lot of facts by heart (dates, formulas, vocabulary, articles of law) → Anki or Quizlet paired with AI. The AI writes you the questions, the app manages the reviews over time. Anki — the name means "memorization" in Japanese — is one of the most used for this.
The backbone stays ChatGPT: the other two are added only if you fall into those profiles.
How to do it
The principle that makes every good plan work is called spaced repetition (ripetizione dilazionata in Italian): you review the topics several times, but at intervals that lengthen over time. Without this, within a day you forget almost everything: 24 hours after a study session you risk losing most of the concepts unless you revisit them with a review schedule. The plan you're going to build exists precisely to prevent that.
From browser or app, the path doesn't change.
- Open ChatGPT and start a new chat.
- Turn on study mode. You'll find it under the Tools entry or under the + (the position changes with the version): look for "Study and learn."
- If you have handouts or slides, upload them. You can paste the text or attach the document and have it quiz you on its content.
- Paste the prompt below, replacing the data in brackets with your own.
- Read the plan, check that the review sessions are actually there (not just new topics), and ask for corrections if something doesn't add up.
Check: after this step you should have a calendar with precise dates, in which each topic appears at least three times at increasing intervals. If you see only a list of topics with no scheduled reviews, the plan is incomplete: go back to step 5.
The operational syntax:
You are my tutor to prepare for [name of exam/certification].
Exam date: [dd/mm/yyyy]. Today is [dd/mm/yyyy].
I have [number] hours of study available on the days: [e.g. Mon-Fri 2h, weekend 4h].
The syllabus is this: [paste the list of topics].
My starting level: [beginner / intermediate / I already know X but not Y].
Build me a study plan day by day up to the exam date,
applying spaced repetition: every new topic
must be reviewed after 1 day, after 7 days, and after
30 days (or the possible interval if there's less time left).
Insert one buffer day a week for catch-up.
In the last 5 days, schedule only mock exams and review, no
new topics.
Return the plan in table format: date, topic,
type of session (new study / review / mock exam), duration.
Don't give me everything at once: present one week at a time and
ask me to confirm before continuing.
When you want to be quizzed on a topic you've already studied, stay in study mode and use this:
Quiz me on [topic] as in an oral exam.
Ask me one question at a time, wait for my answer, correct me
by pointing out what I got wrong, and only then move on to the next question.
At the end, tell me which points I need to review.
A concrete example
Marta has to take her Private Law exam in 40 days; she studies 3 hours on weekdays and 5 on Saturday. She opens ChatGPT, turns on "Study and learn," uploads the PDF of the syllabus (28 chapters), and pastes the first prompt with her dates.
ChatGPT gives her week 1: Monday chapters 1-2 (new study), Tuesday chapter 3 plus review of chapter 1, and so on, with Saturday dedicated to catch-up. Marta notices that contracts — her weak spot — have few hours: she replies "chapters 12-15 are the hardest for me, double the review sessions on those." The plan readjusts.
On day 8, instead of rereading, she uses the quizzing prompt on chapters 1-2. She gets the definition of legal capacity to act wrong; ChatGPT corrects her and marks the point to review. It doesn't give her the final answer right away, but proposes guided steps, check questions, and examples. In the last 5 days she does only mock exams. Result: she arrives at the exam having reviewed every chapter at least three times, not once.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the AI makes up dates or miscounts the days
It happens that it counts the days wrong or plans past the exam date. Tell it explicitly: "double-check, the exam is on [date], today is [date], that's exactly X days." Better still, ask it to number the days ("Day 1, Day 2…") instead of using calendar dates, so the error jumps out.
If ChatGPT gives you wrong answers on the subject's content
The risk remains real: study mode doesn't completely eliminate errors, even if average accuracy is good. The way out: upload your official materials (the textbook's PDF, the instructor's handouts) and instruct it to answer using only those. Add to the prompt: "answer sticking exclusively to the documents I've uploaded; if a piece of information isn't there, tell me instead of making it up." For crucial facts, verify against the textbook anyway: use AI to organize and quiz you, not as your sole source.
If you run out of free messages mid-session
On the free plan the limits come quickly: after a certain number of messages on the best model, the session switches to a lighter model for basic answers. Fix without paying: generate the whole calendar in one go (a single long, complete message), copy it into a file or your Notes, and keep the daily quizzing in separate sessions. For quizzing, even the lighter model works just fine.
If the plan is too packed and you skip a day
The plan always slips, it's normal. That's why the prompt has the weekly buffer day. If you fall behind, don't redo everything from scratch: write "I skipped days X and Y, reorganize the rest of the plan while keeping the final mock exams intact."
A tip from someone who really uses it
Don't ask for the complete 40-day plan in a single screen: it becomes a wall you stop looking at. Have it work one week at a time (it's already in the prompt) and every Sunday ask it to regenerate the following week based on how it actually went. The plan stays alive and grounded in reality, instead of becoming a dead document you ignore from day three. The difference between those who finish the syllabus and those who don't almost always lies here.
Frequently asked questions
Is ChatGPT's study mode really free?
Yes. It's available on the Free plan too, as well as on Plus, Pro, Team, and Edu. A free account is enough. The limits you hit concern the number of messages, not the feature itself.
Can I use it by uploading the PDF of my handouts?
Yes. You can paste the text or attach the document and have it quiz you on its content. For heavy syllabuses with many files, though, NotebookLM is the better choice: it handles up to 50 documents and generates summaries, review questions, and audio summaries from your materials.
How often should reviews be scheduled?
A tried-and-tested scheme is the 1-7-30 cycle: you review a topic the day after studying it, then after a week, then after a month. The idea is to gradually lengthen the time between one review and the next. If you're short on time, compress the intervals but keep at least two reviews per topic.
Will studying with AI just make me "copy" without really learning?
It's the serious objection, and study mode was created to dismantle it. Instead of handing you the ready-made answer, it poses questions, gauges what you already know, and guides you in stages. The value isn't doing your homework for you: it's keeping you organized and quizzing you tirelessly. It remains a tool, not a substitute for the textbook: deep understanding is something you build yourself.