Which tool to choose
They're not interchangeable: what changes is who guides you and on what.
You're starting from scratch and want a tutor who makes you reason → ChatGPT in study mode. It's an experience that helps you work through problems step by step instead of giving you the answer right away, available since 29 July 2025 on the Free, Plus, Pro, and Team plans. It tests you with quick quizzes, open questions, and "fill in the blanks" exercises. It's the default choice when you want to get started without configuring anything.
You learn better with images, videos, and quizzes → Gemini Guided Learning. It breaks complex topics down into smaller lessons, lets you upload your course materials, and provides explanations, examples, and practical exercises, often with images and videos. The technical reason to choose it: it's integrated with LearnLM, a family of models built specifically for education and grounded in the principles of learning science.
You need to study ONLY from your own documents (handouts, the professor's PDFs, a company manual) → NotebookLM. Its strength is fidelity to the source: unlike ChatGPT it doesn't make things up, it uses only the documents you upload, and every answer includes citations that point back to the source material. It generates flashcards and quizzes from your documents, creates tailored reports, and includes a "Learning Guide" to go deeper.
You're learning to code → Claude in Learning mode. In Claude Code there are two dedicated styles, Explanatory and Learning, accessible with the /output-styles command: the first explains reasoning and choices step by step, the second works like pair programming, inserting #TODO comments and asking you to complete short pieces of code.
How to do it
The principle is the same everywhere: first turn on the tutor mode, then tell it who you are and what you want.
Turn on study mode. This is where the platforms genuinely diverge:
- On ChatGPT: select "Study and learn" from the Tools menu.
- On Gemini: enable it from the prompt bar once it's available to you. On a smartphone the option is at the bottom of the app; on a computer it's in the menu next to the text field.
- On Claude: you'll find a new "Learning" entry in the styles dropdown menu.
Check: once it's on, to your first question the tool should respond with another question or a quiz, not with the complete solution. If it gives you the answer outright, the mode isn't active.
State your level, goal, and time. This is the step most people skip, and it's the one that turns the chatbot into a tutor. The prompt to paste:
I want to learn the basics of SQL starting from scratch. I have about 30 minutes a day for two weeks. Act as my tutor: don't give me the complete answers, guide me with questions one at a time and correct me when I'm wrong. First ask me three questions to gauge my starting level, then propose a plan divided into sessions. At the end of each session, quiz me with two practical exercises and give me feedback on what I got wrong. Use concrete examples and explain every technical term the first time you use it.
Replace "the basics of SQL" with your subject and the time with your own. The rest works as is.
Upload your materials, if you have any. Handouts, slides, a chapter as a PDF. On Gemini and NotebookLM this is the heart of the method. Mind NotebookLM's actual limit: on the free plan you can upload 50 sources per notebook.
Let yourself be quizzed and actually answer. Don't ask "give me the solution." Try, get it wrong, get corrected. It's annoying and that's the point: cognitive science research shows that information discovered through guided questions is retained far longer than information received passively.
Generate flashcards and quizzes for review. On NotebookLM it's one click. On ChatGPT or Gemini, ask:
Turn this session into 10 question-and-answer flashcards I can review tomorrow.
A concrete example
Marta works in marketing and every time she has to ask the data team for a basic query. She decides to learn SQL on her own in two weeks, 30 minutes at lunch.
She opens ChatGPT, turns on "Study and learn," and pastes the prompt above. The tool doesn't start with a lesson: it asks her three questions, discovers she knows Excel but not databases, and calibrates everything to that — "think of a table as an Excel sheet with stricter rules." It proposes six sessions.
In session 3 Marta has to write her first SELECT. She gets it wrong: she writes SELECT customers WHERE city = Rome, forgetting FROM and the quotation marks. Instead of correcting her and handing her the right line, ChatGPT asks: "Which table do you want to pull these customers from? And how does the database tell a piece of text from a column name?" Marta gets there on her own and writes SELECT * FROM customers WHERE city = 'Rome'.
At the end of the session she asks for the flashcards. On day 14 she writes, on her own and without help, a query with a date filter and a sort order. The query she used to delegate to the data team now takes her two minutes. Cost: zero.
When it does NOT work (and how to fix it)
If the AI makes up numbers or dates
On subjects with precise facts (history, regulations, formulas) ChatGPT and Gemini can produce false but convincing details. The way out is to switch tools for the factual part: move to NotebookLM and upload the reliable source, because it uses only the documents you give it and every answer points back with a citation to the exact spot in the text. Use the Socratic tutor to reason, NotebookLM to verify the facts.
If it gives you the answer instead of quizzing you
It happens that study mode "slips" and after a while goes back to handing you ready-made solutions. Immediate fix: write "Stop, don't give me the solution: ask me one question at a time until I get there myself." It works because these modes are behavioral instructions, not different models, and one line gets them back on track.
If it's too slow and bores you
The Socratic method is effective but can feel long-winded when you just want to review. On NotebookLM, generate an Audio Overview to listen to while you walk: the September 2025 update lets you choose between the Deep Dive, Brief, Critique, and Debate formats. Choose "Brief" for a quick review.
If the subject requires physical practice
Guitar, swimming, drawing: AI can't correct your posture in real time. Verified workaround: use it for the theory and for delayed feedback. Record a video or photograph the result, upload it to Gemini (which handles images), and ask for an analysis of the mistakes. It remains a support; it doesn't replace the hours of practice.
A tip from someone who really uses it
The trick that makes the difference isn't getting things explained: it's the "you teach me" method. After each session, write to the tutor: "Now let's swap roles: I'll explain the topic and you play the confused student, stop me the moment I say something inaccurate." Explaining out loud exposes every gap you thought you didn't have in thirty seconds — far more than quizzes do.
And don't leave the flashcards inside the chat, where you'll lose them. Ask to export them as tab-separated text and import them into a spaced-repetition app (reviewing things at increasing intervals): that way today's work pays off again a week from now, just when you were about to forget it.
Frequently asked questions
Are AI study modes really free?
Yes, the basic features are. There's no extra cost to use ChatGPT's Study Mode: it's a built-in feature. Same for Gemini's Guided Learning and Claude's Learning, available on the free plans too. The limits concern the number of messages per day and access to the most powerful models, not the study mode itself.
Do they work in Italian?
Yes, all three converse and quiz you in Italian without trouble. For listening, NotebookLM is covered too: the update extends Audio Overviews beyond English to more than 80 languages.
Can I use it to prepare for a university exam?
For studying, yes, and it's actually built for that. But watch your university's rules on what counts as your own work: these modes were created precisely in response to that problem. Instead of generating immediate answers, Study Mode acts as a tutor: it poses questions and offers tailored quizzes. Used to understand and review, it's a study tool; copying and pasting a solution into an assignment you hand in remains a violation, study mode or not.
Isn't a real course with a human teacher better after all?
It's the most common false dilemma. A good course remains irreplaceable for discussion, discipline, and guided practice. But AI's real advantage isn't "replacing" the teacher: it's covering the moments when no teacher is available — 11 at night, when you're stuck on a concept and can't wait for Thursday's lesson. The winning combination is using it between lessons, not in place of everything.